The “humour” poems in our syllabus while providing humour, attempt to convey some greater truths. Discuss this statement with relevance to three poems in your syllabus:

 

The term “humour” is often associated with silliness, meaninglessness, lack of depth, etc. Therefore, when a poem receives the “appellation” humour – the reader often assumes them to be lightweight poetry without substance. Yet, humour is often a good way to camouflage quite serious messages. It helps to say things that might be considered offensive in a nicer way. 

Looking at the four poems in our syllabus, it is easy to see the reasons why they might be stashed under the title “humour”. For example, “Upside Down” is about a man who does things in an unconventional way. The poet mentions some of the bizarre things that had happened: ….. in “The Huntsman,” humour is not so powerful. Of course one might laugh at the way huntsman rushes to the place after his conversation with the skull and how the skull refuses to talk to the king landing the hunter in trouble. In “the Camel’s Hump,” Kipling humorously shows the repercussions of over indulgence. In “Two’s Company” the poet Raymond Wilfred illustrates comically how being overbold gets a man into trouble.

However, none of these poems can be swept aside as merely humorous. In “Upside Down” we get to see how unconventional people are misunderstood by other…In “The Huntsman” underneath the humour, there is a cautionary tale. One must think before one acts and speaks. In “The Camel’s Hump” Kipling humerously illustrates one of the most serious problems in modern life: laziness and obesity. Lastly, in “Two’s Company,” the poet encourages the reader to re-think the modern tendency to thing scientifically. Everything cannot be rationalized.

Finally, one might say humour runs as a common thread linking all four poems; however, all four poems have something beyond just humour to offer their readership.    

Twilight of a Crane: 1. By referring to the text, compare and contrast the characters of Tsu and Yohyo in Twilight of a Crane

 

·       Character arc – what does the character look like at beginning and at the end

·       what are the changes, what had made the changes,

·       how had the changes affected the characters and those around him.

·       What is the thematic relevance of the change the character undergoes

·       How do the interactions between the two characters highlight the themes of the play

In this answer, I will be dealing with two character arcs: the character arc of Tsu and that of Yohyo. In the course of the answer I will be dealing with how the two characters looked at the beginning and the end; what are the changes the two characters have undergone; what caused those changes in them; what are the thematic relevance of the changes and how the interactions between the characters highlight the themes of the play.

Let us look at the character arc of Tsu first. Initially, the audience come across Tsu as Yohyo’s wife. She is a stranger to the village. According to Unzu, after her arrival, Yohyo spends all his life just relaxing by the fire doing nothing. Sodo wonders how Yohyo managed to make such a pretty woman his wife. Towards the middle of the play we learn that Tsu was a crane that had metamorphed into a woman out of gratitude to Yohyo for saving her life. According to Yohyo she comes to his door one night and offers to be his wife. At this point, thematically speaking, Tsu represents natural forces and positive traits such as kindness, love and self-sacrifice.

As a wife, Tsu loved her husband very much, wanted to make him happy even at the expense her own life and health. She overlooks Yohyo’s laziness and the fact that he was a very bad provider, his fascination with hoarding money and his inability to value the gifts of senba ori. She single mindedly focuses on his only good quality: his kindness towards her at a time she was injured and his occasional displays of concern for comfort. For Tsu, one’s word was important; ultimately, she leaves Yohyo because he breaks his promise to her not to look at her while she was weaving. In contrast to her relationship with Yohyo which is primarily based on gratitude, Tsu’s relationship with the children is based on their shared desire to live a life close to nature and enjoy the moment. Tsu’s character stands for the theme of positive aspects of nature. Her interactions and the final outcome of the interactions stand for the interactions between nature and capitalism.

Tsu as a character of nature, likes to lead an uncomplicated life. She urges Yohyo to give up his desire to visit Kyoto and live happily with her in the rural area where they lived forever. Yohyo makes references to Tsu having seen Kyoto several times. What Tsu may have seen in Kyoto makes her reluctant to go there even to keep her husband by her side. Kyoto frightens her.  To her, Kyoto represented everything complicated and corrupt. She is frightened by Yohyo’s fascination with the capital city and believes once he gets there he would not return to her. What happens to Tsu in the end is a warning to the audience as to what could be the final outcome of a conflict between the benevolent aspects of nature and capitalism. After all the upheaval, even at the end of the play she remains true to her character; she does not change much in the course of the play. Tsu’s character arc is almost linear. Tsu is aware of the human potential for evil: she had seen corruption in Kyoto and she had been the victim of human cruelty – she had been shot at with an arrow. But, she is willing to believe that human beings are capable of finer feelings such as generosity, love, kindness and appreciation of beauty. Also, Tsu as a wife, represent values such as self-sacrifice and honour promoted by feudal Japan.

Secondly, let us look at the character of Yohyo. According to the script, Yohyo is one of the protagonists in the drama. He is young farmer from rural area. He is unsophisticated: both Unzu and Sodo consider Yohyo to be foolish and they easily manipulate him to do their bidding. Yohyo lacks a strong willpower. Therefore, anyone with a strong personality can change the way he thought and behaved. If we were to consider Tsu as a representation of nature and Unzu and Sodo as personifications of capitalism, Yohyo is the weak man caught between two powerful forces. 

Before meeting Tsu, Yohyo must have supported himself through his farming activities, but after meeting Tsu he does not seem to be doing any work: the house is a tumbled down hut. It has not been made ready to meet the brutal Japanese winters. The farm lays fallow and there are no references to granaries or stored food. Instead of supporting his wife, he becomes a lazy man who lay sleeping by the fireside who is supported by the efforts of his wife.  Tsu tries to convey her love and gratitude by weaving a Senba Ori for him. Yohyo is incapable of understanding the significance of the cloth; therefore, instead of treasuring it he sells it and hoards money in sacks. Tsu wants be happy with Yohyo, but Yohyo wants to earn a lot of money. Yohyo is depend on Tsu’s weaving. It is his shortsightedness that exposes their relationship to Unzu and Sodo who callously exploits Yohyo’s weaknesses to their advantage. In summary, when we look at the development arc of Yohyo’s character, the Yohyo we see until the very end is predominantly driven by his fascination with money and the desire to please his senses. Still, he is not a complete monochromatic character: there is both good and bad in him. He is a weak and lazy man who puts his desires above that of his wife. However, he is also capable of acts of kindness towards both Tsu and the children who come to play with them. .   

In conclusion, let us summarize how the two characters looked at the beginning and the end; what are the changes the two characters have undergone; what caused those changes in them; what are the thematic relevance of the changes and how the interactions between the characters highlight the themes of the play.

Out of the two main characters, we meet Tsu and Yohyo as mature people who are more or less set in their way. The character arc of the male is almost nonexistent. The male protagonist we see at the beginning is more or less the same person we would see at the end. Tsu’s character, on the other hand, …

1. Discuss Emily Dickinson’s “A Bird Came Down the Walk” as a minute observation of nature.

 

      Nature is a predominant theme in many of the work of the American poetess Emily Dickinson. Following this preoccupation, in “A Bird Came Down the Walk”, too, Dickinson offers a minute observation of the world around her to her readers. However, the poem is not limited to a mere observation of nature. Instead, the poem also deals with the all-important issue of man’s relationship with nature.

     In order to illustrate her points, Dickinson presents/ introduces a beautiful interaction between a human being and a small unknown bird. The poetic persona sees the bird coming down her walk looking for food. She observes how the bird catches food and then interacts with its environment. Next, the poetic persona offers some breadcrumbs to the bird. To her surprise, instead of accepting it, the bird takes off offended.

         Most of us would not note an everyday occurrence such as the one described by the poetess.  However, being a keen observer of both nature and human beings, Dickinson, shares with the reader her careful observations of the interactions between the bird and bird and its environment as well as the poetic persona and the bird making it a very special experience. One might say that a 19^th century white middle class woman had more time at hand to engage in activities such as “minute” observations of nature unlike most people today, especially women. The poetess sees a bird coming down her walk. It is either not a very special bird or the poetic persona does not know its name. the poetic persona says that this ordinary unknown bird “did not know” that she had seen it. The word “saw” underscores that this was an unplanned happening. Next, she observes the bird biting “an angle-worm in halves”. She makes known her revulsion or the surprise at the dining habits of the bird by placing the word “raw” after a comma. The poetic persona displays her fellowship with both the bird and the worm by calling them “he” and “the fellow”. Thereafter, she explains how the bird “drank a dew/ [f]rom a convenient grass”. Here, the poetic persona expresses her approval of the location of the grass in proximity to the now-full bird through the use of “convenient” as a pre-modifier for the grass. Now, satiated, the bird allows the beetle which he would surely have eaten had he not been full to “pass” by hopping “sidewise to the wall” – or so thinks the poetic persona.  Dickinson’s poetic persona notes next how the bird looks about “with rapid eyes/ [t]hat hurried all abroad”. She thinks that the bird’s eyes “looked like frightened beads”. The poetic persona makes note of the velvety texture of the head unlike ordinary people who come across such scenes.  The poetic persona then goes on to offer the visitor to her “walk” “a crumb. She does that cautiously. However, instead of accepting the offering the bird takes off. Here, to describe the way the bird took off, the poetic persona offers several images from nature and the human world. An sailing ship unrolling its sails getting ready to sail is used to show how the bird got ready to fly away. The effortless way the bird flapped its wings is compared to how “oars divide the ocean” – like the silver surface of the ocean would not carry the marks of the oars, the air would not carry the marks of the passage of the bird’s graceful flight. Through these two images from nature the poetic persona is illustrating the unfamiliar through the familiar. Here, the familiar is the man-made world and the unfamiliar is the natural world. Next, taking a bold step, the poetic person makes use of images from nature: the way the bird took off is compared to how butterflies leap “off banks of noon” and swim away “plashless” – a mixed metaphor. Through that this American poetess makes us question how much we might be missing out in life as a result of not looking at the world around us carefully enough.        

       In addition, the poetess offers her readers a unique and carefully observed picture of man’s relationship with nature as well. Due to human “progress” there is distance between 19^th century man and nature. No matter how observant she is, the poetic persona does not know the bird’s name. She does not have a clear idea of why the bird stepped sideways. She says that she thought the bird stepped aside to let the beetle pass. The bird’s feeding style surprises or shocks her. Finally, she offers a bird who was full and therefore had refused to eat a beetle some crumbs – this is a mark of her ignorance about how animals behave. Most animals don’t eat once they are full. At the same time, this bird seems to be a carnivore. The poetic persona does not note that. So it is quite clear that through the poetic persona’s ignorance, the poetess is trying to show the developing gulf between man and nature.

In conclusion, “The Bird Came Down the Walk” is indeed one of Dickinson’s minute observations of nature through which she is trying to illustrate a great tragedy she has noted: there is a developing distance between man and nature.  

The Barn and Stack and Tree - by A E Houseman

In “The barn and stack and tree”, the poet underscores the repercussions of giving into emotions and its impact on an entire community. Discuss.    

“The Barn and Stack and Tree” was a pastoral lyric composed by the English poet A E Houseman. The poem contains one painful experience of a young unnamed farmer who happens to be the poetic persona of the poem, too. Through the poem the poet suggests that giving into emotions harms not only the person but also the entire community.

 

In the following section, let us look at various parties who were affected by the hasty action of the young farmer. The first person to suffer due to his action was the farmer himself. The young man loses his brother. Fratricide is a serious sin according to the Bible as illustrated by the Old Testament story of Cain and Able. Not only that, he loses his name. He would not be able to use the name he was given by his parents for the fear of being identified by the law. In addition, he would have to live the life of a fugitive – living from post to pillar.  Being a prosperous farmer, the young man would have enjoyed a fair amount of prestige; however, a man on the run would have none of that. In addition, he would have to keep on looking over his shoulder all the time – he can never let down his guard and be at ease.  Looking at the first line of the poem, “Farewell to Barn and Stack and Tree”, his legacy was important to him; he was its custodian and he was expected to hand it over to another generation. Losing that legacy as well as the pain of letting down his ancestors would torment him for the rest of his life. The pain of letting down his mother in her old age is another tragedy the young man would have to face. The poet illustrates this situation through the line “My mother thinks us long away”. If that was not enough, he would also have to give up his friendship with Terrance, his best friend: “And here’s a bloody hand to shake/ And o man, here’s goodbye”. Moreover, the young farmer would not be able to enjoy what he used to enjoy – such as racing at Lamas tide.   Farmers are people who bound to their land and people in their lives. But looking at what we have discussed so far, it is clear that the young farmer would be suffering from unbearable mental agony for the rest of his life because of his hastiness.

The second person to suffer due to the young farmer’s haste was his own brother Maurice whom he murdered. His life was cut short in its prime due to his brother’s jealous hast over a woman they both seem to have been interested in. The young woman herself would surely become the target of malicious gossip and lose her prestige. She might not be able to have a family of her own and would surely face a bleak future because of that.

Though the impact was not as serious as it was on the farmer, his brother, their mother and the young woman, Terrance, the young  man’s lifelong friend too was a victim of his friend’s haste  – he loses a friend.

The impact of the young farmer’s hast is not limited to people: the farm and the animals too would suffer due to negligence as there would be no one to take care of them or inherit them as one bother was dead and the other would be leaving the area to avoid capture. 

In conclusion,   looking at the discussion so far, there is no doubt/ it is certainly beyond doubt that giving into emotions affects not only the person who had given into it but also all the animate and the inanimate connected with his life.

Narges Mohammadi, a fiery flower or a vengeful goddess?

 

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2023 #NobelPeacePrize to Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all," stated the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Narges Safie Mohammadi was born on the 21^st of April 1972 in Zanjan, a central Iranian city 170 miles northwest of Tehran, to a middle class Iranian family. Zanjan has a history of harbouring denizens with leftish leanings. Mohammadi’s birth had taken place just 7 years after the Iranian Revolution and her family has been involved in political protests since the Revolution.   

Ms. Mohammadi had read Physics and received her Bachelor of Science degree from Imam Khomeini University in Qazvin. She was an engineer by profession. She became an activist and an advocate for women’s rights, equality and abolition of the death penalty in her undergraduate years at IKU.

To this day she has been “arrested 13 times, convicted five times and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes,” said the Nobel Prize website. Mohammadi was serving multiple sentences in Tehran's Evin Prison before she was transferred to Zanjan the place of her birth. Reuters reporting from Oslo on the 6^th of October stated that Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday as “a rebuke to Tehran’s theocratic leaders and boost for protesters.” Reuters also added that the award committee stated that “the prize honoured those behind recent unprecedented demonstrations in Iran and call for the release of Mohammadi.” Lauding Mohammadi, Berit Reiss-Andersen, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told Reuters:

We hope to send the message to women all around the world that are living in conditions where they are systematically discriminated have the courage, keep on going…We want to give the prize to encourage Narges Mohammadi and the hundreds of thousands of people who have been crying for exactly 'Woman, Life, Freedom' in Iran.

U.S. President Joe Biden said, "The United States will continue working to support Iranians’ ability to advocate for their own future, for freedom of expression, for gender equality, and to end gender-based violence against women and girls everywhere." In addition, Ms Mohammadi received a steady stream of tributes from key global bodies . U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commenting on Mohammadi’s award said that it was "a tribute to all those women who are fighting for their rights at the risk of their freedom, their health and even their lives." Dan Smith of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute on the other hand stated that the prize could help ease Iranian dissidents, it would be unlikely to bring about Mohammadi's release. "Narges Mohammadi is a woman, a human rights advocate, and a freedom fighter. In awarding her this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honour her courageous fight for human rights, freedom, and democracy in Iran," said the Nobel Prize website.

Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, reacting to the announcements of the Nobel Web stated:

The action of the Nobel Peace Committee is a political move in line with the interventionist and anti-Iranian policies of some European governments …The Nobel Peace committee has awarded a prize to a person convicted of repeated law violations and criminal acts, and we condemn this as biased and politically motivated.

The Nobel Peace Prize worth around 1 million dollars will be presented in Oslo on December 10^th on the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will. After the announcement was made Mohammadi had stated to the New York Times that she would "continue to fight against the relentless discrimination, tyranny and gender-based oppression by the oppressive religious government until the liberation of women.” The alleged death of Masha Amini while she was in police custody resulted in the latest spate of violence in Iran. The Nobel laureate, herself, has been arrested 13 times, convicted five times and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. Commenting on that the Nobel Prize website had added, "Her brave struggle has come with tremendous personal costs."

51-year-old Mohammadi is an Iranian journalist, human rights activist, the deputy director and the spokesperson of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), a non-governmental organisation led by Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who lives in exile. "I congratulate Narges Mohammadi and all Iranian women for this prize," Ebadi told Reuters. "This prize will shed light on violation of women's rights in the Islamic Republic ... which unfortunately has proven that it cannot be reformed." told Ebadi to Reuters.

She is married to Taghi Rahmani. Commenting on the decision to the Reuters from his home in Paris, Rahmani stated, "This Nobel Prize will embolden Narges' fight for human rights, but more importantly, this is in fact a prize for the 'woman, life and freedom' movement." Hamidreza Mohammadi, Mohammadi’s brother who was in Oslo said, "She will feel much stronger in her endeavours for human rights in Iran and for everyone who hopes for a better situation in Iran." It is stated that Narges Mohammadi has been separated from her husband for 15 years and her children for 7 years due to her activism. They reside in France while Mohammadi lives in Iran.

The Earthen Goblet - Harindranath Chatopadhyaya

 

The Earthen Goblet – Harindranath Chatophadyaya - reviewed by Anupama Gidakanda

Questions to ponder on: What does the title mean? What kind of goblet is he talking about? Was Chattopadhyaya writing to a native audience or like many colonial/postcolonial writers was he writing with a western audience in mind? 

O silent goblet red from head to heel,

How did you feel

When you were being twirled

Upon the Potter’s wheel

Before the Potter gave you to the world?

The poetic person addresses the goblet as “O silent goblet” and immediately offers it status far above ordinary goblets. The technique the writer is using is called apostrophe – the poetic persona is made to address an inanimate object directly. The poetic persona is treating the goblet as a sentient being with consciousness.

The poetic persona notes two qualities in the goblet: it is red and silent. The goblet is red because it made of baked clay. However, red is also the colour of life. Ironically, the goblet is an inanimate fixed thing. However, the clay from which it was created was both animate and plastic/flexible.

All inanimate things are silent. Therefore, when the poetic persona levels his question at the “silent goblet” there could be two reasons for that:

1.     He meant it to be purely a rhetorical question and did not expect an answer  (or)

2.     He wanted the goblet to break its silence and find its voice so that it that could express itself  

The poetic persona asks two questions:

1.     How did the goblet feel when it was twirled around on the potter’s wheel?

2.     How did the goblet feel when it was give to the world?

In this section, the poet is dealing with an act of creation. In this act, the substance (clay) that is being shaped into something else (the goblet) does not have any agency/power; therefore, it has no say in what is happening to it. It is interesting that the goblet is usually considered a feminine shape. It is the “Potter”, usually man, who decided what the lump of clay would be. This situation sums up any condition in which one party has all power in the world to decide the fate of another. In such situations, powerful people like the Potter considers the substance they work with to be without will, consciousness or the reasoning power, and therefore they exert their will, consciousness and the reasoning power in shaping it to something to their liking. Here, neither in the shaping or the presenting of the goblet does the Potter consult the clay or the goblet regarding its likes and dislikes. The act of creation is bewildering to the clay as indicated by the term “twirl”. It befalls on the poetic persona to ask those questions making him more sensitive of the two- the Potter and the poetic persona. What would have given him that sensitivity? In many cultures poets are said to be extra sensitive and divinely inspired. This gives the poet the power to see things overlooked by others.

‘I felt a conscious impulse in my clay

To break away

From the great Potter’s hand that burned so warm.

The poetic persona’s questions helps the goblet to find its voice. In a flashback the goblet narrates its life story. The goblet identifies itself as ‘I’ – indicating conscious fully formed personhood in the goblet. In contrast, the clay has only “conscious impulse”. The paradox indicated here is the shaping of the clay while restricting it and robbing it of its plasticity had given the goblet a personhood which the clay lacked. The cool clay impulsively tries to break away when it is touched by the warm hands of the Potter. It resist the shaping of it. Do you think the clay would have thought it was worthwhile undergoing the painful and bewildering process of the shaping of it into the goblet, had it known the outcome? No.      

I felt vast

Feeling of sorrow to be cast

Into my present form.

The third stanza begins in a positive note: the goblet says that it felt “vast”. This sense of positivity is immediately followed by an immense feeling of negativity. By juxtaposing those two ideas, the poet is suggesting the many binaries of life: hope and hopelessness, sadness and happiness, etc. Instead of feeling a sense of elation and accomplishment, the goblet or the consciousness in the goblet had felt a great sense of sorrow.  

‘Before that fatal hour

That saw me captive on the Potter’s wheel

And cast into this crimson goblet-sleep,

I used to feel

The fragrant friendship of a little flower

Whose root was in my bosom buried deep.

In the fourth stanza, the goblet, in a flashback, gives the reason for its sorrow and regret at being cast into a goblet. Being made into a goblet had put the clay into a “goblet-sleep”. In its clay form, it was awake and alive. The purpose of clay/soil is to provide a growth medium for plants, not to become a drinking vessel. By turning the clay into a goblet, the Potter had deprived not only the clay but also the plant: the Potter prevents the clay from performing one of its intended functions that gave it pleasure and He also robbed the plant on which the little flower grew a place to grow. We often assume that only higher beings are capable of friendship, etc., but the poet suggests that even clay and plants can have a friendship. Not only that, they can have a “fragrant friendship” – a friendship that is not based on reciprocity (giving and taking). For the clay, the fact that the flower is small does not make any difference.  Technically speaking, the poet uses inversion and alliteration. In using inversion, the poet privileges the tragedy – being cast into a goblet. When that is juxtaposed with the former pleasant experience of being friends with the little flower, reader feels the acute sense of sadness the goblet feels. This generates pathos in the mind of the reader.   

‘The Potter has drawn out the living breath of me

And given me a form which is the death of me.

My past unshapely natural state was best

With just one flower flaming through my breast.’

The last stanza is a lament. The goblets laments it present form. By giving it shape (and a personhood/voice) the Potter had taken the most important thing out of the clay – its’ breath and life. The clay in goblet form cannot give breath to little flowers and it is in a goblet-sleep. Instead of being a drinking vessel, something essentially empty and dead, it yearns to revert to its original form.

The poem has five stanzas. The poetic persona appears in only the first stanza. The rest is dedicated to give voice to the goblet.

This poem can be read at several levels:

·       As just a description of making of a goblet

·       At a connotative level, this is about how the powerless is being shaped into something else against their wishes by those with power

o   Capitalism and people

o   Urbanization and rural people

o   Colonialism and people of the colonies

o   A dominant philosophy/ political ideology/ religion and ‘primitive’ culture/ powerless group/ women/ poor people   

·       A metaphorical reading of the Creation Myth – man as the goblet and the Potter as God

Themes:

 

1.     Impact of human activities on nature – in the taking of the clay to form the goblet the plant on which the little flower was had to be destroyed

2.     Free will and divine design – clay wants to remain clay (free will) but the Potter wants to make a goblet out of it (divine design) – whether we like it or not we are a part of a grand design, the working of which we have very little control over. In the change we lose some and gain some: clay loses its breath and life but gains shape and personhood

3.     The role of the poet – the voice and conscience of those without voice. It is the poet who had identified the goblet had a story tell and had asked the magical question that gave it voice.

Questions

1.     Examine the significance of the poetic techniques used in the poem “The earthen Goblet”.

2.     ‘Through the voice of the goblet, Haindranath Chattopadhyaya explores how natural life is destroyed and shaped by external forces.’ Discuss this statement with reference to “The earthen Goblet”.

3.     Which significant realities of life does the poet in "The Earthen Goblet" wish to reveal to the reader? Present your views with reference to the text by Harindranath Chattopadyaya.

Realities of life presented by the poet
• Change is a significant reality of human life

* change is painstaking and unbearable
* deep attachments (which are difficult / painful to forget)
* disappointment / confusion / lifelessness"

* gives the implication as to how a person from a rural area, much attached to rural life is made to undergo change in modern society, with no choice (lump of clay turning into a goblet signifies a humble village boy changes into a modern emotionless man in the city)

 

In the poem, “The Earther goblet”, what is the attitude of the goblet towards the change it underwent on the potter’s wheel? What is the message the poet wants to convey?

Kipling in “The Camel’s Hump” is illustrating the repercussions of lack of self-discipline in a humorous way. Discuss.

 

In his short poem “The Camel’s Hump”, the Victorian poet Rudyard Kipling underscores the need for self-discipline at both personal and public level in a humorous way. The type of humour Kipling employs is called dark humour. The reader may laugh but the laughter has a dark undertone.

 

The poem has 7 stanzas, rhyming abcb bbddb efgf hbaab ijkj lbaab bbaab. In the poem, Kipling juxtaposes two images. First, he directs the readers’ attention to a camel with a hump displayed at the [London] Zoo. Next, he says that people who do not exerts themselves physically would also get what he called a “black and blue” “cameelious hump”. The image of people with a camel-like hump evokes humour, at least initially. However, he says that this fate is not limited to any age group:  

Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo,
If we haven't enough to do-oo-oo,
We get the hump-
Cameelious hump-
The hump that is black and blue!

The fact that anyone can fall prey to this disease would certainly create a sense of unease in the mind of the reader.

The reason for what the poet calls “the cameelious hump” is obviously lack of self-discipline born out of laziness. People of all ages either “sit still” or “frowst with a book by the fire”. The result is the black and blue hump. The colours “black and blue” stand for pain, disease and death. It is this reference to pain, disease and death that adds a sense of profound unease to the poem which sounds humorous on the surface.

Next, the poet suggest the only cure for the dreaded hump: “to take a large hoe and a shovel also,/ [a]nd dig till you gently perspire”. If one does that, then the sunshine, the wind and the Djinn in the garden would magically get rid of the dreadful protrusion. If one did not heed to this advice, a dreadful fate awaits that person. He would end up on display similar to the camel in the Zoo being gawked at by healthier people who would look at him as an oddity or a freak.

Looking at the socioeconomic message of the poem, the poem is about a worldview upheld by Kipling’s contemporaries. The poem was written at the very height of the British Empire. At the time, Britain had become very rich because of the wealth pumped into it by its many colonies. As a result, many people led sedentary leisurely lives which made them rotund and unhealthy. This lifestyle was at odds with the basic philosophy on which British society was built: Protestant work ethics.

Protestant work ethics prescribed a simple life, frugality and hard work which required British people to be self-disciplined. Many people in Britain, including Kipling, believed that it was this life-style based on self-discipline that enabled Britain to be a great empire. In the poem, Kipling airs his worry about lack of discipline in people leading to the decline of the British Empire resulting in them being captured and put on display by another stronger and more disciplined nation in the future similar to the way they have displayed all the exotic creatures displayed at zoos.            

 

The Camel’s Hump[M1]

 

Literature does the culture-work for a community. It gets messages of what is accepted and what is not accepted across to the masses in an enjoyable, therefore more long-lasting way. The message the poet seems to want to convey is the importance of hard work and self-discipline and the danger of overindulgence at both personal and public levels.  

“The Camel’s Hump” was composed by the British poet, short story writer and novelist Rudyard Kipling at the very height of the British Empire. At the time British thinking was said to have been dominated by what is known as Protestant Work Ethics which privileged simple living and hard work. Idleness was frowned upon. “Idle mind is the devil’s workshop” and “early to bed early to rise makes you healthy, wealthy and wise” were some of the most popular sayings of the time. 

During this period British naturalists, civil servants, businesspeople and explores were touring the empire and sending back various things and animals they found exotic. These entered private and public collections, museums and zoological and botanical gardens for the edification and entertainment of both the scientific community and the masses. London Zoo was home to many such “specimen” sent by British nationals scattered to the four corners of the world.  

The poem contains 7 stanzas composed of 32 lines rhyming abcb bbddb efgf hbaab ijkj lbaab bbaab. In the first stanza the poet juxtaposes the images of a camel’s hump and the potbelly of a person who had “too little to do.” The poetic persona opines that the camel’s hump is an “ugly lump”. Then he helpfully suggests that the reader may be able to see it in the Zoo, a reference to the celebrated London Zoo which housed a large menagerie of exotic animals from the distant corners of the world. In the 3^rd and 4^th lines he compares the ugly lump of the camel with the “uglier … hump” people get due to inactivity. The camel does not have a choice as he is born with the hump, whereas, people are at fault for their hump.

 

The Camel's hump is an ugly lump
Which well you may see at the Zoo;
But uglier yet is the hump we get
From having too little to do.       

In the second stanza, the poet tells us who was in danger of getting the uglier hump: both “[k]iddies and grownups” are at risk. The use of “Kiddies” to refer to children increases the sense of pathos. Then he includes himself among the numbers that are going to be affected by using the term “we”. He is at risk, too. The term “Cameelious” is an example of coinage. Kipling coins several words which add humorous tone to the poem. In the last line, the poet adds more details regarding the “uglier” hump: it is “black and blue”. Black and blue are the colours associated with pain and death. So, the hump would ultimately lead to pain and death.   

Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo,
If we haven't enough to do-oo-oo,
We get the hump-
Cameelious hump-
The hump that is black and blue!

In the third stanza, the poet describes the day of a person who either has or is about to have a black and blue hump: We get up from our beds confused and angry, and as a result we have “snarly-yarly” voices. The rest of the day is, too, spent unpleasantly: we “shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl/At our bath and our boots and our toys”. The terms “bath”, “boots” and “toys” are symbolic: “bath” can be a reference to people who are well-off and had time and the money for baths; “boots” can be a reference to the working class or soldiers; and “toys” could be a reference to children.      

We climb out of bed with a frouzly head,
And a snarly-yarly voice.
We shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl
At our bath and our boots and our toys;

In the next stanza, the poet declares with certainty that there should be a place in the Zoo for him, too: “there ought to be a corner for me”. He is an oddity that should be put on display. Not stopping at that, he assures that there is a corner for the reader as well in an aside – the poet spends time at a desk writing and the reader is occupied reading poetry. Both occupations do not require much physical exertion! The use of the correlative conjunction “when” instead of “if”, underscores his certainty that it was only a matter of time before both the poet and the reader would end up in a corner of a zoo where they would be on display due to their black and blue Cameelious hump. 

And there ought to be a corner for me
(And I know' there is one for you)
When we get the hump-
Cameelious hump-
The hump that is black and blue!

In the fifth stanza, the poetic persona proposes the only certain cure for the disease: “not to sit still”. One has to exert oneself physically in order to prevent as well as to cure this dreadful disease. Interestingly, a writer discourages reading when he tells the reader not to “frowst with a book by the fire.” Instead he proposes that one has to take a hoe and a shovel and dig till one “gently perspire[d]”. He is not suggesting that he and the reader should work like a regular labourer sweating heavily. They should work hard enough to sweat “gently”.  

The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
Or frowst with a book by the fire;
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And dig till you gently perspire;

In the penultimate stanza, the poet tells the reader how he would lose the dreadful hump. The sun, the wind and the Djinn of the Garden are the ones who would take away the “horrible hump”. The disappearance of the hump is made into a magical occurrence with the introduction of the term “Djinn”. The last line of this stanza is a repetition of the last line of the 4^th stanza.

And then you will find that the sun and the wind,
And the Djinn of the Garden too,
Have lifted the hump-
The horrible hump-
The hump that is black and blue!

The last stanza is almost a repetition of the second stanza. According to the poetic persona everyone who leads an inactive life is at the risk of getting the dreaded lumpy hump. 

I get it as well as you-oo-oo-
If I haven't enough to do-oo-oo!
We all get hump-
Cameelious hump-
Kiddies and grown-ups too!

Kipling offers social criticism through humour in this poem. In that sense, one might call the poem didactic. Kipling is pointing out that the empire had brought in so much wealth that people have forgotten the Protestant Work Ethics base on frugality, simple living and hard work that had made the British Empire possible. They have so much leisure which they spend on inactive pursuits such as writing and reading. Consequently, they develop humps – they become ugly and unhealthy.  The awful warning is that unless they shaped up they would find themselves in a corner of someone’s zoo locked up as curiosities for people to come and gawk at. A dreadful thought in deed! 

Questions:

1.      Kipling in “The Camel’s Hump” is illustrating the repercussions of lack of self-discipline in a humorous way. Discuss.

2.      “Humour” poems are not purely humourous. Do you agree? Take at least two of the poems in the syllabus and discus the above statement.   

 

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 [M1]Associated with ugliness, deformity

Richard Cory - Edwin Arlington Robinson1869-1935 (1897)

 

The title suggests that the poem is going to be about this person called Richard Cory. The name suggests wealth and privilege. In addition, the title also suggests that the poem is going to be a narrative of the life of this man called Richard Cory.  In a way when reading the poem, Richard Cory may remind one of the poet himself who lived as a misunderstood recluse most of his life. According to the scholar Robert Gilbert, “Robinson established a recognizable set of thematic and technical concerns: ‘themes of personal failure, artistic endeavor, materialism, and the inevitability of change,’ characterize much of his work.” “Richard Cory” deals with personal failure, social aspirations, appearance and reality and materialism. 

This narrative poem consists of four quatrains rhyming abab cdcd efef ghgh. The lines are of uniform length. Each quatrain is made of one sentence formed by two clauses. The first clause ends at the end of the second line in all four stanzas. The tone of the poem is reflective and melancholic. The poem is minimalistic. The poet relies predominantly on a series of visual images to convey his themes.

Whenever Richard Cory went downtown,   

We people [M1] on the pavement looked at him;

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.

The poem deals with the following themes:

1.     Appearance vs. reality

2.     The pressure of being on the limelight/ of maintaining status

3.     The gap between the rich and the poor

4.     Perception of happiness and dissatisfaction with the status quo - envy and blind pursuit of what is out of our reach leading to dissatisfaction

The poetic voice identifies himself with “people” – one of many. And he draws a distinctive line between “We people” and this extraordinary being called Richard Cory. The poetic voice remains anonymous – one of the hoi polloi. Richard Cory, for some unspecified reason, goes downtown; downtown is the busy dirty crowded heart of the business part of the town. In the late 19^th century USA, a man like Richard Cory would be quite out of place in a place like that. His is the kind whose businesses would be looked after by factors or lawyers. His role in life would be to be the patriarch of an influential wealthy family. However, the Civil War had put paid to such a lifestyle in most cases. Still many struggled to maintain appearances. Is Richard Cory one of those tragic souls?  

The poetic persona is narrating the events in retrospect. He and his fellow workers had witnessed Cory on his way downtown more than once: “Whenever Richard Cory went downtown,/We people on the pavement looked at him”. For them, he is taking a leisurely walk with none of the worries in their lives to bother him. Consequently, Cory becomes a center of attraction for them. They feel envious of his leisure. Out of their resentment and envy they observe him closely. They come to see certain things about him: “He was a gentleman from sole to crown,/ Clean favored, and imperially slim.” What Richard Cory was, was what they were not. So, they stare at him from their vantage point from the sidewalk as he passed them on his way downtown on the pavement.          

And he was always quietly arrayed,

And he was always human when he talked;

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,

‘Good-morning,’ and he glittered when he walked.

The poetic persona adds more details to the rough outline of Richard Cory he has provided the reader in the first stanza. The man is “quietly arrayed” – he dresses tastefully in an understated way. He does not talk much – which is once again a mark of good breeding – but when he does “he was always human”. In the poetic persona’s circles, these are not the qualities that set a man apart and “fluttered pulses”. He is surprised by the impact Richard Cory has on “We people” – “But still he fluttered pulses” by merely greeting, he notes. Not only that Richard Cory “glittered when he walked” despite his non-macho behavior and understated dress. This seems to puzzle the poetic person. Probably in his circles a man had to dress rather loud and speak and act aggressively to attract attention – to be someone. Written by an American poet and set in an American town, Richard Cory implies royalty. Richard is the name of several kings which happen to contain the word rich. There are many other phrases such as “sole to crown,” “imperially slim,” and “schooled in every grace” suggesting royalty.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king ---

And admirably schooled in every grace:

In fine, we thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his place.

The list of Richard Cory’s attributes continues in the third stanza, too. The man is rich, according to “We people” – according to the general consensus he was “richer than a king”. The caesura at the end of the first line implies the pause taken by “We people” to imagine that kind of wealth Richard Cory at hand. Wealth and social graces do not go hand in hand in today’s society. But in Richard Cory’s world, wealth meant one had to possess “every [social] grace”. Richard Cory had been taught these social graces and he has learnt them “admirably”. In his background, breach of etiquette/social graces would result in Richard Cory being ostracized. Considering all these, Richard Cory comes across as paragon of all human virtues – someone almost everyone would aspire to emulate. The poetic persona frankly thinks so: “he was everything/ To make us wish that we were in his place.” This was not just the poetic persona’s idea. Others who were with him, too, shared the thought. One ominous note in the poem is that Richard Cory does not have a family or friends. If he had a family and friends, “We people” would have noted them. It seems despite his perfection he was all on his own. It could also be that his appearance was just that – an appearance and that he could not afford to have friends and family as they would see through his façade into the reality of Richard Cory – the man who is struggling to maintain a façade of his former glory.      

So on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head.

The miracle of Richard Cory passes them by and they reluctantly go back to their work: “So on we worked” – the long vowel sounds and the phrase “so on” in the clause imply heaviness of their heart at being forced to return to their drudgery after the fine sight of Cory. The light they are waiting for could be a reference to an overturning of the system which would irradiate the gap between themselves and Richard Cory so that they could also be like him. It is not about bringing him down to their level but to moving up to his level. The last line of the second stanza aligns Richard Cory with light – he “glittered” when he walked like some divine being that had come down to earth from the sky. In the meantime, “We people” detested their current existence represented by “the bread” and yearned for “the meat” they went without. It must have been quite bewildering for them to learn that their nemesis had killed himself by putting “a bullet through his head.” The shocking event had taken place “one clam summer night” at his “home” – the time and the place are at odds with the horrific thing that had happened and thereby increases the shock generated by the act of suicide. Even in his death, Richard Cory had acted the gentleman he was. The question is why did Cory with so much going for him should kill himself? There is no clear indication as to why. However, the fact that he had often visited the business part of the town can be read as him being financially strained like many men of his class after the Civil War. “We people” saw only the outward appearance of Richard Cory and what he allowed them to see of his personality. They formed their opinion of him based on that – the portrait they had of him, therefore, is incomplete. The appearance of his situation and the reality are surely incompatible as implied by his decision to commit suicide. Richard Cory seems to have it all. The people of the town want to be just like him. In the end though, Richard Cory kills himself, showing the people of the town that looks can be deceiving. One of the themes of “Richard Cory”, therefore, is that wealth and status do not automatically translate to happiness. Richard Cory’s decision to end his life indicates the vast strain one has to bear in order to sustain an image.   

The situational irony of the poem is expressed by the bewildered-melancholic tone and the themes. Situational irony, occurs when the outcome of a situation is unexpected or a surprise. Richard Cory appears to be the perfect man. “We” want to be like him because his life appears to be perfect. In reality, however, Cory yearns for true happiness born out of human companionship and freedom from financial worries. The irony is that Cory who had it all kills himself because he is not happy.        

The poet begins six of the lines with “and” – anaphora – building a lofty picture of Richard Cory. Except Richard Cory everyone forgets that happiness is more important than anything else. By killing himself, Richard Cory shows that wealth and status do not mean a fulfilled life.

Questions:

1.      ‘The poem “Richard Cory” suggests that the belief ‘the rich are happy’ is a myth.’ Comment with close references to the poem.

a.      Agree –

                                                    i.     RC could be an individual or a representative characters

                                                  ii.     How does the poet prove that the rich are not always happy?

 

b.     Conclusion – as a character representing the upper class, RC’s situation illustrates

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 [M1]There is a clear demarcation or a dichotomy between RC and ‘We people’. What had made it so? How would that make ‘we’ feel about themselves and RC and vice versa?