The
title of the poem “Leave Taking” by Cecil Rajendra is euphemistic as the
content deals with a death, not just going away to some other part of the world.
The poem has three uneven stanzas with no discernable rhyming scheme. The first
stanza has four lines while the second and the third have 10 and 13 each. The
theme of the poem are transience of life, our inborn need for human contact,
the increasing gap between people in the modern world and its effect on the
most vulnerable groups of our society: children and the aged, and the lack of
artifice in the child.
Stanza I
The
only joy
Of
his old age
He
often said
Was
his grandson
The
poem opens with a reference to a conclusion the grandfather has made about his
grandson being the only joy of his old age. Often old people are cut off from
socioeconomic activities of their society and made to live lives that are
devoid of physical, emotional and intellectual stimulation. This may not
necessarily be done out of disrespect or desire to inflict pain. Most of the
time it is their diminished physical capacities and illnesses that prevent them
from taking part in the activities other younger people take part. Left at
home, they often become the guardians of their grandchildren while their own
parents are out performing their various responsibilities. Similarly, East or
west, these days it is a common feature that parents have very little time to
spend on and with their own progeny. The reason for this is by no means wilful
negligence; the parents are often struggling to keep the wolves at bay and that
battle today requires quite a sizable portion of a person’s life. The result
is, left to fend for themselves, the neglected parties, the children and the
older generation enter into a symbiotic relationship in the absence of their
parents/their sons and daughters. The reason why they band together goes beyond
mere material benefits. The older generation provides the younger generation
care and guidance while the younger gives the older generation emotional and
physical stimulation. Ultimately, their dependence on each other becomes so
complete that they become the most important people on earth to each other:
“The only joy/Of his old age/He often said/Was his grandson.” The stanza is a
single inverted clause. The modification of the word “joy” with the term “only”
makes the poem more poignant.
It
is their yearning for love, affection, companionship, admiration, etc. that
encourages the two of the most common casualties of industrial capitalism form
a mutually beneficial association. However, it is erroneous to believe this
would have been vastly different in the feudal time. However, those days the
aged died early and the young had a very brief childhood for this to be a
serious threat to crop up as a widespread pressing social problem. Today with
more and more people routinely living way beyond 75 and more children surviving
into adulthood and spending nearly ¼ of their lives as dependents, this
situation is becoming worse day by day. Going back to the poem, the brevity as
well as the simplicity of the first stanza stands for the uncomplicated but
heartfelt relationship between the grandson and the old man.
Stanza II
Their
friendship
Straddled
Eight
decades
Three
generations
They
laughed, played, quarrelled, embraced
Watched
television together
And
while the rest had
Little
to say to the old man
The
little fellow was
A
fountain of endless chatter.
The
third person narrator begins the second stanza by making an observation on the
relationship between the old man and the child:
Their
friendship
Straddled
Eight
decades
Three
Generations.
The
gap between the ages of the two parties involved in this beautiful mutually
sustaining relationship is 80 years. The old man must be at least in his mid to
late eighties. Together with the difference in their ages, there was the generation
to which the old man’s children who also happened to be the child’s parents
belong to. The two had to bypass both challenges. The reference to the
generation between the two might be read as a veiled reference to the
objections the child’s parents may raise against their relationship.
Yet,
the two continued their relationship born out of necessity: “They laughed,
played, quarrelled, embraced/ Watched television together.” Their relationship
was not always harmonious: they “quarrelled” but they immediately “embraced”
and made up. Old age is often referred to as the second childhood so their
tastes were similar when it came to television programmes, which might not be
the case when it comes to other adults. Nobody talked to the old man – “the
rest had/Little to say to the old man”; nobody listened to the “little fellow”.
The repetition of the word “little” invites comparison: the old man was of
little use so there was little use and the son was also “little”. Consequently,
two little people embrace each other’s littleness and find comfort in each
other. Together, they fulfilled each other’s needs. The second stanza has 10
lines, once again with no discernable rhyming scheme. The lines are relatively short except the 5th
which packs a series of action verbs illustrating the nature of the togetherness
of the old man and the little fellow. In addition poet creates a dichotomy
between the grandson/father and “the rest”. The rest had little to say to the old man. The
absence of the indefinite article ‘a’ points at complete lack of communication.
By juxtaposing the silence that dominated the other relations of the grandfather
- and even of the grandson - with the “fountain of endless chatter” that marked
theirs, the poet creates something of an oasis for the little fellow and the
old man amidst the inhospitable desert-like home-environment, lack of which
would have saddened their daily existence immeasurably. Incidentally, the
metaphor of a fountain used in this context is quite appropriate due to the
life-sustaining and enervating quality of the “endless chatter”. Of course
“chatter” is what it was to the poetic persona, for the grandson and the
grandfather, their conversation would have been of profound consequence.
Stanza III
When
death rattled
The
gate at five
One
Sunday morning
Took the
old man away
Others
trumpeted their
Grief
in loud sobs
And lachrymose
blubber
He
never shed tear
Just
waved one of his
Small
inimitable goodbyes
To
his grandfather
And
was sad the old man
Could
not return his gesture
The
last stanza has 13 lines. They say 13 is an unlucky number. Personified death
onomatopoeically rattle the gate at five o’clock on a Sunday morning. The term
“rattle” can be read as a reference to the death rattle of the dying man. It
also can be read as the deadly nature of death – rattlesnakes announce their
deadly presence by rattling the hard substance on their tail. The gate that
death rattled can also be the gate between the land of the living and the land
of the dead. The reference to “five” and “Sunday morning” is of course a
reference to the unpredictability of life and the suddenness of death. It is
death that takes the old man away; what is left is an empty shell. “Others” who
lad “little” to say to him when he was alive either out of guilt or just for
the world to see “trumpeted their /Greif in loud sobs/ And lachrymose blubber”.
The terms “trumpeted” and “lachrymose blubber” express the poetic persona’s
take on the dishonesty/insincerity of “Others”. Juxtaposed with the cacophony
they make, the “fountain of endless chatter” is silent. Being small, he is new
to death he does not know that his companion would not return therefore he does
not see any reason to cry. The little one is honest in his expressions unlike
“Others”. Instead, he “waved one of his / Small inimitable goodbyes/ To his
grandfather” – the goodbye was something that cannot be duplicated for it was
tailor-made for his grandfather. He is saddened by his grandfather’s inability
to respond as he undoubtedly used to. Still, he understands that it was not the
fact that he did not want to – he “[c]ould not return his gesture”; he had
complete faith in his companion not to hurt or disappoint him.
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