The poem contains four stanzas of three quatrains and one tercet. Though the poem depicts the journey from womb to tomb, we can devide the poem in three parts...The past,present and the future of poet's life.
First stanza of the poem start with the line ''These were my homes then, i did not know''. Home is a recurring symbol for the past, memories' and belongings. Here the tense indicating that the poet talking about the past incidents or instances from the past. But he was no longer a inhabitant of those homes. It shows that people never realize the value of the present moment until it loose it.
Then the poet talk about the initial phase of an individual's life. How life begins by drawing the image of ''swelling of the womb' and 'a mother's long breast' . Then there also mentioned 'a small pease of children's house' where the child abode a peaceful life. Then as a baby one leads care-free, tention free life where there is no responsiblity or to create a daily shedule. Here have the image of a homy peaceful life that a child expriences. The warmth of a home runs through the stanza. mother’s closeness, fresh air in the morning, peace of a children's room all these images are painted in a meticulous manner. The first stanza gives a clear picture of an ancestral home where the poet had born and bought up. But he couldnt memorise those images thorougly. The poet didnt know that these could be his home too. Here we can relate the poem with the poems 'The house of my childhood' by Dilip Chitre and 'My Grandmother's House' by Kamala Das.
The second stanza reveals the hardships conflicts faced by an individual when he reach grown up. The trails and tribulations confronted by human beings through their journey to the life. Then he assured about the condition in which his forfathers had faced in claiming of the ownership of land and property. They gained back those properties through the series of struggle and resistance over the colonial powers. This stanza transists from the previous stanza where the poet talk about the peaceful childhood, but here life moves and reaches adulthood and begin to think and realize the condition where life goes on.
The moment lingering, For each was planned/
And only I had to reach out to sweet hear.
Here in a positive tone,speaker meant to plan his life to get a sweet air. Something pleasant to cherish and better career to lead. As an individual everyone has some kind of determination to settle life. So when it goes, life get more and more responsive and the hardship and struggle which one has to face in adult life is much more difficult than the past years.
/Then these are my homes that i will know yet/
This line indicates poet's transition from adulthood to old age and to the death. When one get to the old age, tries to look at life and feels regret of which he cound'nt fullfill his dreams. Eveything has gone faded.he should have done something and shoud'nt have. But people realisez the value of time when it loose it.
/One face to meet at dawn and noon and night/ this line try to speak out something that the speaker is longing something which he has lost. May be a lost love or any ideals that he had possessed or anything else. So here we can feel the pain and disappointment that the poet going through. Then he considered himself to be a content man. And finally he longs for a ' bed in which to breath the last air' .here it shows a metaphorical representation of death in a transition.
Then the last stanza, Poet assures the home which he is going to possess. That 'made on the other road' the eternal world. So we can see a metaphorical configuration of death.
The poem shows the transition or the journey from womb to tomb which is the real theory of life we start from one point and end up somewhere else. So we belong to a place where we do not actually belong. Life versus death, childhood versus Adulthood, the problem of belongingess and identity crisis are the recurrent themes of the poem.
No comments:
Post a Comment