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Home , Alexander Pushkin, Orest Kiprensky, Theron of Acragas

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SHIVAJI UNIVERSITY, KOLHAPUR

CENTRE FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION

M. A. Part-I : English Semester-I : Paper C-1 In English up to

Semester-II : Paper C-4 Poetry in English : Modern and Post Modern

KJ(Academic Year 2018-19 onwards)

Unit-1 Tradition of Pindaric Ode

Contents 1.0 Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Presentation of Subject Matter 1.2.1 OLYMPIAN-1 1.2.2 OLYMPIAN-2 1.2.3 OLYMPIAN-3 1.2.4 PYTHIAN-1 1.2.5 PYTHIAN-2 1.2.6 PYTHIAN-3 1.2.7 NEMEAN-1 1.2.8 NEMEAN-2 1.2.9 NEMEAN-3 1.3 Keys to check your progress 1.4 Exercise 1.5 Reference for further study

1.0 Objectives

To know about Greek classical poetry.

To learn about Pindaric odes.

To understand the use of history and mythical stories of in the form of ode.

To understand the craftsmanship of .

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1.1 Introduction : Pindar was one of the most famous ancient Greek poets. He was born in 518 BC in the village of Cynoscephalae near Thebes, about forty miles north-west of Athens in Boeotia. His family belonged to the noble clan of the Aegidae of Thebes and also very closely connected to the legendary founder of Thebes. He visited famous cities like Athens and Delphi and also travelled all over Greece visiting his various patrons which include Sicilian Hieron I of Syracuse, Theron of Acragas, Arcesilas IV, the King of Cyrene and number of other Aristocratic families who commissioned him to write odes for them or their family members. But Pindar was friendly with the victors of Island of Aegina for whom he wrote eleven odes. Pindar lived during the Persian Wars and the development of Athenian Empire. He was there to notice the crucial change in Greek History. It is to be noted that much of the information about him is derived from his poetry. Greek Poetry: Ancient Greek verse was epic in nature, that is, a kind of reflecting the life and work of a heroic or mythological persons or groups. For better understanding of the Greek poetry, it can be divided into various types such as Didactic poetry, Lyric Odes, Elegies and Pastoral poetry. Didactic poetry focused on the instructional qualities in and its intention was rather to instruct than to entertain. Hesiod was ancient Greek poet famous for such didactic poetry. His poems provided systematic description of Greek mythology and insight into the lives of contemporary farmers. Elegies were lyric poems of melancholic or plaintive nature, usually accompanied by the flute. Similarly pastorals were lyric poems depicting and highlighting rural life which was highly romanticized in nature exhibiting serenity and purity of nature. Sappho and Pindar represented the glory of Greek lyric through their poetry. The Greek loved that was sung with music by a chorus and accompanied by the lyre. Lyre is a musical instrument with strings that was used especially by ancient Greeks to accompany songs. The Greek invented the epic and lyric forms of poetry along with drama. It is quite evident that Greek literature produced masterpieces of tragedy and comedy which have inspired many a dramatists of English literature including Shakespeare. Ancient Greek society has put considerable emphasis on literature, and according to

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many critics, the whole literary tradition of Western World begins here. Homer’s epics are considered as the first surviving work of Western literature. General note on odes of Pindar: According to M.H. Abrams, ode is a long lyric poem that is serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style and elaborate in its stanzaic structure. The prototype of ode was established by the Greek poet Pindar. His complex stanzas were patterned in sets of three : strophe, antistrophe and epode. The regular or Pindaric ode in English is a close imitation of Pindar’s form, and it was introduced in England by Ben Johnson; whereas the irregular ode was introduced by Abraham Cowley. Pindaric odes were encomiastic; that is, they were composed to praise or glorify someone. Pindar is specifically known for his ‘epinicia’ or victory odes composed in honour of the winners and distinguished persons in the ancient athletic festivals and games. He was contemporary of famous poets like Aeschylus and Simonides. The victory odes of Pindar have been grouped into Four Books based on the names of the games (viz. Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean) in which the celebrated winners participated. These victory odes commemorate the success of winners at different games. The four great games of the time were the Olympian, the oldest and the most prestigious, held at Pisa in Elis and sacred to Zeus; the Pythian, at Pytho in Delphi, sacred to Apollo; the Nemean at Nemea in the Peloponnese, sacred to Zeus; and the Isthmian, at the Isthmos of Korinth, in honour of the sea-god Poseidon. These games included various types of events like single horse race, four-horse chariot race, foot races of various distances, contests in boxing, wrestling, the pancration, and the pentathlon ( jumping, sprint, discus throw, javelin throw and wrestling ). These games were occasions of high sanctity held in holy places and protected by deity to secure free competition. Success at such games meant exhibition of power, fame, status and wealth and the victory meant expense of hard work in order to achieve honour and fame. When the victory was obtained, the victor or his family members commissioned poets like Pindar to write commemorative odes in the honour. This confirms the fact that most of the odes were composed in honour of the youth and men who tasted the victories in athletic contests. In a few odes older victories and even lesser games have been celebrated as a pretext for addressing

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other issues or achievements. In the original manuscripts, the Four Books were arranged in the order of importance assigned to the festivals. Nemean odes, considered least important appear last in order. Pindar was a professional poet and wrote many other poems, for both state and individual. Most of his famous poems have been composed for Sicilian tyrants Hieron and Theron. As these tyrants lived in a dangerous world, they paid their poets for praising their achievements as well as to seek political advice from the Greek poets. In those days it was thought that these poets are inspired by the Muses and hence are divinely blessed with wisdom. But Pindar was quite aware of the dangerous nature of political power. He was there during the Persian Wars when Greece was under attack by Xerxes. He was also the witness of the military intervention by Hieron. Therefore, political instability and its aftermaths form at large major themes in his odes. It is evident that many of the heroes and heroines Pindar mentions were descendants of gods and goddesses. According to Stephen Instone, Pindar illuminates the gulf between men and gods in these odes. But at the same time he stresses that the superhuman achievement of athlets in supreme competitions can to some extent help to bridge this gulf. Pindar has written paeans, songs and hymns for religious ceremonies as well. However only forty five of his epinicia survive in complete form and are considered as his classic works. An epinician is a lyric ode written in honour of notable persons like winners at athletic games or remarkable personalities who contributed in the development of the state. The winner or his wealthy family members commissioned the poet to write victory odes and then a choir of men or boys was trained to sing it in a private ceremony. It seems that Pindar never attended any such private performances though he himself wrote the music and choreographed the dances for his victory odes. Many of his contemporary poets vied with him for the favours he received from his patrons and sometimes his poetry reflects this rivalry. For example, Olympian 2 and Pythian 2, composed in honour of Sicilian tyrants Theron and Hieron, refer to ravens and apes, signifying his rivals who were engaged in a campaign against him. Pindar’s odes generally deal with subjects that are serious with different perspectives. These odes employ traditional triadic (three stanza) structure namely, strophes, antistrophes and epodes. Strophe (first stanza) and antistrophe (second Stanza) are sung by chorus while moving on stage, first towards left and then 4

towards right respectively, and the epode (third stanza in a different metre) is a concluding part sung at the center stage. Pindar’s odes are complex in composition and rich in style. These odes describe the athletic victor along with his celebrated ancestors as well as refer to the myths of deities and heroes related to the specific athletic games and festivals. Pindar’s poetic style is very remarkable. It’s often obscure and referential, according to Stephen Instone. His odes feature grand and catchy opening with decorative and bold metaphors or sometimes an invocation to a place or the muse. He uses rich and decorative language with beautiful compound epithets. His odes capture something of the prestige of the aristocratic grandeur of the moment of victory. His sentences are compressed with uncommon words and paraphrases in order to achieve obscurity and mysterious quality. Though his style baffles, it makes his poetry vibrant. His powerful force of imagination creates clear-cut and dramatic images of gods and heroes. He projects succession of images with beautiful swiftness. Another unique aspect of Pindar’s style is his treatment of myth which varies according to the traditional stories. He constructs the myth to fit in with the victor’s situation. He does so as his original audience was quite familiar with the myth, and so he could concentrate more on unique and surprising effects rather than its originality. The mythical section is often the main part of the ode and Pindar likes to connect it with the victor’s hometown. It seems that he was much influenced by both the myths and the moral sentiments of the earlier epic poetry, especially of Homer’s Iliad and Hesiod . Myths enabled him to develop the themes and also helped him to present the lessons that preoccupied him. Pindar dealt with many matters before composing his victory odes, such as name of the victor, place of victory with some reference to the protective deity of the place and stories or episodes from heroic legends. Generally a myth was incorporated by him relevant to the immediate context of the event. Therefore it is sometimes difficult to understand his poems. Another reason of difficulty his style. Pindar’s sentences are long, shifts of subjects are sudden and his emphasis shifts very fast. All such elements and matters have made his odes obscure and complicated in understanding. Moreover indirect references cause more obscurity in understanding his poetry. Though the invocation, occasion, victor, prayer, moral and myth are more or less distinct elements in Pindar, the development of his ode is so smooth and 5

natural that we pass from one element to another unconsciously without much conflict or contrast. Pindar did not create any new lyrical genres; however he was innovative in his use of the genres he inherited. In one of his victory odes, Olympian 3, he announces his invention of a new type of musical accompaniment the combination of lyre and flute with human voice. Although Pindar was paid by his patrons to compose odes in their praise, he had his own poetic agenda. He wanted to exhibit other themes through his poetry such as the power of gods and its significance, the uncertainty of future, the political developments and its impacts, demerits of human beings etc. His political views are very distinct in his poetry. He often spoke about the abuse of power by hinting at the stories of the sinners. He combined himself as a poet with the chorus that sang the odes on his behalf and as his spokesperson highlighting his own point of view. This proves that he is a self-conscious and a great classic poet. Pindar’s values and beliefs have been inferred from his poetry. It is said that his poetry is a meeting ground for gods, heroes and men, even the dead are spoken of as participants. Pindar chooses and reshapes traditional myths so as to uplift the majesty and dignity of the gods which was not so common in his days. Pindar thinks that gods are above the all ethical values and it is not proper to judge them by ordinary human standards. For him mythical heroes are an intermediate group between gods and men. Glory and lasting fame, according to him, are men’s greatest evidence of a life lived well. It seems that he wants to stress two fundamental beliefs, that human success requires help of gods and that athletic talent is inborn, and not taught. Therefore both gods and men find place side by side in his odes, and wherever possible he underlines the inherited ability of men. The structure of Pindar’s odes is very typical. He begins his ode with an invocation to a god or the muse, followed by praise of the victor and or of his family members, ancestors and home-town. Then he narrates the myth which occupies the larger portion of the ode. He exemplifies a moral while aligning himself and his audience with the world of gods and heroes. For some of his critics, his odes are celebrations of men and their communities in which the elements such as myths, piety and ethics form recurrent themes without much real thought. But, according to Instone, his odes inform us about ancient Greek athletics and also about the significance they highlight of the sports, competition and the physical strength.

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1.2 Presentation of Subject Matter 1.2.1 OLYMPIAN – 1 Date : 476 BC Victor : Hieron of Syracuse Event : Single Horse Race Focussed Myth : Pelops 1.2.1.1 - Paraphrase : It is a lyric poem and one of the well-known victory odes by Pindar consisting of 120 lines. It celebrates the victory of Hieron of Syracuse in a single horse race at the Olympic Games. The ode begins with a priamel, a common literary device of ancient Greek poetry which serves as foil to the main subject of the poem. In this ode Heiron is appreciated for his power, achievements, and wealth and specifically for the victory of his winner horse, Pherenicus in the Olympic Games. In the middle section of the poem, Pindar refers to the myth of Pelops, son of Tantalus. This myth, according to Anthony Verity, may be a cloaked reminder to Hieron not to overstep the mark. In the last section, Pindar praises Heiron to the skies and speaks of the way how such great victories at Olympic Games provide glory, satisfaction and happiness. He also remarks on Hieron’s deep knowledge about games and hopes that his victory shall continue in the coming chariot races. Like all Pindaric odes, Olympian 1 is composed in a series of triads, each consisting of strophe, antistrophe and epode. Stophes and antistophes have the same metrical pattern whereas concluding epodes of each triad have a different metre. It employs the Aeolian metre, associated with the lyric poetry of famous poet Sappho. The ode begins with a line – Water is best………., perhaps because it shines most or because it is the most indispensible element for human beings to survive. Poet says that his heart loves to sing of the games no more than the sun as it is the only bright star in the sky that provides warmth to the world. In this way the poet counts the Olympic Games at par with the sun, gold and water. Now the poet mentions about the other great poets of his times such as Aeschylus, Simonides and Bachhylides who also composed poems for Hieron. All these poets have praised the 7

son of Cronus, Zeus, in whose honour the Olympic Games were organized. Then, the poet praises Hieron for his excellence, apt choices, kindness, hospitality and also for his interest in sports and poetry. Poet mentions about the Dorian and also about Hieron’s victorious horse Pherenicus which won the race beside the banks of Alpheus. The Island of Pelops, i.e. Peloponnese is referred as the land of fine men which was founded by Lydian Pelops. Pelops came from Lydia, a territory in Asia Minor bordering the Aegean Sea. His strong connections with Olympia make him appropriate subject of the myth. The poet refers to the story about how Pelops was served up to the gods by his cruel father Tantalus and how one of Pelops’ shoulders was eaten by Demeter and then was replaced by an ivory one. It was here that Clotho, one of the three Fates saved him by lifting him up from the cauldron. The real story, according to the poet, is that when Tantalus arranged a banquet in his home town Sipylus for gods, on this occasion the God of the Glorious Trident, Poseidon seized charming Pelops and carried him away to Paradise where Pelops disappeared. But someone spread the false story saying that the gods cut off Pelops’ shoulder and ate its flesh. Pindar attacks the people who create false and imaginary stories about the gods by calling them cannibals. Pindar speaks here like a philosopher and says that men love to listen to charming words and add lustre and veracity to the unbelievable phenomena. It is only the time that reveals the reality. Therefore he advises men not to speak unwell of the gods and spread wrong notions about them. Pindar now speaks highly about the father of Pelops, Tantalus who is considered as one of three sinners, along with Ixion and Sisyphus (Homer mentions about their punishment in his classic work Odyssey) and admits that Tantalus is indeed fit to receive honour from the gods. It is said that Tantalus stole nectar and ambrosia from gods and tried to serve it to his drunkard friends. It was noticed by the gods and he was punished and his son, Pelops was sent back to the earth as a mortal one. Then Pelops on attaining youth wanted to win the heart of an , i.e. famous Hippodameia, daughter of Oenomaus who had so far killed thirteen suitors. So Pelops went to sea shore and prayed to the Lord of the Trident to provide him with swiftest golden chariot to defeat Oenomaus. In this way Poseidon gifted him golden chariot with winged horses and finally Pelops won the contest and made Hippodameia his wife. Pelops is worshipped as a hero at Olympia and a black ram is

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sacrificed as an offering. The poet praises Pelops mentioning that his fame is visible from far and is noticed in these games where daring deeds of strength are exhibited. At the end of the ode Pindar appreciates Hieron’s hospitality that is more acquainted with glorious deeds in games and the extreme power. He, then, advises Hieron not to be too ambitious as some god is keeping watch over him and it is definitely a matter of concern. Pindar further says that if god doesn’t displease with him, then he will keep composing poetry in Hieron’s celebration even in better manner. Finally Pindar warns Hieron not to be greedier of power and wishes him higher success in his regime, and also promises him to be on his side forever. 1.2.1.2 Glossary : 1) Pelops : Pelops came from Lydia, a territory in Asia Minor bordering the Aegean sea. His famous tomb is at Olympia. His chariot race to win Hippodameia features on the Temple of Zeus. His strong connections with Olympia make him subject of the myth. 2) Pherenicus : Hieron’s victorious horse 3) cloaked : concealed, disguised, hidden, masked 4) triad : group of three 5) indispensible : crucial, vital, essential, necessary 6) at par : equal in value or status 7) Zeus : son of Cronus, in whose honour the Olympic games were held. 8) Dorian : the early inhabitants of Western Greece 9) Alpheus : the river flowing through Olympia 10) Olympia : venue for the Olympic games 11) Peloponnese : island of Pelops 12) Tantalus : father of Pelops. One of the three sinners along with Ixion and Sisyphus, who had eternal punishment in the underworld. 13) Clotho : one of the three Fates that saved Pelops from the boiling cauldron. 14) cauldron : a large pot for boiling 15) Sipylus : hometown of Tantalus, in Lydia. 9

16) God of Glorious Trident : Poseidon 17) cannibals : man-eaters, flesh-eaters 18) lustre : gleam, sparkle, flash 19) veracity : accuracy, truth, validity, reliability 20) attaining : reaching, achieving, accomplishing 21) Aphrodite : the Greek goddess of love and beauty 22) Hippodameia : a horse-tamer, daughter of Oenomaus 23) suitor : a man who wants to marry a particular woman 24) swiftest : instantaneous, most rapid, sudden 25) ram : an adult male sheep 26) offering : submission, present, donation, gift 27) acquainted : familiar, accustomed 28) regime : rule, administration, government 1.2.1.3 Check your progress : Answer the following questions in a word/phrase/sentence. 1) What is the name of Hieron’s winner horse? 2) In whose honour the Olympic Games were organized? 3) What is the name of the river that flows through Olympia? 4) Who did save Pelops from cauldron? 5) What is the name of Pelop’s father? 6) What is Sipylus? 7) Who is known as the God of Glorious Trident? 8) Who is Oenomaus? 9) What did Poseidon gift Pelops? 10) What myth has been focused in Olympian 1 by Pindar?

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1.2.2 OLYMPIAN – 2 Date : 476 BC Victor : Theron of Acragas Event : Chariot Race Focussed Myth : Isles of the Blessed

1.2.2.1 – Paraphrase: This ode is written in honour of Theron, of Acragas in . He won the four-horse chariot race at Olympia in 476 BC. It was Nicomachus, an employee of Theron who actually drove the chariot. Theron was a rival to Hieron for power in Sicily, though his niece became Hieron’s third wife. According to Anthony Verity, much of the ode is about death and afterlife, themes of special relevance to inhabitants of Acragas who believed in metempsychosis. The local poet and philosopher Empedocles was a follower of this sect of Pythagoreans. Pindar begins his poem saying that his hymns are only for the praises of Lord Zeus. He wishes to celebrate the success of Theron for his victory at four-horsed chariot race. Theron is a towering personality of a glorious family ruling Acragas. Pindar mentions about the extreme labours and efforts expended by Theron’s ancestors, who came from Rhodes, in founding Acragas. He then prays Zeus to protect and preserve the native land and the future generations of Theron. Pindar speaks with philosophic tone saying that Time is the father of all things and noble joys help men to forget their grief. Similarly when god lifts man to the heights of prosperity, his sorrows and bitterness are shrunk. It seems that Pindar might be hinting at the conflict going on between Hieron and Theron; and so he might be hinting about forgetting the bitterness in the moment of the victory at the Olympics. Next Pindar mentions about the story of the King of Thebes, Cadmus whose daughters’ sufferings were very great, but even then they attained higher places in the history which proves that heavy sorrows sink back in the face of mightier blessings. Now Pindar emphasizes the painful reality of man’s mortal life where nothing is fixed even in everlasting happiness and good fortune. According to Pindar, streams

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of pleasures and pain flood over men at different times and this is called as fate which controls the man’s destiny. In this connection Pindar provides a story of Laius’ son, Oedipus who met his father and killed him, as had been prophesied in an oracle delivered at Pytho long ago. Similarly Oedipus’ sons died fighting each other. So, this is destiny which is never predictable. Pindar speaks about the good fortune of Theron, the son of Aenesidamus saying that he is fit to be praised for the victory at great Olympics, though his roots are traced back to the same family line. Not only this but also the victory of his brother at the Pytho and the Isthmus proves that he is blessed by divine powers. This confirms the fact that wealth adorned with many noble qualities provides a man an opportunity to achieve all types of things and inspires him to desire for high ambition. The line : If a man possesses wealth, and knows the future……. is deliberately left incomplete by Pindar creating obscurity because he thinks that its meaning will be clear to the members of the Pythagorean cult as the truth should remain known only to those who belong to the sect. Further he emphasizes that for good men the nights and sunny days are in perpetual equal balance. These good men don’t harm any object or soul just for the sake of their happiness and therefore they live peacefully in the company of the gods, while the wicked suffer horribly and endlessly. But those who have the courage to live thrice in either place by keeping their hearts clean, travel towards Cronus tracing the path of Zeus. It is the place where heroes of special status dwell and the flowers of gold shine like flame. It is the place where Achilles, who felled Troy’s mighty Hector and brought Cycnus (son of Paseidon) to death, also dwells because of his mother’s prayers. In the ending part of the ode Pindar speaks about himself and his art of poetry in a very high manner saying that he has many arrows in his quiver to shoot, but stresses the need of proper interpreters to understand his words. According to him, wise men are those who know much by nature, while those who acquire knowledge by chattering in confusion are like crows. Then Pindar addresses himself to aim his arrows of fames at Acragas proclaiming an oath that no city has ever produced a son more generous and open-handed than Theron. In the last lines of the ode Pindar praises Theron to the skies saying that as the grains of sand are beyond counting so are the acts of kindness of Theron. In this way Pindar has given a fitting tribute to the victor Theron, Tyrant of Acragas. 12

1.2.2.2 - Glossary : 1) Nichomachus : an employee of Theron who drove the chariot in the race 2) relevance : significance, importance, relation 3) metempsychosis : the passing of the soul at death into another body either human or animal 4) Empedocles : poet and philosopher of Pythagorean sect 5) hymn : carol, religious song 6) towering : high, immense, lofty 7) expended : consumed, exhausted, spent, used 8) Zeus : son of Cronus and Rhea 9) shrunk : contracted, shriveled, minimized, shortened 10) Cadmus : Theron’s ancestor and King of Thebes whose daughters suffered extremely 11) prophesied : forecasted, predicted, foretold 12) oracle : prophecy, revelation, forewarning, truth 13) predictable : expectable, probable, likely 14) Aenesidamus : Theron’s father 15) deliberately : purposely, intentionally, consciously 16) obscurity : anonymity, vagueness, inconspicuousness 17) perpetual : permanent, eternal, continuous, everlasting, unending 18) Achilles : the greatest warrior among the Greeks at Troy and slayer of Hector 19) Cycnus : son of Poseidon 20) proclaiming : announcing, declaring, stating, broadcasting 21) tribute : honour, praise, compliment, homage

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1.2.2.3 - Check your progress : Answer the following questions in a word/phrase/sentence. 1) In whose honour Pindar has composed Olympian 2 ? 2) What is the name of the chariot driver in Olympian 2? 3) What is metempsychosis? 4) Who is Empedocles? 5) Who did found Acragas? 6) Name the parents of Zeus. 7) What, according to Pindar, is the father of all things? 8) Who is Oedipus? 9) What is the name of Theron’s father? 10) What was the prophecy about Oedipus? 11) Who are like crows according to Pindar? 12) What, according to Anthony Verity, is the theme of Olympian 2? 13) How was the political relationship between Hieron and Theron? 14) What is the focused myth of Olympian 2? 15) Who did cause the death of Hector and Cycnus?

1.2.3 - OLYMPIAN – 3 Date : 476 BC Victor : Theron of Acragas Event : Chariot Race Focussed Myth : Heracles and Hyperboreans 1.2.3.1 – Paraphrase : According to Anthony Verity, this ode was probably performed at a theoxenia, a cult banquet for gods, honouring Castor, his twin-brother Polydeuces, and their sister

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Helen, children of Tyndareus, in thanks for Theron’s chariot-race victory of 476 BC. It can be speculated that after the composition of Olympian 2, Theron might have requested Pindar to compose another ode as a more fitting celebration of his victory at Olympics. Pindar begins this ode mentioning it as a hymn to Theron for his Olympic victory. He exaggerates saying that the Muse stands beside him as he composes this ode in a brilliant new way as the most fitting compliment to Theron. Pindar mentions about Amphitryon’s son, Heracles who by his eloquence won the hearts of Hyperboreans, the fabulous people of far north among whom Apollo spent the winter. He begged from them a grove of Zeus, a tree to provide shade for all and to be a crown for deeds of prowess. In this way, he had laid down holy principles of great games and also the four-year cycle for the festival to be held along the holy banks of the river Alpheus. Finally Pindar advises Theron and his family (Emmenidae) that glory has come to them through the gift of the sons of Tyndareus who are expert horsemen. In the ending lines Pindar, once again, appreciates the great deeds of Theron and at the same time advises that one should not cross limits in life, whether he may be a simpleton or a wise one. 1.2.3.2 - Glossary : 1) theoxenia : Greek hospitality for gods 2) cult : trendy, unusual, offbeat, extraordinary 3) banquet : a formal dinner to celebrate a special event 4) Castor : son of Tyndareus 5) Tyndareus : a king of Sparta and husband of Leda 6) speculate : wonder, guess, gamble 7) Heracles : Amphitryon’s son 8) eloquence : fluency, articulacy, expressiveness, persuasiveness 9) Hyperboreans : fabulous people of the north among whom Apollo spent the winter 10) Theron : Aenesidamus’ son 11) Emmenidae : Theron’s family 15

12) simpleton : one who is not intelligent or who doesn’t have good sense 13) venture : risk, undertake, dare 1.2.3.3 - Check your progress : Answer the following questions in a word/phrase/sentence. 1) Who is the father of Heracles? 2) What is the focused myth of Olympian 3 ? 3) What is the name of Theron’s family? 4) Who are Hyperboreans? 5) When did Pindar compose Olympian 3?

1.2.4 - PYTHIAN – 1 Date : 470 BC Victor : Hieron of Aetna Event : Chariot Race Focussed Myth : Typhon 1.2.4.1 – Paraphrase : This ode consists of 100 lines and was written in 470 BC. It celebrates the victory of Hieron, the tyrant of Syracuse at the Pythian Games in the chariot race. Pindar also celebrates a series of victories by Greeks against foreign invaders such as Athenian and Spartan-led victories against Persia at Salamis and Plataea. It seems that the ode is basically concerned with the political implications of Hieron’s founding of the city of Aetna during 476-5 BC and his military achievements. This ode opens with high praise for music specifically for the music of the lyre. Pindar highlights the power of music which forces singers and dancers to obey and also to lull and pacify the great warriors. Pindar says that even the shafts of music charm the hearts of gods and further says that those creatures that are not loved by Zeus also tremble when they hear the voice of Muses (Pierians), irrespective of whether they belong to earth or sea. This implies that voice of the Muses, which comes through the great poets, is more powerful than anything else and it can even 16

shock the hundred-headed Typhos. The poet describes how the rivers of the area around Aetna pour striking strips of water and crash into the sea running over the cliffs. It is a place full of dark-wooded peaks and plains and definitely a thing of wonder for visitors to see and hear. Pindar urges the mercy of Zeus that he may uphold the great task undertaken by Hieron of building a new city of Aetna. As rising of a following wind while embarking on a journey is considered a good sign, similarly the victory of Hieron in the chariot race should be taken as a symbol of good fortune in the process of building a new city. He hopes that this new city will be remembered for more victories to come in the future. He addresses Phoebus, Apollo the god, in whose honour the Pythians games are organized and wishes that this land will be known for brave men. According to Pindar, all achievements of men stem from gods’ designs, and thus are born skilled poets and men of strength and persons of great eloquence. Pindar declares that he is eager to praise that famous man, i.e. Hieron and wishes him life full of happiness with lots of wealth and success. He speaks of Hieron’s past hardships and the battles he fought bringing glory to his family. Here Pindar refers to the story of Philoctetes, an expert in archery. Philoctetes helped the Greeks to capture Troy despite a poisoned foot which forced him to keep away from the island of Lemnos. He was later cured. Pindar, in the same manner, hopes that Hieron will be cured in near future by gods. Pindar also praises Deinomenes whom Hieron appointed as a ruler of the newly founded city of Aetna. Pindar deliberately mentions that Hieron has founded this new city of Aetna in accordance with good old values of Greek culture, and prays Zeus to grant good destiny for the citizens and kings of Aetna beside the waters of Amenas (river flowing by Aetna). Pindar also mentions the two major battles in the Persian Wars against Xerxes, and appreciates the Syracusan commander’s efforts for rescuing Greece from harsh slavery. Pindar then refers to some of the adventures of Zeus, for instance his fight with some monsters who threatened the world’s peace and order, especially the giant Typhon whom Zeus buried beneath the Mount Aetna. There is reference to the war history of Sicily, such as the defeat of Etruscans at Cumae in 474 BC by Hieron and . He mentions the defeat of Carthaginians at in 480 BC. He links these victories with the significant victories of Greeks over the Persians. 17

Lastly, we find Pindar advising the rulers in his usual philosophic tone saying that men feel oppressed when they hear praise for other citizens. But, according to him, it is better to be envied than pitied; and one should never deviate from the noble cause because even a trivial word can carry a great influence, if it comes out like a spark from the mouth. There is a great wealth in trust and there are always men who witness your acts. So one should retain full vigour of one’s spirit; and one should not take in by unworthy use of wealth because the storytellers and poets provide testimony to the posthumous fame. Finally Pindar speaks very wisely saying that though success is the great prize another best prize is a good reputation, and the man who holds these both wears the highest crown. Pindar, in this ode, describes the establishment of the city of Aetna under the regime of Deinomenes, the son of Hieron. Subsequently he wishes to suggest that Hieron’s victory at the Pythian Games signifies future prosperity of the new city of Aetna. According to some critics, this ode is a kind of coronation hymn for Deinomenes whom Heiron appointed as the king of the newly founded city. 1.2.4.2 Glossary : 1) invaders : attackers, raiders, trespassers, intruders 2) implications : effects, repercussions, consequences 3) to found : establish, set up, start, initiate 4) lyre : a musical instrument with strings that was used especially in ancient Greece 5) lull : calm, pacify, silence, respite 6) pacify : soothe, mollify, placate, calm 7) Pierians : Muses, who had home at Pieria, a region to the north of Mount Olympus 8) Phoebus : Apollo, the god in whose honour the Pythian games were held 9) implies : indicates, denotes, suggests, entails, infers 10) Typhos : a great monster overthrown by Zeus into the sea, now lies under the Tyrrhenian sea. 11) embark: to begin a journey especially on a ship or airplane

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12) stem : emerge, arise, occur 13) eloquence : articulacy, fluency, expressiveness 14) Philoctetes : son of Poeas, well known archer, great warrior 15) Deinomenes : son of Hieron, ruler of Aetna. He inherited his name from his grandfather. 16) Amenas : river by Aetna 17) Typhon : a monster with a tremendous voice who according to classical mythology was father of Cerberus, the Chimera and the Sphinx. 18) Gelon : brother of Hieron 19) envied : be jealous of, resented, grudged 20) deviate : diverge, depart, stray, digress, turn 21) trivial : slight, trifling, unimportant, petty, minor, insignificant 22) testimony : evidence, proof, verification, authentication, testament 23) posthumous : after death, subsequent 24) regime : rule, command, government, administration 25) signify : imply, indicate, suggest, denote 26) coronation : a ceremony in which a crown is placed on the head of a new ruler 27) hymn : song, chant, carol, anthem 1.2.4.3 Check your progress : Answer the following questions in a word/phrase/sentence. 1) What is Aetna? 2) What does Pindar highlight in the beginning of Pythian 1? 3) What does Pindar say about the voice of great poets? 4) Who is Deinomenes? 5) What is typhos ? 6) What is the name of the river that flows by Aetna ?

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7) Who is Gelon ? 8) Who is mentioned as the famous archer in this ode? 9) How did Philoctetes help the Greeks? 10) Where did Hieron and Gelon defeat Etruscans? 11) Where were Carthaginians defeated by the Greeks? 12) Where did Zeus bury Typhon? 13) What is coronation ceremony? 14) Who did lead the Persian Wars against the Greeks? 15) What, according to Pindar, do the storytellers and poets provide?

1.2.5 - PYTHIAN – 2 Date : 475 BC (Approx.) Victor : Hieron of Syracuse Event : Chariot Race Focussed Myth : Ixion 1.2.5.1 – Paraphrase : Pindar begins this ode by praising the great city of Syracuse as a divine nurse of horsemen who delight in proving their mettle. He declares that he has brought with him a song to tell the story of earth-shaking four-horse chariot race. He proudly mentions about the river-goddess Artemis, without whose help it was not possible for Hieron to tame those horses. He also mentions that Hieron could not have achieved the victory, if he had not prayed the trident-holder, Poseidon, god of horses. Pindar speaks about a wealthy and hospitable king of Cyprus, Cinyras whose gratitude is remembered forever unlike that of Ixion. Ixion was very arrogant and hubristic. He not only attempted to rape Hera but also lured his father-in-law to death in a hidden pit of fire. Zeus punished him by binding him to a burning wheel in Tartarus for his crimes. So, the story of Ixion, according to Pindar, is a kind of lesson for Hieron: Repay your benefactor, always meeting him with gentle acts of recompense .

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Pindar continues revealing the story about Ixion whose two grave crimes, firstly causing bloodshed of close relatives and secondly attempting rape of Hera, caused his ruin. Ixion learnt a lesson for life that- One must measure everything by one’s own station. Illicit sexual passions hurl men into utter ruin and the destruction caused is inestimable. His wife bore him a monstrous son because of god’s curses. He was counted neither among men nor among the gods. She raised him and called him Centaurus, who mated with the mares of Magnesia giving births to centaurs. Such was a curse of gods on Ixion. This confirms the eternal fact that god accomplishes his every plan as he intends. God can force arrogant mortals to suffer while bless others with eternal glory. Pindar mentions a notorious lyric poet, Archilochus who gathered enormous wealth from his men by writing severe criticism against their enemies. In the last lines Pindar praises Hieron saying that none was as superior in possessions and reputation in former times of Greece as him. According to Pindar, wealth allied to good fortune is the best destiny and Hieron has been successful in it. Finally he advises Hieron that as he has learnt what kind of a person he is, he should become likewise in the eyes of the people, because ordinary men are more interested in knowing what successful men do with their good fortune. He asks Hieron to be of matured judgment and see things as they really are, because spreaders of rumours and slander cause irreparable harm to both parties. In the last lines Pindar boasts of his role as a poet mentioning that a dishonest citizen cannot utter weighty words in good men’s company so he should not indulge in any type of slander. He further restates that in every polity the straight-speaking man is best – whether under a tyranny or when the violent mob or the wise men watch over it. It is better to accept one’s yoke on one’s neck and bear it lightly. In this way Pindar calls it his good fate to enjoy the company of good men and approval of his poetry. 1.2.5.2 Glossary : 1) mettle : spirit, courage, bravery, nerve 2) Artemis : river-goddess 3) to tame : train, domesticate, pacify, cultivate 4) the trident-holder : Poseidon, god of horses, also the Greek god of the sea

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5) Cinyras : a wealthy and hospitable king of Cyprus, who gave Agamemnon a breastplate as a token of friendship 6) Ixion : a Thessalian king in contrast to the personality of Cinyras who was arrogant, hubristic and lacked sense of gratitude. He attempted to seduce Hera. Instead of showing gratitude to his father-in-law for giving the hand of his daughter he lured him to his death. Finally punished heavily by Zeus. 7) hubristic : foolish pride or exaggerated confidence 8) Hera : wife of Zeus 9) to lure : trap, tempt, pull, attract, entice 10) Tartarus : a section of Hades reserved for punishment of the wicked 11) ruin : devastation, destruction, loss, disintegration 12) illicit : illegal, unlawful, illegitimate, prohibited, forbidden 13) hurl : throw, toss, fling 14) inestimable : enormous, infinite, tremendous, immeasurable, incalculable 15) monstrous : horrific, evil, immoral 16) to mate : copulate, couple, pair, unite 17) mare : a female horse 18) Magnesia : a place near Thessaly and Mount Pelion in northern Greece 19) Archilocus : lyric poet who, according to Pindar, became wealthy by his ill- mannered criticism, so much so that his victims even committed suicide. 20) centaur : a creature in Greek mythology that is part of human and part of horse 21) reputation : status, name, image , fame 22) allied : associated, linked, connected, related 23) to boast : claim, brag, vaunt, promote 24) polity : organization, institution, state, society, community 25) tyranny : despotism, dictatorship, oppression, autocracy, cruelty

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1.2.5.3 Check your progress : Answer the following questions in a word/phrase/sentence. 1) What city does Pindar mention as a divine nurse of horsemen? 2) Who is Cinyras? 3) Whose story and myth dominates Pythian 2 ? 4) What were the grave crimes of Ixion? 5) Who is Ixion? 6) How did Zeus punish Ixion? 7) What lesson, according to Pindar, one should learn from Ixion’s story? 8) What lesson did Ixion learn? 9) Who was Archilochus? 10) What causes irreparable harm to both parties? 11) What important advice does Pindar provide to Hieron in the end? 12) What is good fate according to Pindar? 13) Who is the trident-holder? 14) What is the significance of the Pythian Games? 15) Who were the contemporary poets of Pindar?

1.2.6 PYTHIAN – 3 Date : 474 BC (Approx.) Victor : Hieron of Syracuse Event : Horse Race Focussed Myth : Asclepius 1.2.6.1 Paraphrase : According to Stephen Instone, an expert on Pindar, it is a poem that consoles Hieron for his chronic illness. It speaks of the past victories of Hieron by his horse

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Pherenicus in the single horse race at Pythian Games. Pindar mentions these victories as the crowning moments of Hieron’s athletic career. Pindar opens the ode with a prayer to Chiron, a kind and wise centaur who educated a number of heroes. Then he refers to Asclepius, the hero who protects men against every kind of disease. Pindar in detail reveals the story of the birth of Asclepius. He mentions how his mother Coronis longed for things that were out of her reach. She was carrying a child, the pure seed of the god Phoebus, i. e. Apollo with whom she had wedded first. Unfortunately Coronis placed herself in the bed of an Arcadian stranger just for the sake of fulfilling her desire of living in luxuries. But this did not escape the watchful eyes of Apollo whose curse struck her down and many of her neighbours suffered and died with her. At last Apollo could not see his own offspring dying in a pitiful state, so he picked up the child from the corpse of his mother and gave him to the centaur of Magnesia. This child, Asclepius learnt how to cure men of their painful diseases. He relieved so many from their several pains and restored them to health. He treated some with soothing prayers, some others with potions while few others he set back on their feet by performing surgery. But, according to Pindar, even skill can become the prisoner of gain. Therefore Pindar feels that men should seek from the gods only what is consistent for them by knowing what lies before their feet. Here Pindar reminds his soul not to demand an immortal life. This wish of Pindar was a kind of hint for Hieron who was suffering with chronic disease. He praises all the good qualities of Hieron and wishes to pray for his well health to the revered Mother Goddess, Rhea. Then he asks Hieron whether he can understand the true meaning of the saying of old men: that for every blessing god offers double grief to men. Only wise men can ascertain this reality and learn how to turn the better side outward. Finally Pindar advises Hieron by enlightening him that if a man holds the path of truth, he must be content with whatever he is blessed with because prosperity does not remain for long. One should learn to respect fortune one meets in one's way and try to nurture it as per one’s ability and powers. In this way, through this ode, Pindar tries to calm Hieron’s mind and sympathizes his soul in the hour of sickness. It is clear that this ode is not an epinician, though classified as one. According to Stephen Instone, it focuses on the futility of yearning for the impossible.

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1.2.6.2 Glossary : 1) Pherenicus : winner horse of Hieron 2) Chiron : son of Philyra, a kind and wise centaur who educated a number of heroes 3) Asclepius : son of Phoebus, i.e. Apollo and Coronis, the famous physician 4) A son of Leto’s child : means son of Apollo, whose mother was Leto. Asclepius 5) Coronis : daughter of Phlegyas, mother of Asclepius 6) offspring : child, descendant, i.e. Asclepius 7) corpse : dead body, carcass 8) soothing : calming, comforting, relaxing, pacifying 9) potion : medicine, mixture, brew, liquid 10) consistent : constant, stable, unfailing, reliable 11) chronic : long-lasting, prolonged, protracted 12) revered : respected, honoured, esteemed, valued 13) Rhea : mother of Zeus 14) ascertain : determine, discover, learn 15) epinician : a victory ode 16) futility : uselessness, vainness, ineffectiveness 17) yearning : longing, desire, craving, nostalgia 1.2.6.3 Check your progress : Answer the following questions in a word/phrase/sentence. 1) What is the theme of Pythian 3 ? 2) Who is Chiron? 3) What myth has been focused in Pythian 3 ? 4) Who is Coronis?

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5) What is a remarkable skill of Asclepius? 6) What is the true meaning of the old men's saying, according to Pindar? 7) What, according to Stephen Instone, does the Pythian 3 emphasize? 8) What is a strophe? 9) What is an antistrophe? 10) What is an epode?

1.2.7 NEMEAN – 1 Date : 476 BC (Approx.) Victor : Chromius of Aetna Event : Chariot Race Focussed Myth : Infant Heracles

1.2.7.1 Paraphrase : According to Stephen Instone, an expert on Pindar, this ode is memorable for the way it depicts the account of Infant Heracles strangling the snakes sent against him by Hera. He gained his successes through his natural strength and they are comparable to those of Chromius who won the chariot race and was serving as a general of Syracuse under the rule of Hieron. Pindar pays his homage to the river goddess of Aetna, Alpheus before composing his ode in honour of Chromius who won the chariot race at Nemea. He praises the hospitability of Hieron and admires his skills of using good men, like Pindar, against disparagers. Pindar emphasizes his point mentioning that strength attains its end through action. Similarly ability to understand achieves its end through the advice of those who have the natural talent to foresee the future. He highlights these points in order to praise Chromius for attaining both these skills in his nature. Pindar says that when he sings of great heights of accomplishments, he likes to provide the example of Heracles. In this way, Pindar begins the ancient story of Heracles. Heracles was son of his mother Alcmene whom Zeus impregnated in the

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form of her husband Amphitryon. When Heracles was born, Hera was very furious and she immediately dispatched snakes to swallow the infant. But Heracles raised his head and set about his first battle. He strangled the snakes and killed them with his natural strength. His father arrived in anguish with a drawn sword to save his son and the mother. But he was amazed and overjoyed to see the spirit and power of his son. He summoned Teiresias, the trustworthy seer and an eminent prophet who revealed what fortunes Heracles would meet and how many beasts on earth and in waters he would kill. Thus Teiresias foretold everything about Heracles. Such was an inspiring story about infant Heracles which was illuminated by Pindar while praising the strength and action of Chromius in the chariot race. 1.2.7.2 Glossary : 1) strangle : smother, choke, press hard, suppress 2) Hera : a goddess, wife of Zeus 3) Chromius : son of Hagesidamus 4) homage : respect, reverence, tribute, honour 5) Aetna : a new city founded by Hieron 6) Alpheus : name of the river by Aetna 7) disparagers : skeptics, doubters, pessimists 8) accomplishment : achievement, success, deed, feat 9) Alcmene : mother of Heracles 10) Amphitryon : husband of Alcmene 11) anguish : distress, pain, grief, sorrow, torment, suffering 12) summon : call, send for, call upon 13) foretell : forecast, foresee, anticipate, predict 1.2.7.3 Check your progress : Answer the following questions in a word/phrase/sentence. 1) Who is Chromius? 2) Who is Heracles?

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3) What did Hera do? 4) Why was Hera so furious? 5) Who was Teiresias? 6) Who was Alcmene? 7) What is the central myth of Nemean 1? 8) Name the river about Aetna. 9) Why, do you think, has Pindar used the myth of Infant Heracles? 10) What was one of the important predictions of Teiresias about Heracles?

1.2.8 NEMEAN – 2 Date : 485 BC (Approx.) Victor : Timodemus of Acharnae Event : Pancration Focussed Myth : None

1.2.8.1 Paraphrase : This ode is monostrophic as all the stanzas are metrically identical. Pindar has composed a condensed ode to commemorate the winner Timodemus of Acharnae in pancration, a violent mixture of boxing and wrestling. After praying Zeus who is sacred for the Nemean Games, Pindar praises Timodemus for laying first foundation of victory in sacred games. Pindar further says that after achieving relatively minor victories at the Nemean, Isthmian and Pythian games, Timodemus may acquire greater victory at the Olympic games. In the end, Pindar appreciates the people of Salamis for nurturing heroes like Ajax and Tiodemus. He also praises Acharnae known for its noble men, but deliberately mentions that for all types of games the Timodemidae should be acknowledged as supreme as they have bagged number of prizes and crowns in most of the famous games. Finally he asks the citizens of Acharnae to include Zeus in their celebrations of welcoming Timodemus. 28

1.2.8.2 Glossary : 1) pancration : a violent mixture of boxing and wrestling where only eye-gouging and biting were disallowed 2) sacred : holy,pious, auspicious 3) Salamis : name of an island where Timodemus and Ajax were brought up. 4) nurture : foster, support,raise,rear, encourage 1.2.8.3 Check your progress : Answer the following questions in a word/phrase/sentence. 1) Whose victory is celebrated in Nemean 2 ? 2) What is pancration? 3) What is so special about Nemean 2 ? 4) What is Salamis? 5) What god is sacred to Nemean Games?

1.2.9 NEMEAN – 3 Date : 475 BC (Approx.) Victor : Aristocleides of Aegina Event : Pancration Focussed Myth : Aeacides, Achilles 1.2.9.1 Paraphrase : Pindar composes another ode to celebrate the victory in pancration for Aristocleides of Aegina. Pindar first compares him with Heracles and then with Aegina’s most famous heroes, Aeacus and his descendants. But the main focus of the ode, according to Stephen Instone, is Achilles because he illustrates the power of inherited natural ability. Pindar, as usual, begins his ode by praying to the Muse and by asking her to appear in the sacred Nemean month. The Nemean Games were held every alternate year in the month of July. He feels great pleasure to write about the land of Aegina 29

which was once inhabited by Myrmidons. Pindar says that they should be thankful to Aristocleides for preserving the sanctity of the holy land with the help of the goddess Muse. He admires Aristocleides for reaching the ultimate in feats of manhood, as he was not only handsome in looks but also graceful in his deeds. As Pindar tries to appreciate the greatness of Aeacus and his family, he emphasizes the famous maxim: Praise what is noble. He further illuminates that the man who has inborn distinctions, gains authority whereas the man who has been taught (trained) is a man of shadows, and such a man swings around and can never step in the arena with confidence. Pindar now starts appreciating the greatness of Achilles by mentioning his childhood stories. Achilles as a child slaughtered wild lions and boars with his short iron spear and killed a deer by chasing it all alone on foot. Achilles did so many good deeds to shape his spirit in all its appropriateness. His deeds illuminate the far- shining light of Aeacus’ clan; and moreover he signifies the blood of Zeus. This ode, Pindar thinks, is a worthy tribute to victorious Aristocleides who has brought fame to his hometown. He has also glorified Apollo’s solemn Thearion, a sacred place to Apollo. According to Pindar, man’s trial shows how he will emerge superior in the given situation. There are four virtues that our human existence drives us forwards and also instructs us to consider what lies before us. These are four opportunities in man’s life to excel : as a child, as a man, as an older person, and more generally as a human being who sticks to the task ahead of him. Pindar feels that Aristocleides is in no way deficient of these virtues. So, finally, Pindar sends his well wishes and greetings through this song to Aristocleides. Pindar prays Cleo, a Muse who inspired him to compose this ode and helped Aristocleides to bathe in glory, to make the victor more successful in years to come. 1.2.9.2 Glossary : 1) Myrmidons : early inhabitants of Aegina. According to myth, Zeus made the Myrmidons from ants to provide Aeacus some companions. 2) Mnemosyne : the Muse, Zeus’ daughter 3) Sanctity : purity, sacredness, holiness 4) Maxim : saying, proverb, aphorism 5) Arena : field, ground, ring, stadium 30

6) Clan : fraternity, tribe, community, group 7) Excel : outshine, surpass, top 8) Deficient : lacking, short, less, poor 9) Apollo’s solemn Thearion : probably a buiding in Aegina sacred to Apollo, used by Theori, holy ambassadors who travelled on behalf of the state to the Pythian festival or to consult Apollo’s oracle at Delphi. This ode was performed there. 1.2.9.3 Check your progress : Answer the following questions in a word/phrase/sentence. 1) Who is Aristocleides? 2) Who are Aegina’s most famous heroes? 3) Which is a sacred month for Nemean Games? 4) Why does Pindar praise Aristocleides? 5) What, according to Pindar, are the four virtues of human existence?

1.3 Keys to Check Your Progress 1.2.1.3 1) Pherenicus 2) Zeus 3) Alpheus 4) Clotho 5) Tantalus 6) Hometown of Tantalus 7) Poseidon 8) father of Hippodameia 9) a golden chariot with winged horses 10) myth of Pelops 1.2.2.3 1) Theron of Acragas

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2) Nicomachus 3) The passing of the soul at death into another body either human or animal. 4) poet and philosopher of Pythagoreans 5) Theron’s ancestors 6) Cronus and Rhea 7) Time 8) son of Laius, who killed his father as forecasted. 9) Aenesidamus 10) He will meet his father and kill him. 11) Those who acquire knowledge by chattering in confusion. 12) Comment on death and after life. 13) They were rivals. 14) Isles of the Blessed 15) Achilles 1.2.3.3 1) Amphitryon 2) Heracles and Hyperboreans 3) Emmenidae 4) They are fabulous people living in far north of Greece and among whom Apollo spent the winter. 5) 476 BC 1.2.4.3 1) A new city founded by Hieron. 2) Power of music. 3) It is the voice of Muse that comes through poets; and it is so powerful that it can shake anything on earth. 4) Son of Hieron, ruler of Aetna. 5) A great monster overthrown by Zeus into the sea. 32

6) Amenas 7) Brother of Hieron 8) Philoctetes 9) Philoctetes helped the Greeks to capture Troy despite a poisoned foot. 10) At Cumae 11) At Himera 12) Beneath the Mount Aetna. 13) A ceremony in which a crown is placed on the head of a new king or queen. 14) Xerxes 15) Testimony to the posthumous fame. 1.2.5.3 1) Syracuse 2) A wealthy and hospitable king of Cyprus who gave Agamemnon a breastplate as a token of friendship. 3) Ixion 4) He attempted to rape Hera and also lured his father-in-law to death. 5) Thessalian king who was arrogant, hubristic and lacked sense of gratitude. 6) Zeus punished him by binding him to a burning wheel in Tartarus for his crimes. 7) Repay your benefactor, always meeting him with gentle acts of recompense . 8) One must measure everything by one’s own station. Illicit sexual passions hurl men into utter ruin and the destruction caused is inestimable. 9) A seventh century lyric poet who gathered enormous wealth from his men by writing severe criticism against their enemies. 10) Slander.

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11) It is better to accept one’s yoke on one’s neck and bear it lightly. 12) To enjoy the company of good men. 13) Poseidon, god of horses and also the Greek god of the sea. 14) They were held at Pytho in Delphi and were sacred to Apollo. 15) Aeschylus and Simonides. 1.2.6.3 1) It is a poem that consoles Hieron for his chronic illness. 2) Chiron was a son of Philyra, a kind and wise centaur who educated a number of heroes. 3) Myth of Asclepius. 4) Coronis is a daughter of Phlegyas and mother of Asclepius. 5) Asclepius learnt how to cure men of their painful diseases. 6) That for every blessing, god offers double grief to men. 7) It emphasizes on the futility of yearning for the impossible. 8) Strophe is a rhythmic system composed of two or more lines. In Pindaric odes it forms first stanza and the chorus moves towards left while singing it on stage. The metrical pattern is same as antistophe. 9) Antistrophe is same as strophe in composition but in reverse order and it forms the second stanza. The chorus moves towards right while singing it on stage. The metrical pattern is same as stophe. 10) The epode in Pindaric ode forms the third stanza but in a different metre. It is a concluding part sung at the center stage by the chorus. 1.2.7.3 1) He is the winner at the chariot race and a general of Syracuse under the rule of Hieron. 2) Heracles was son of his mother Alcmene whose biological father was Zeus. 3) She sent the snakes to swallow baby Heracles. 4) Because it was not her own son but of her husband Zeus.

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5) Teiresias was a trustworthy seer and an eminent prophet who revealed future of Heracles. 6) Alcmene was mother of Heracles whom Zeus impregnated in the form of her husband Amphitryon. 7) Inspiring story about infant Heracles. 8) Alpheus 9) In order praise the natural strength of Chromius as noticed in Infant Heracles. 10) That Heracles would kill many beasts on land and in water to maintain order and save mankind. 1.2.8.3 1) Timodemus of Acharnae. 2) A violent mixture of boxing and wrestling where only eye-gouging and biting were disallowed. 3) This ode is monostrophic as all the stanzas are metrically identical. 4) Name of an island where Timodemus and Ajax were brought up by their Salaminii family. 5) Zeus 1.2.9.3 1) Aristocleides of Aegina is a son of Aristophanes. 2) Aeacus and his descendants. 3) Month of July. 4) Aristocleides is praised for preserving the sanctity of the holy land of Aegina and for reaching the ultimate in feats of manhood. 5) Four virtues are four opportunities in man’s life to excel : as a child, as a man, as an older person, and more generally as a human being. 1.4 Exercise 1. Critically appreciate the greatness of Pindar as a classic ode maker. 2. Write a detailed note on various themes of Olympian odes. 3. Write a brief note on salient features of Pindar’s odes.

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4. Write in detail the themes employed in Pythian odes. 5. Write briefly about Nemean odes of Pindar. 6. Comment in detail about the craftsmanship of Pindar as a poet. 7. Write a brief note on the structure of Pindaric odes. 8. Write a brief note on Olympian 1. 9. Write a brief note on Pythian 1. 10. Write a brief note on Nemean 1. 1.5 Sources Referred 1. Pindar: Google Wikipedia. 2. Verity Anthony, (2007). Pindar: The Complete Odes. New York: OUP. 3. Abrams M.H; (2000). A Glossary of Literary Terms. New Delhi: Harcourt India Pvt. Ltd.

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Unit-2 Russian Poetry

Contents 2.0 Objective 2.1 Introduction A) Life and Works of Pushkin B) Russian 2.2 General Summary: A) The (Epic) B) (Drama) C) Eugene ( in Verse) 2.3 Analysis of the poems: 2.3.1 The Bronze Horseman 2.3.2 Winter Evening 2.3.3 The Coach of Life 2.3.4 “With Freedom’s Seed” 2.3.5 “Beneath Her Native Skies” 2.3.6 Arion 2.3.7 To the Poet 2.3.8 Elegy 2.3.9 “When in My Arms’" 2.3.10 Autumn 2.4 Thematic Concerns of 2.5 Symbols and Images 2.6 Books for Reference 37

2.0 Objective:- By the end of this unit you will be able to: • Understand the life and works of Alexander Pushkin • Know the contribution of Russian Poetry. • Analyse and interpret Alexander Pushkin’s poems 2.1 Introduction:- (A) Life and Works of Alexander Pushkin: Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was born into a family of on 6 June 1799 in , . His “The Blackamoor of ” is based on his African maternal great grandfather Abram Petrovitch Ganibal (1697-1781). Ganibal was the favored general of Peter the Great, highly proficient in mathematics, engineering, and cryptology and treated as a member of the royal family. Pushkin’s jaded yet proud defense of his ancestry in “My Genealogy” is in response to racial slurs aimed at him by his critics. Pushkin grew to be a handsome man with dark curly hair and swarthy complexion. First educated by French and Russian tutors at home, his nurse also entertained him with traditional Russian folk tales. In 1811 he entered the Imperial in Tsarskoe Selo near St. Petersburg where he studied languages and developed his first appreciation of poetry including that of Lord George Gordon Byron. He was soon writing his own poems and the journal The Messenger of Europe published some of them as early as 1814, when he was fifteen years old. Upon graduation in 1817, he accepted a position with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, moved to St. Petersburg, and for three years enjoyed “Venice of the North’s” society and intellectual life as a young nobleman. He was welcomed into the literary circle, writing and publishing poetry and expressing his liberal views in such works as “Ode To Liberty” and “The Village”. He also turned his pen to critically satirizing various court figures of the day, which drew the Emperor’s outrage and in 1820 he was exiled to the south of Russia. Contribution as a Poet: Pushkin’s dramas Mozart and Salieri and The Stone Guest , based on ’s life, were both published in 1830. The same year he wrote “The Tale of the Priest 38

and of his Workman Balda”, a humorous look at a miserly priest willing to endure slaps to the forehead for free labour. Around the time of ’s success, Pushkin made the acquaintance of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, with whom he would become great friends, mutual supporters to each other in life and their literary careers. Pushkin’s series of short stories Tales By Belkin (1831) was followed by (1833). The same year Pushkin wrote about the St. Petersburg floods of 1824 and homage to Peter the Great, “Bronze Horseman”, “now, city of Peter, stand thou fast, foursquare, like Russia; vaunt thy splendor!” in reference to the colossal equestrian statue dominating Senate Square in St. Petersburg. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky based operas on Pushkin’s The Queen of Spades (1834) as well as Eugene Onegin . The History of the Pugachev Rebellion (1834) and The Daughter of the Commandant (1836) are two historical works based on the peasant uprising of 1773-1775. It is said that Nicholas himself was enamored with Pushkin’s wife Natalie and set to publicly humiliate Pushkin by bestowing to him the lowest possible title at court where they attended balls, but the insult to Pushkin was too much to endure. His debts to support his wife and children were increasing and his marriage was in jeopardy; anonymous letters claimed that a young baron, French émigré Georges Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès (1812-1895) was having an affair with Natalie. Pushkin challenged him to a and both suffered wounds, Pushkin succumbing to his two days later, on 29 January 1837. (d'Anthès would later marry Pushkin's sister- in-law.) Possibly complicit in the affair, government officials secretly buried Pushkin at night. He now rests beside his mother in the Sviatogorski Monastery Cemetery of Sviatye Gory, region, Russia. The State Museum of Fine Arts was named in honor of Pushkin in 1937. Alexander Pushkin’s legacy of inspiration and influence in Russia and the world over is still in evidence in 21st century poetry, literature, opera, ballet, music, film, and art. In 1880 attended the dedication of the Pushkin Monument in Moscow, and Ivan S. Turgenev delivered a speech, in part; “Art, if one employs this term in the broad sense that includes poetry within its realm, is an art of creation laden with ideals, located at the very core of the life of a people, defining the spiritual and moral shape of that life. … “In a period of a people’s life that bears the designation ‘transitional,’ the task of a thinking individual, of a sincere citizen of his country, is to go forward, despite the dirt and 39

difficulty of the path, to go forward without losing from view even for a moment those fundamental ideals on which the entire existence of the society to which he belongs is built.” (B) Russian Romanticism: Romanticism was a movement which flourished between 1750 and 1850. It was a revolt against the Enlightenment and the strict rules of . While the Age of Reason had upheld the primacy of harmony, balance and rationality, Romanticism emphasised intuition, imagination and the irrational. Romantic artists explored the extremes of human nature, ranging from heroism to insanity and despair. Strong feelings were an authentic source of artistic inspiration, placing new emphasis on such emotions as fear, horror and terror, especially when confronting the untamed forces of nature. The Romantic movement was inspired by the writings of Sir and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In 1774, Goethe published The Sorrows of Young Werther , which had young men throughout Europe emulating its protagonist, a young artist with a sensitive and passionate temperament. Romanticism in English literature was mostly associated with , , and . In predominantly Roman Catholic countries, Romanticism was less pronounced than in Germany and Britain, and tended to develop later, after the rise of Napoleon. Romanticism in Russia was never a single or united trend. Romantic works were created by both inherently Romantic artists and by masters adhering to other inclinations . Works in the spirit of Neoclassical , Romantic, Realist and other traditions were displayed side by side at exhibitions of the and, after 1824, at the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. The first half of the nineteenth century was a momentous period in Russian history. The main event was the war with the French army, which lasted from April 1805 (when Russia joined the anti-Napoleonic coalition) to March 1814 (when Russian soldiers entered Paris and Napoleon was exiled to the isle of Elba). The whole of Russian society was drawn into the war. General calamities and afflictions, common hopes and joys erased the social borders between classes. Titled

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generals and serf soldiers alike proved to be mortal. The enemy burnt down peasant shacks and aristocratic estates with equal rigour. While the war ended with the victory of the Russian army, it left a deep trace on the outlook of an entire generation. The Russian art of the first two decades of the nineteenth century, either directly or indirectly, expressed the new mood of society. 's Portrait of Yevgraf Davydov (1809) is a perfect example of early Russian Romanticism. The subject’s aloof and dreamy air and natural yet theatrical image reflect the philosophy and manner of conduct fashionable in Russian society at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. The soldier is portrayed in military uniform, wearing decorations, though the focal point of the portrait is the face, the eyes and the emotions. For Kiprensky and his contemporaries, the most important object of exploration and embodiment was man’s inner world. The Romantic perception of the world, which penetrated the art of the early nineteenth century, made an important contribution to Russian landscape and drawing. Previously unnoticed corners of simple nature, unexpected angles and the everyday surroundings of famous monuments of art often became sources of inspiration for Russian artists, such as Maxim Vorobyov . Sylvester Schedrin worked in alongside the painters of the Posillipo school, creating inspired and lyrical views of , , Sorrento and other Italian towns. The representations of the outskirts of Rome painted by Mikhail Lebedev , filled with sunshine and air, are also tinted with moods of sorrow, joy and languor. Russian Romanticism underwent a number of changes, enjoying a relatively long life and combining with other trends and movements. In the 1820s and 1830s, the poetic and intimate images of man typical of early Romantic portraits combined with a garish, often theatrical treatment of the subject. Official portraiture came back into fashion in the 1820s. The undisputed king of this genre in the Russian art of the first half of the nineteenth century was Karl Brullov , who was the first Russian artist to win European fame during the course of his lifetime and world fame by the time of his untimely death in Italy in 1852. Glossary and Notes Genealogy: family history

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Ode: Poem in praise Enamored: attracted Rigor: accuracy Genre: literary type Check your progress: Q.1 Where was Alexander Pushkin born? Q.2 When did he publish his first dramas? Q.3 Who was attracted to Pushkin’s wife Natalie? Q.4 To whom did Pushkin challenge to duel? Q.5 Which two great attended the dedication of the Pushkin Monument? Answers to Check your progress: 1. Moscow, Russia. 2. 1830 3. Tsar Nicholas 4. French émigré Georges Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès 5. Fyodor Dostoevsky and Ivan S. Turgenev 2.2 General Summary (A) The Bronze Horseman (Epic) The Bronze Horseman is regarded as one of Pushkin’s masterpieces. Pushkin created the poem out of a complex web of personal, literary, and political themes, so that it is not surprising that interpretations of the poem have differed widely. The poem consists of an introductory section and two parts. The title is taken from the statue of Peter the Great that stands in St. Petersburg on the banks of the Neva. Pushkin based the poem on a historical incident, namely the devastating flood that hit St. Petersburg in 1824. The introduction, however, begins many years before the flood. Peter the Great is depicted as standing on the site that was to become St. Petersburg, looking out over the desolate waters of the Baltic. He sees only swampy marshlands and dark woods but fatefully declares the founding of a great city that

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will “open a window onto Europe.” One hundred years have passed since Peter’s vision, and there is a prosperous city in place of the marshland. The thoughts and impressions of the narrator become enmeshed with the description of the city. He speaks of his love for the austere harmony of the city, praising Peter’s creation. (B) The Stone Guest (Drama) The Stone Guest , blank verse drama by Aleksandr Pushkin, published posthumously in 1839 as Kamenny gost . The work is one of four acclaimed “little tragedies” completed by Pushkin in the fall of 1830. A highly intelligent poet and chronic seducer who thinks himself superior to almost everyone, Don Juan is alienated from society by his flawed character. He feels no guilt over seducing and abandoning countless women or killing his rivals in . Don Juan is finally defeated by the stone statue of a knight commander whom he had killed in a duel. The statue comes to life when Don Juan seduces his widow. (C) Eugene Onegin (Novel in Verse) Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin is a novel in verse, sometimes described as an anti-novel. A satirical masterpiece of the early nineteenth century, it's a touchstone of . It both characterizes and comments on the Romantic movement. If you're reading Eugene Onegin expecting an ordinary novel or even a straightforward narrative poem, you're likely to be both disappointed and confused. Pushkin's novel in verse is satirical and deliberately weird; the author himself even makes a cameo appearance. It is not, however, obscure; it is beautifully symmetrical, composed in a series of brilliant vignettes, or short impressionist scenes. Many try to preserve the rhyming playfulness of Pushkin's language. Eugene Onegin is considered Pushkin’s most outstanding and characteristic work. It has been called the first Russian novel because of its firm grasp of character and its realistic presentation of scenes of Russian life. Pushkin combines the virtues of slow development of character and situation of the novel with the quick epigrammatic wit of the discursive poem. He combines the pathos of a psychologically plausible affair of the heart with the charm of genre painting. The work reflects the author’s own gradual growth as a , since it was written and revised over a period of nearly ten years.

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The novel is written in fourteen-line stanzas, known simply as the , since there have been no other attempts to create a work using this verse form. The stanza implements an intricate rhyme scheme, which ends in a couplet. The couplet rounds off the stanza and invites an epigrammatic or aphoristic conclusion. The typical stanza contains a proposition, an exposition elaborating it, and a summation with a final flash of wit. The plot of the novel is very simple, and its loose form allows for a wealth of description and poetic excursus. Only approximately one-third of the novel is concerned with the plot. The rest consists of descriptive passages and the narrator’s digressions on the theater, literary or social polemics, amorous recollections, or soliloquies on literary art. The events of the novel are set in the early 1820’s, and the settings are St. Petersburg and the Russian countryside. After an abrupt description of the hero traveling to visit his moribund country uncle, the plot moves to a flashback describing the education of the young St. Petersburg playboy, his introduction to St. Petersburg society, and his gradual withdrawal from society life to the country estate that he has inherited. There he is drawn into the family circle of a typical squire of the period. Glossary and Notes Desolate: deserted Swampy: muddy Seducer: One who attracts women Weird: peculiar Epigrammatic: to the point Aphoristic: having literary allusions

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2.3 Analysis of the poems: 2.3.1 The Bronze Horseman 2.3.1.1 Text A Petersburg Tale, 1833 FOREWORD The occurrence related in this tale is based on fact. The details of the flood are taken from the journals of the day. The curious may consult the account composed by V. I: Berkh. (1) INTRODUCTION There, by the billows desolate, He stood, with mighty thoughts elate, And gazed; but in the distance only A sorry skiff on the broad spate Of Neva drifted seaward, lonely. The moss-grown miry banks with rare Hovels were dotted here and there Where wretched Finns for shelter crowded; The murmuring woodlands had no share Of sunshine, all in mist beshrouded. And thus He mused: “From here, indeed Shall we strike terror in the Swede; And here a city by our labor Founded, shall gall our haughty neighbor; ‘Here cut’—so Nature gives command— ‘Your window ^ through on Europe; stand Firm-footed by the sea, unchanging!’ Ay, ships of every flag shall come By waters they had never swum, And we shall revel, freely ranging.” A century—and that city young, 45

Gem of the Northern world, amazing. From gloomy wood and swamp upsprung, Had risen, in pride and splendor blazing. Where once, by that low-lying shore, In waters never known before The Finnish fisherman, sole creature. And left forlorn by stepdame Nature, Cast ragged nets—today, along Those shores, astir with life and motion, Vast shapely palaces in throng And towers are seen: from every ocean. From the world’s end, the ships come fast. To reach the loaded quays at last. The Neva now is clad in granite With many a bridge to overspan it; The islands lie beneath a screen Of gardens deep in dusky green. To that young capital is drooping The crest of Moscow on the ground, A dowager in purple, stooping Before an empress newly crowned. I love thee, city of Peter’s making; I love thy harmonies austere. And Neva’s sovran waters breaking Along her banks of granite sheer; Thy traceried iron gates; thy sparkling.

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Yet moonless, meditative gloom And thy transparent twilight darkling; And when I write within my room Or lampless, read—then, sunk in slumber. The empty thoroughfares, past number. Are piled, stand clear upon the night; The Admiralty spire is bright; Nor may the darkness mount, to smother The golden cloudland of the light, For soon one dawn succeeds another With barely half-an-hour of night. I love thy ruthless winter, lowering With bitter frost and windless air; The sledges along Neva scouring; Girls’ cheeks—no rose so bright and fair! The flash and noise of bails, the chatter; The bachelor’s hour of feasting, too; The cups that foam and hiss and spatter, The punch that in the bowl burns blue. I love the warlike animation On playing-fields of Mars; to see The troops of foot and horse in station, And their superb monotony; Their ordered, undulating muster; Flags, tattered on the glorious day; Those brazen helmets in their lustre

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Shot through and riddled in the fray. I love thee, city of soldiers, blowing Smoke from thy forts: thy booming gun; —A Northern empress is bestowing Upon the royal house a son! Or when, another battle won, Proud Russia holds her celebration; Or when the Neva breaking free Her dark blue ice bears out to sea And scents the spring, in exultation. Now, city of Peter, stand thou fast, Foursquare, like Russia; vaunt thy splendor! The very element shall surrender And make her peace with thee at last. Their ancient bondage and their rancors The Finnish waves shall bury deep Nor vex with idle spite that cankers Our Peter’s everlasting sleep! There was a dreadful time, we keep Still freshly on our memories painted; And you, my friends, shall be acquainted By me, with all that history: A grievous record it will be. PART I O’er darkened Petrograd there rolled November’s breath of autumn cold;

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And Neva with her boisterous billow Splashed on her shapely bounding wall And tossed in restless rise and fall Like a sick man upon his pillow. 'Twas late, and dark had fallen; the rain Beat fiercely on the window-pane; A wind that howled and wailed was blowing. 'Twas then that young Yevgeny (4) came Home from a party—I am going To call our hero by that name. For it sounds pleasing, and moreover My pen once liked it—why discover The needless surname?—True, it may Have been illustrious in past ages, —Rung, through tradition, in the pages Of Karamzin; and yet, today That name is never recollected. By Rumor and the World rejected. Our hero—somewhere—^served the State; He shunned the presence of the great; Lived in Kolomna; for the fate Cared not of forbears dead and rotten, Or antique matters long forgotten. So, home Yevgeny came, and tossed His cloak aside; undressed; and sinking Sleepless upon his bed, was lost In sundry meditations—thinking

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Of what-?—How poor he was; how pain And toil might some day hope to gain An honored, free, assured position; How God, it might be, in addition Would grant him better brains and pay. Such idle folk there were, and they, Lucky and lazy, not too brightly Gifted, lived easily and lightly; And he—was only in his second Year at the desk. He further reckoned That still the ugly weather held; That still the river swelled and swelled; That almost now from Neva’s eddy The bridges had been moved already; That from Parasha he must be Parted for some two days, or three. And all that night, he lay, so dreaming. And wishing sadly that the gale Would bate its melancholy screaming And that the rain would not assail The glass so fiercely. . . . But sleep closes His eyes at last, and he reposes. But see, the mists of that rough night Thin out, and the pale day grows bright; That dreadful day!—^For Neva, leaping

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Seaward all night against the blast Was beaten in the strife at last, Against the frantic tempest sweeping; And on her banks at break of day The people swarmed and crowded, curious, And reveled in the towering spray That spattered where the waves were furious. But the wind driving from the bay Dammed Neva back, and she receding Came up, in wrath and riot speeding; And soon the islands flooded lay. Madder the weather grew, and ever Higher upswelled the roaring river And bubbled like a kettle, and whirled And like a maddened beast was hurled Swift on the city. All things routed Fled from its path, and all about it A sudden space was cleared; the flow Dashed in the cellars down below; Canals up to their gratings spouted. Behold Petropol floating lie Like Triton in the deep, waist-high! A siege! the wicked waves, attacking Climb thief-like through the windows; backing, The boats stern-foremost smite the glass; Trays with their soaking wrappage pass;

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And timbers, roofs, and huts all shattered, The wares of thrifty traders scattered, And the pale beggar’s chattels small. Bridges swept off beneath the squall, Coffins from sodden graveyards—all Swim in the streets! .... And contemplating God’s wrath, the folk their doom are waiting. All will be lost; ah, where shall they Find food and shelter for today? The glorious Emperor, now departed, In that grim year was sovereign Of Russia still. He came, sick-hearted, Out on his balcony, and in pain He said: “No czar, ’tis sure, is master Over God’s elements!” In thought He sat, and gazed on the disaster Sad-eyed, and on the evil wrought; For now the squares with lakes were studded. Their torrents broad the streets had flooded, And now forlorn and islanded The palace seemed. The Emperor said One word—and see, along the highways His generals (5) hurrying, through the byways! From city’s end to end they sped Through storm and peril, bent on saving The people, now in panic raving

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And drowning in their houses there. New-built, high up in Peter’s Square A corner mansion then ascended; And where its lofty perron ended Two sentry lions stood at guard Like living things, and kept their ward With paw uplifted. Here, bare-headed, Pale, rigid, arms across his breast. Upon the creature’s marble crest Sat poor Yevgeny. But he dreaded Nought for himself; he did not hear The hungry rollers rising near And on his very footsoles plashing, Feel on his face the rainstorm lashing, Or how the riotous, moaning blast Had snatcht his hat. His eyes were fast Fixt on one spot in desperation Where from the deeps in agitation The wicked waves like mountains rose. Where the storm howled, and round were driven Fragments of wreck. . . . There, God in Heaven! Hard by the bay should stand, and close, Alas, too close to the wild water, A paintless fence, a willow-tree. And there a frail old house should be Where dwelt a widow, with a daughter Parasha—and his dream was she! His dream—or was it but a vision, All that he saw? Was life also An idle dream which in derision Fate sends to mock us here below?

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And he, as though a man enchanted And on the marble pinned and planted. Cannot descend, and round him he Only the waters. There, on high. With Neva still beneath him churning. Unshaken, on Yevgeny turning His back, and with an arm flung wide. Behold the Image sit, and ride Upon his brazen horse astride! PART II But now, with rack and ruin sated And weary o£ her insolence And uproar, Neva, still elated With her rebellious turbulence, Stole back, and left her booty stranded And unregarded. So a bandit Bursts with his horde upon a village To smash and slay, destroy and pillage; Whence yells, and violence, and alarms. Gritting of teeth, and grievous harms And wailings; then the evildoers Rush home; but dreading the pursuers And sagging with the stolen load They drop their plunder on the road. Meanwhile the water had abated And pavements now uncovered lay; And our Yevgeny, by dismay And hope and longing agitated. Sore-hearted to the river sped. But still it lay disquieted

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And still the wicked waves were seething In pride of victory, as though A flame were smoldering below; And heavily was Neva breathing Like to a horse besprent with foam Who gallops from the battle home. Yevgeny watches, and descrying By happy chance a boat, goes flying To hail the ferryman; and he, Unhired and idle, willingly Convoys him for a threepence, plying Through that intimidating sea. The old tried oarsman long contended With the wild waters; hour by hour, Sunk in the trough, the skif descended Mid rollers, ready to devour Rash crew and all—at last contriving To make the farther shore. Arriving, Yevgeny—evil is his lot!— Runs to the old familiar spot Down the old street,—and knows it not. Ail, to his horror, is demolished, Leveled or ruined or abolished. Houses are twisted all awry, And some are altogether shattered.

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Some shifted by the seas; and scattered Are bodies, flung as bodies he On battlefields. Unthinkingly, Half-fainting, and excruciated, Yevgeny rushes on, awaited By destiny with unrevealed Tidings, as in a letter sealed. He scours the suburb; and discerning The bay, he knows the house is near; And then stops short; ah, what is here? Retreating, and again returning, He looks—advances—looks again. ’Tis there they dwelt, the marks are plain; There is the willow. Surely yonder The gate was standing, in the past; Now, washt away! No house!—O’ercast With care, behold Yevgeny wander For ever round and round the place, And talk aloud, and strike his face With his bare hand. A moment after, He breaks into a roar of laughter. The vapors of the night came down Upon the terror-stricken town. But all the people long debated The doings of the day, and waited And could not sleep. The morning light

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From pale and weary clouds gleamed bright On the still capital; no traces Now of the woes of yesternight! With royal purple it effaces The mischief; all things are proceeding In form and order as of old; The people are already treading, Impassive, in their fashion, cold. Through the cleared thoroughfares, unheeding; And now official folk forsake Their last night’s refuge, as they make Their way to duty. Greatly daring, The huckster now takes heart, unbaring His cellar, late the prey and sack Of Neva—^hoping to get back His heavy loss and wasted labor Out of the pockets of his neighbor. The drifted boats from each courtyard Are carried. To a certain bard, A count, a favorite of heaven To one Khvostov, the theme was given To chant in his immortal song How Neva’s shores had suffered wrong. But my Yevgeny, poor, sick fellow!- Alas, the tumult in his brain

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Had left him powerless to sustain Those shocks of terror. For the bellow Of riotous winds and Neva near Resounded always in his ear; A host of hideous thoughts attacked him, A kind of nightmare rent and racked him, And on he wandered silently; And as the week, the month, went by, Never came home. His habitation, As time ran out, the landlord took, And leased the now deserted nook For a poor poet’s occupation. Nor ever came Yevgeny home For his belongings; he would roam, A stranger to the world; his ration A morsel tendered in compassion Out of a window; he would tramp All day, and on the quay would camp To sleep; his garments, old and fraying, Were all in tatters and decaying. And the malicious boys would pelt The man with stones; and oft he felt The cabman’s whiplash on him flicking; For he had lost the skill of picking His footsteps—deafened, it may be. By fears that clamored inwardly.

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So, dragging out his days, ill-fated. He seemed like something miscreated, No beast, nor yet of human birth. Neither a denizen of earth Nor phantom of the dead. Belated One night, on Neva wharf he slept. Now summer days toward autumn crept; A wet and stormy wind was blowing, And Neva’s sullen waters flowing Plashed on the wharf and muttered there Complaining—beat the slippery stair As suitors beat in supplication Unheeded at a judge’s door. In gloom and rain, amid the roar Of winds—a sound of desolation With cries of watchmen interchanged Afar, who through the darkness ranged— Our poor Yevgeny woke; and daunted, By well-remembered terrors haunted, He started sharply, rose in haste, And forth upon his wanderings paced; —And halted on a sudden, staring About him silently, and wearing A look of wild alarm and awe. Where had he come? for now he saw

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The pillars of that lofty dwelling Where, on the perron sentineling, Two lion-figures stand at guard Like living things, keep watch and ward With lifted paw. Upright and glooming. Above the stony barrier looming. The Image, with an arm flung wide, Sat on his brazen horse astride.(6) And now Yevgeny, with a shiver Of terror, felt his reason clear. He knew the place, for it was here The flood had gamboled, here the river Had surged; here, rioting in their wrath, The wicked waves had swept a path And with their tumult had surrounded Yevgeny, lions, square—and Him Who, moveless and aloft and dim. Our city by the sea had founded, Whose will was Fate. Appalling there He sat, begirt with mist and air. What thoughts engrave His brow! what hidden Power and authority He claims! What fire in yonder charger flames! Proud charger, whither art thou ridden, Where leapest thou? and where, on whom. Wilt plant thy hoof?—Ah, lord of doom

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And potentate, ’twas thus, appearing Above the void, and in thy hold A curb of iron, thou sat st of old O’er Russia, on her haunches rearing! About the Image, at its base. Poor mad Yevgeny circled, straining His wild gaze upward at the face That once o’er half the world was reigning. His eye was dimmed, cramped was his breast, His brow on the cold grill was pressed, While through his heart a flame was creeping And in his veins the blood was leaping. He halted sullenly beneath The haughty Image, clenched his teeth And clasped his hands, as though some devil Possessed him, some dark power of evil, And shuddered, whispering angrily, “Ay, architect, with thy creation Of marvels. . . . Ah, beware of me!” And then, in wild precipitation He fled. For now he seemed to see The awful Emperor, quietly, With momentary anger burning, His visage to Yevgeny turning! And rushing through the empty square.

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He hears behind him as it were Thunders that rattle in a chorus, A gallop ponderous, sonorous. That shakes the pavement. At full height. Illumined by the pale moonlight, With arm outflung, behind him riding See, the bronze horseman comes, bestriding The charger, clanging in his flight. All night the madman flees; no matter Where he may wander at his v/ill, Hard on his track with heavy clatter There the bronze horseman gallops still. Thereafter, whensoever straying Across that square Yevgeny went By chance, his face was still betraying Disturbance and bewilderment. As though to ease a heart tormented In haste, put off his shabby cap, And never raise his eyes demented, And seek some bway unfrequented. A little island lies in view Along the shore; and here, belated. Sometimes with nets a fisher-crew Will moor and cook their long-awaited And meager supper. Hither too Some civil servant, idly floating,

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Will come upon a Sunday, boating. That isle is desolate and bare; No blade of grass springs anywhere. Once the great flood had sported, driving The frail hut thither. Long surviving, It floated on the water there Like some black bush. A vessel plying Bore it, last spring, upon her deck. They found it empty, all a wreck; And also, cold and dead and lying Upon the threshold, they had found My crazy hero. In the ground His poor cold body there they hurried, And left it to God’s mercy, buried. 1833 (PUBLISHED POSTHUMOUSLY 1837) 2.3.1.2 Summary The Bronze Horseman is regarded as one of Pushkin’s masterpieces. Pushkin created the poem out of a complex web of personal, literary, and political themes, so that it is not surprising that interpretations of the poem have differed widely. The poem consists of an introductory section and two parts. The title is taken from the statue of Peter the Great that stands in St. Petersburg on the banks of the Neva. Pushkin based the poem on a historical incident, namely the devastating flood that hit St. Petersburg in 1824. The introduction, however, begins many years before the flood. Peter the Great is depicted as standing on the site that was to become St. Petersburg, looking out over the desolate waters of the Baltic. He sees only swampy marshlands and dark woods but fatefully declares the founding of a great city that will “open a window onto Europe.” One hundred years have passed since Peter’s

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vision, and there is a prosperous city in place of the marshland. The thoughts and impressions of the narrator become enmeshed with the description of the city. He speaks of his love for the austere harmony of the city, praising Peter’s creation. Part I In Part 1 of the poem, there is an abrupt change in tone. It is a cold, windy day in St. Petersburg as a young man named Eugene makes his way home. Once safely home, he tries to go to sleep but is kept awake by his own worries. He wants to gain his share of financial independence, even though he will have to work hard to do so. He is also kept awake by thoughts of the rising river. If the bridges are flooded, he will be separated from his betrothed, who lives on one of the islands in the Neva. The next morning the city is flooded. Pushkin’s description of the flood is one of the most famous passages of Russian literature. The scene is one of chaos and destruction, such that even the Czar is powerless. Czar Alexander I is similarly helpless against the flooding Neva. Then Yevgeny wakes up to find himself sitting on the statue of two sentry lions. Surrounded by the turbulent waters, he is unable to move. Part II In Part II, the Neva begins to recede, and, by luck, Yevgeny encounters a ferryman. The two travel to Parasha’s house to find that everything has been destroyed by the flood. Yevgeny becomes mad as he laughs at his misfortune. He wanders for months without returning home and his clothes becoming frayed, drawing the attention of “the malicious boys” who pelt Yevgeny with stones. As he continues to roam, Yevgeny confronts the bronze horseman statue and threatens it. The statue then comes to life and follows Yevgeny that night. Yevgeny is consumed by fear as he hears the galloping horsemen tracking him. Nevertheless, he continues to wander past the square, but can no longer look at the statue. The poem ends with a group of fishermen discovering Yevgeny’s dead body on a desolate island. Czar Alexander I is similarly helpless against the flooding Neva. Then Yevgeny wakes up to find himself sitting on the statue of two sentry lions. Surrounded by the turbulent waters, he is unable to move. Daniel Rancour-Laferrier’s psychoanalytic interpretation of the poem revolves around the fantasy of male childbirth; in other words, he suggests that Pushkin’s

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representations of Peter the Great portray his desire to reproduce. First, Pushkin, in describing Peter’s creation of St. Petersburg, writes, “‘Here cut’—so Nature gives command,” giving the sense of a parallel between human childbirth with his own version of creation, as instead of it being an action of freewill, it is dictated by Mother Nature. Additionally, Rancour-Laferrier argues that the Neva River, which Peter the Great wants as a representation of himself, is another symbol through which Pushkin’s fascination with male childbirth can be seen. Rancour-Laferrier first draws the parallel between the river and Peter through the blame that Yevgeny places upon the bronze horseman, or Peter the Great, instead of the Neva River for taking away his love, Parasha. He argues that Peter the Great thus accepts responsibility for all of the suffering that Yevgeny experiences because he must accept that responsibility in order to receive credit for the Neva’s other actions, including the flooding of the river. The flooding of the river is key, Rancour-Laferrier suggests, because the rush of waters is symbolic of the birthing process. In other words, he believes that the flooding of the city is a tangible symbol of Peter the Great’s desire to reproduce. Daniel Rancour-Laferrier’s psychoanalytic interpretation of the poem revolves around the fantasy of male childbirth; in other words, he suggests that Pushkin’s representations of Peter the Great portray his desire to reproduce. First, Pushkin, in describing Peter’s creation of St. Petersburg, writes, “‘Here cut’—so Nature gives command,” giving the sense of a parallel between human childbirth with his own version of creation, as instead of it being an action of freewill, it is dictated by Mother Nature. Additionally, Rancour-Laferrier argues that the Neva River, which Peter the Great wants as a representation of himself, is another symbol through which Pushkin’s fascination with male childbirth can be seen. Rancour- Laferrier first draws the parallel between the river and Peter through the blame that Yevgeny places upon the bronze horseman, or Peter the Great, instead of the Neva River for taking away his love, Parasha. He argues that Peter the Great thus accepts responsibility for all of the suffering that Yevgeny experiences because he must accept that responsibility in order to receive credit for the Neva’s other actions, including the flooding of the river. The flooding of the river is key, Rancour- Laferrier suggests, because the rush of waters is symbolic of the birthing process. In other words, he believes that the flooding of the city is a tangible symbol of Peter the Great’s desire to reproduce.

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Glossary and Notes Devastating: overwhelming Czar Alexaner I: Aleksandr Pavlovich; 23 December [12 December] 1777 – 1 December [19 November] 1825) reigned as Emperor of Russia between 1801 and 1825. He was the son of Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. Alexander was the first Russian King of partitioned Poland, reigning from 1815 to 1825, as well as the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland, reigning from 1809 to 1825. Neva: The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of 74 kilometres (46 mi), it is the fourth largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge (after the Volga, the Danube and the Rhine). Turbulent: raging Malicious: hateful Check your progress: 1. What is the setting of the poem? 2. Which river is mentioned in the poem? 3. Who has presented the psycho-analytical approach to the poem? 4. Who follows Yevgeny after the flood? 5. What is symbolised by the flooding of the city? Answers to Check Your Progress 1. Cold and windy day in St. Petersburg. 2. Neva 3. Daniel Rancour-Laferrier 4. The statue of the Bronze Horseman. 5. Human child birth.

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Exercises 1. Who is Parasha? 2. What does the rush of waters symbolize?

2.3.2 Winter Evening 2.3.2.1 Text Storm-clouds dim the sky; the tempest Weaves the snow in patterns wild; Like a beast the gale is howling. And now wailing like a child; On the worn old roof it rustles The piled thatch, and then again Like a traveler belated Knocks upon the window-pane. Sad and dark our shabby cottage, Indoors not a sound is heard; Nanny, sitting at the window, Can’t you give me just a word? What is wrong, dear? Are you wearied By the wind, so loud and rough? Or the buzzing of your distaff— Has that set you dozing off? Let us drink, dear old companion, You who shared my sorry start; Get the mug and drown our troubles; That’s the way to cheer the heart.

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Sing the ballad of the titmouse Who beyond the seas was gone Or the song about the maiden Fetching water just at dawn. Storm-clouds dim the sky; the tempest Weaves the snow in patterns wild; Like a beast the gale is howling, And now wailing like a child. Let us drink, dear old companion. You who shared my sorry start; Get the mug and drown our troubles; That’s the way to cheer the heart. [1825]

Summary Pushkin "Winter Evening" wrote in a very uneasy period of his life. Perhaps, that is why the feeling of hopelessness, sadness and at the same time of hope for a better future slip in the poem. In 1824, Alexander Sergeyevich was allowed to return from the southern exile. What was his disappointment when the poet learned that he was allowed to live not in St. Petersburg or Moscow, but in the old manor estate of Mikhailovsky, cut off from the surrounding world. At that time the whole family of Pushkin lived in the estate. Relations with his parents from Alexander Sergeevich were difficult, especially painful for him to bear the fact that the function of the overseer was taken over by his own father. Sergei Lvovich checked all the correspondence of his son, controlled literally every step he took. In addition, his father strongly encouraged Pushkin to scandal in the hope that a quarrel under witnesses would help him send his son to prison. Alexander Sergeyevich used every opportunity to leave the estate to visit his neighbors, it was very difficult for him to live with the realization that his relatives betrayed him.

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After the parents left Mikhailovsky to live in Moscow, and this happened in the fall of 1824, was written "Winter Evening." Pushkin wrote his verse in the winter of 1825, by this time the poet had calmed down a bit, he no longer felt monstrous pressure from all sides, but the storm still reigned in his soul. On the one hand, Alexander Sergeyevich feels relieved and hopes for a bright future, but on the other hand he understands the hopelessness of his situation. An analysis of the poem "Winter Evening" by Pushkin allows us to consider the image of the hero, cut off from the outside world by a snowstorm, the poet himself. In Mikhailovsky he is under house arrest, he cannot leave the estate only after coordination with the supervisory authorities, and even that for a short period. Alexander Sergeyevich is in despair from his imprisonment, so he perceives the storm, then as a little child, then as a terrible beast, then as an afterthought traveller. Pushkin "Winter Evening" wrote to convey their true feelings. In the image of a kind old woman his nurse Arina Rodionovna guessed. The poet understands that this woman is almost the only person who loves him. Nanny takes him as a son, cares, protects, helps with wise advice. He enjoys spending free time with her, watching the spindle. Pushkin "Winter Evening" wrote to at least somehow calm down the anguish. He cannot fully enjoy the idyll, because he languishes in captivity. Whatever it was, but life in Mikhailovsky clearly went to Alexander Sergeyevich for good, he became more reserved, calm, began to pay more attention to his work. Pushkin "Winter Evening" wrote, putting his whole soul into the poem and it is immediately felt. Even after returning to St. Petersburg, the poet repeatedly voluntarily came to his old estate to enjoy rural life, peace, quiet, beautiful landscapes and write new masterpieces. Glossary and Notes Exile: Expatriate Monstrous: outrageous Check Your Progress 1. Which woman was the only person who loved the poet? 2. Who takes him as a son and cares, protects the poet? 3. Why is the hero in the poem cut off from the rest of the world?

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Answers to Check Your Progress 1. Old woman his nurse Arina Rodionovna. 2. Nanny 3. Cut off from the outside world by a snowstorm Exercises 1. In which place is the poet kept under house arrest? 2. Who works on the spindle? 3. Why did the poet visit his old estate repeatedly?

2.3.3 The Coach of Life 2.3.3.1 Text Though often somewhat heavy-freighted, The coach rolls at an easy pace; And Time, the coachman, grizzly-pated, But smart, alert—is in his place. We board it lightly in the morning And on our way at once proceed. Repose and slothful comfort scorning. We shout: “Hey, there! Get on! Full speed!” Noon finds us done with reckless daring. And shaken up. Now care’s the rule. Down hills, through gulleys roughly faring, We sulk, and cry: “Hey, easy, fool!” The coach rolls on, no pitfalls dodging. At dusk, to pains more wonted grown, We drowse, while to the night’s dark lodging Old coachman Time drives on, drives on. [1823]

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Summary He is comparing time to a coach (a carriage) that is gradually speeding up as you grow older. Time is the coachman. In the beginning you shout that you want it to go faster (i.e. you want to grow up) but after reaching adulthood you beg for time to slow down because it's moving faster and faster. The night’s dark lodging is probably a reference to death. He used different times of the day to refer to different periods or phases of human life. Morning is infancy and childhood. Afternoon is adulthood and evening old age. The end of the journey is almost surely death. Glossary and Notes Grizzly: irritable Reckless: irresponsible Slothful: sluggish Gulley: lane Check Your Progress 1. Whom does the poet compare time with? 2. When does the coach speed up? 3. When do we beg to slow down the speed of the coach? Answers to Check Your Progress 1. A Coach 2. As we grow older 3. After reaching adulthood Exercises 1. With what does the poet compare death with? 2. With what does the poet compare childhood with? 3. With what does the poet compare old age with?

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2.3.4 “With Freedom’s Seed” 2.3.4.1 Text “Behold, a sower went forth to sow .” With freedom’s seed the desert sowing, I walked before the morning star; From pure and guiltless fingers throwing— Where slavish plows had left a scar— The fecund seed, the procreator; Oh, vain and sad disseminator, I learned then what lost labors are . . . Graze if you will, you peaceful nations. Who never rouse at honor’s horn! Should flocks heed freedom’s invocations? Their part is to be slain or shorn, Their dower the yoke their sires have worn Through snug and sheeplike generations. [1823] Summary Pushkin is known for his poems on freedom. This is because he was forced to stay away from his home. In this poem he talks about the seed of freedom which is sewn despite all difficult conditions. He wakes up early goes on throwing seeds in the ploughed land. He realizes how the labours are lost many times and the land is not yet fit to sow the seed. He passes on a sarcastic comment on nations who simply while away the time in grazing which means wasting away the wealth left by the earlier patriots and freedom fighters. Common men don’t pay attention to invocations of freedom. They are easily slain by the governments of all nations. They are indifferent to the fertile land of freedom in which they must awake one day, the fertile land of freedom left for them by their valorous ancestors.

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Glossary and Notes Fecund: prolific Disseminator: distributor Procreator: one who gives birth Slain: kill Dower: wealth Check Your Progress 1. Why does Pushkin write about freedom in his poems? 2. At what time does the poet wake up to sow the seeds? 3. To whom is the sarcastic comment of the poet addressed to? Answers to Check Your Progress 1. Because he was forced to stay away from his home. 2. In the early morning. 3. To the idle nations who while away the time. Exercises 1. Does the poet assure us that the seed of freedom can be sown despite difficulties around? 2. What is the lost labour? 3. Who has left the fertile land of freedom for the idle nations?

2.3.5 “Beneath Her Native Skies” 2.3.5.1 Text Beneath her native skies she languished and she drooped, And now she has at last departed; Perchance the fair young ghost a moment o’er me stooped,

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A shadow broken-hearted. But ’twixt us twain is drawn a line I may not cross. How strange seems now the old devotion! Indifferent lips were those that told me of my loss, I heard of it without emotion. So that is she who set my careless heart afire, And whom I loved with tender sadness, Toward whom I strained, consumed with anguish and desire, Who brought me to the verge of madness! Where is the pain, and where the love that hurt me most? Sweet memories awhile outlive you. But not for long, you credulous poor ghost— I’ve no remorse, no tears to give you. [1825 (?)] Summary This is a passionate love poem by Alexander Pushkin. He has been obviously cheated by a fair young lady from his native land and has suddenly disappeared from his life. It was she who set his heart on fire and it was she for whose lips craved his lips. But, no more. She brought him almost to the verge of madness but he was saved from absolute madness because she left him before that could happen. At the moment he declares that he is no more in that stage of emotional torture anymore. He called the lady most appropriately as the ghost who once met him. He has no tears to shed for her. He also has no remorse for her going away from his life. Glossary and Notes Languished: weakned Anguish: suffering Credulous: gullible

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Check Your Progress 1. Who cheated the poet? 2. Who set poet’s heart on fire? 3. Who brought the poet on the verge of madness? Answers to Check Your Progress 1. A fair young lady. 2. A fair young lady whom the poet loved passionately. 3. A fair young lady from his native land. Exercises 1. Will the poet greet the lady with love if she meets him again? 2. Who is called as the ghost in poet’s life? 3. Does the poet shed tears for the lady who has gone out from his life?

2.3.6 Arion 2.3.6.1 Text We numbered many in the ship, Some spread the sails, some pulled, together. The mighty oars; ’twas placid weather. The rudder in his steady grip, Our helmsman silently was steering The heavy galley through the sea. While I, from doubts and sorrows free, Sang to the crew . . . When suddenly, A storm! and the wide sea was rearing . . , The helmsman and the crew were lost. No sailor by the storm was tossed

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Ashore—but I, who had been singing. I chant the songs I loved of yore, And on the sunned and rocky shore I dry my robes, all wet and clinging. [1827] Summary Arion (/əˈraɪən/; Greek: Ἀρίων) was a kitharode in ancient Greece, a Dionysiac poet credited with inventing the dithyramb: "As a literary composition for chorus dithyramb was the creation of Arion of Corinth," The islanders of Lesbos claimed him as their native son, but Arion found a patron in Periander, tyrant of Corinth. Although notable for his musical inventions, Arion is chiefly remembered for the fantastic myth of his kidnapping by pirates and miraculous rescue by dolphins, a folktale motif. Herodotus (1.23) says "Arion was second to none of the lyre-players in his time and was also the first man we know of to compose and name the dithyramb and teach it in Corinth". However J.H. Sleeman observes of the dithyramb, or circular chorus, "It is first mentioned by Archilochus (c 665 BC) … Arion flourished at least 50 years later … probably gave it a more artistic form, adding a chorus of 50 people, personating satyrs… who danced around an altar of Dionysus. He was doubtless the first to introduce the dithyramb into Corinth". Arion is also associated with the origins of tragedy: of Solon John the Deacon reports: “Arion of Methymna first introduced the drama [i.e. action] of tragedy, as Solon indicated in his poem entitled Elegies ". The classical tale of Arion is that he was captured by pirates and forced to choose between being killed on-board their ship or being thrown into the sea – where he would drown. Arion sang while he made his choice, and dolphins gathered around the ship to admire his beautiful song. Arion was thrown into the sea but was carried safely to shore on the back of a dolphin. It is not unreasonable to suppose that Pushkin knew that his poem might be read with a political subtext. In Pushkin’s poem, Arion is not a captive, and his shipmates are companions not pirates. However, ships of state can encounter heavy weather. Ambiguity adds to the appeal of “Arion”.

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There is a tradition of alliterative verse in early English. Arion’s is an old tale and it is suitably respectful of that classic tale, of the poet Arion, and of Pushkin, to use an old form. Arion was the poet who established the dithyrambic poetic form, choral dance and song to be performed in honour of the wine god Dionysus. In telling Arion’s tale, one should not feel confined by the formalities of . Pushkin was a young man, age 27-28 when this poem was published, and like many young men held passionate opinions about improvement of the social order. Glossary and Notes Kitharode: a classical Greek professional performer on the cithara. Dithyramb: a passionate or inflated speech, poem, or other writing. Herodotus: a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus in the Persian Empire (modern-day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (c. 484 – c. 425 BC), a contemporary of Thucydides, Socrates, and Euripides. He is often referred to as "The Father of History", a title first conferred by Cicero; he was the first historian known to have broken from Homeric tradition to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation—specifically, by collecting his materials systematically and critically, and then arranging them into a historiographic narrative. Dionysus: is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy in ancient Greek religion and myth. Wine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysus was the main religious focus for its unrestrained consumption. His worship became firmly established in the seventh century BC. Check Your Progress 1. Who is credited with inventing ‘dithyramb’? 2. What is a ‘dithyramb’? 3. Are there pirates as in the original myth in Pushkin’s poem? Answers to Check Your Progress 1. Arion 2. A literary composition for chorus

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3. No, they are his shipmates. Exercises 1. Does Pushkin desire his poem to be read with a political sub-text? 2. In Pushkin’s poem, is Arion a captive? 3. Did Pushkin want to bring improvement in the social order in this poem?

2.3.7 To the Poet 2.3.7.1 Text Thou shalt not, poet, prize the people’s love. The noise of their applause will quickly die; Then shalt thou hear the judgment of the fool And chilling laughter from the multitude. But stand thou firm, untroubled and austere; Thou art a king and kings must live alone. Thine own free spirit calls to thee; pass on. Make perfect the fair blossom of thy dreams, Nor ask for praises of achievement won. Praise lives within; ’tis thou that art the judge. And thine the strictest judgment of them all. Art thou content? Then leave the herd to howl; Leave them to spit upon thine altar fires And on the dancing incense of thy shrine. [1830] Summary In this poem Alexander Pushkin talks about the greatness of the real poet. It is a kind of soliloquy in which he tells himself that he must not get swayed by people’s love or applause. A true poet must not get disappointed by the critic’s judgement of his poem. A poet must stand steadfast against all laughter and noise of listeners 78

around him. He is just like a king who must learn to live alone. His own ‘free spirit’ must guide him throughout in his life. Praise of his poem is always within him and he only is the real judge of his poems. Once he is content with the inner voice which is the only judgement on his poem then he must let the crowd around him to keep on howling and criticizing him. Glossary and Notes Applause: clapping Austere: serious Altar: platform for offering sacred things Check Your Progress 1. Who must not get swayed by people’s love or applause? 2. What should be the response of a true poet to his critic? 3. Who must only guide the poet throughout his life? Answers to Check Your Progress 1. The poet 2. He should not get disappointed by the judgement of the critic. 3. ‘Free spirit’ of the poet himself. Exercises 1. Who must stand steadfast against laughter of the crowd around him? 2. Who is like a king? 3. What is the quality of the king which is found in a true poet?

2.3.8 Elegy 2.3.8.1 Text The mirth, now dead, that once was madly bubbling, Like fumes of last night’s cups is vaguely troubling; Not so the griefs that to those years belong:

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Like wine, I find, with age they grow more strong. My path is bleak—before me stretch my morrows: A tossing sea, foreboding toil and sorrows. And yet I do not wish to die, be sure; I want to live—think, suffer, and endure; And I shall know some savor of elation Amidst the cares, the woes, and the vexation: At times I shall be drunk on music still. Or at a moving tale my eyes will fill, And, as sad dusk folds down about my story, Love’s farewell smile may shed a parting glory. The slow hours of the night. Parca, chattering woman-fashion, Night, that offers no compassion, Life, that stirs like rustling mice— Why encage me in your vise? Why the whispering insistence— Are you but the pale persistence Of a day departed twice? What black failures do you reckon? Do you prophesy or beckon? I would know whence you are sprung, I would study your dark tongue . . . [1830] Summary The poet recalls that once upon a time he was in the society, enjoying company of the people. He is not sad that those years were also full of grief and knows that

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they grow stronger to enjoy like old wine. He knows that his way of life is already full of sorrows but he wishes to live, suffer and endure life. There might be a moment of joy even during this suffering. He will enjoy music and will be moved by the story told by the musical artiste. When the evening comes he is aware that his own story will fill his mind with grief once again. Obviously, he talks about his lost love. He tells the woman of his imagination that though she might think that she has made his life sorrowful he is actually busy in daily humdrum of life. He does not want to remain as a mouse in a cage of memories of her. If she makes a prophesy of his bad end, he as a poet is stronger than her because he will ponder on her personality and her words cursing him. His literary or poetic creation gives him more pleasure than the sorrows inflicted on him by her. Glossary and Notes Mirth: jollity Foreboding: menacing Vexation: annoyance Chattering: prattling Encage: to put in prison Check Your Progress 1. What does the poet say about his past years in his life? 2. What is the poet’s wish? 3. What does the poet wish to listen from the musical artiste? Answers to Check Your Progress 1. They will grow stronger and enjoyable like old wine. 2. To suffer and to endure. 3. A tale that will move his heart. Exercises 1. What will happen to the poet when the evening will be there? 2. What is the obvious reference that the poet gives? 3. What gives the poet more pleasure in his life?

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2.3.9 “When in My Arms" 2.3.9.1 Text When in my arms your slender beauty Is locked, O you whom I adore, And from my lips, between the kisses, Love’s tender words delight to pour. In silence from my tight embraces Your supple form you gently free. And with a skeptic’s smile, my dear one You mockingly reply to me; The sad tradition of betrayal You have remembered all too well; You listen dully, scarcely heeding A syllable of what I tell. I curse the zeal, the crafty ardors, I curse the criminal delight Of youth, and the appointed meetings, The garden trysts in the hushed night; I curse the whispered lovers’ discourse, The magic spells that lay in verse, The gullible young girls’ caresses. Their tears, their late regrets I curse. [1831] Summary This is a love poem in which the poet tells about his beloved. He says that when she is in his arms, her slender beauty is the most adorable thing in the world. He pours down his love in her ears and expresses through his kisses. She tries to gently free her exquisite body from his clasp and attempts to react to him in a skeptical 82

manner. She is exactly following the long tradition of women to cheat and to betray. She listens to his love talk in dull manner. The poet ascribes all this to the ardors of youth. Youth itself is the criminal stage of human life. He curses all whispers at the time of nights spent in the garden and also his own verses. He curses the young girls who keep on cheating young men all the while, throughout all ages. Glossary and Notes Slender: slim Skeptic: disbeliever Gullible: innocent Check Your Progress 1. Which is the most adorable thing in the world according to the poet? 2. How does the poet express his love to his beloved? 3. How does the beloved react to the poet? Answers to Check Your Progress 1. The slender beauty of his beloved. 2. In her ears and through his lips. 3. In a skeptical manner. Exercises 1. What does the beloved follow when she reacts in a skeptical manner? 2. To what does the poet ascribe the betrayal of the beloved? 3. To whom and to what does the poet curse?

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2.3.10 Autumn 2.3.10.1 Text (Fragment) “What does not enter then my drowsy mind . . .?” Derzhavin I October comes at last. The grove is shaking The last reluctant leaves from naked boughs. The autumn cold has breathed, the road is freezing— The brook still sounds behind the miller’s house, But the pond’s hushed; now with his pack my neighbor Makes for the distant field—his hounds will rouse The woods with barking, and his horse’s feet Will trample cruelly the winter wheat. II This is my time! What is the Spring to me? Thaw is a bore: mud running thick and stinking— Spring makes me ill: my mind is never free From dizzy dreams, my blood’s in constant ferment Give me instead Winter’s austerity, The snows under the moon—and what is gayer Than to glide lightly in a sleigh with her Whose fingers are like fire beneath the fur? III And oh, the fun, steel-shod to trace a pattern In crystal on the river’s glassy face! The shining stir of festivals in winter! But there’s a limit—nobody could face

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Six months of snow—even that cave-dweller, The bear, would growl “enough” in such a case. Sleigh-rides with young Armidas pail, by Jove, And you turn sour with loafing by the stove.

IV Oh, darling Summer, I could cherish you, If heat and dust and gnats and flies were banished. These dull the mind, the heart grows weary, too. We, like the meadows, suffer drought: thought withers. Drink is our only hope, and how we rue Old woman Winter, at whose funeral banquet Pancakes and wine were served, but now we hold Memorial feasts of ices, sweet and cold. V They say ill things of the last days of Autumn: But I, friend reader, not a one will hear; Her quiet beauty touches me as surely As does a wistful child, to no one dear. She can rejoice me more, I tell you frankly, Than all the other seasons of the year. I am a humble lover, and I could Find, singularly, much in her that’s good. VI How shall I make it clear? I find her pleasing As you perhaps may like a sickly girl, Condemned to die, and shortly, who is drooping

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Without a murmur of reproach to hurl At life, forsaking her—upon her paling Young lips a little smile is seen to curl. She does not hear the grave’s horrific yawn. Today she lives—tomorrow she is gone. VII Oh, mournful season that delights the eyes, Your farewell beauty captivates my spirit. I love the pomp of Nature’s fading dyes, The forests, garmented in gold and purple, The rush of noisy wind, and the pale skies Half-hidden by the clouds in darkling billows, And the rare sun-ray and the early frost. And threats of grizzled Winter, heard and lost. VIII Each time that Autumn comes I bloom afresh; For me, I find, the Russian cold is good; Again I go through life’s routine with relish: Sleep comes in season, and the need for food; Desire seethes—and I am young and merry. My heart beats fast with lightly leaping blood. I’m full of life—such is my organism (If you will please excuse the prosaism). IX My horse is brought; far out onto the plain He carries his glad rider, and the frozen

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Dale echoes to his shining hooves, his mane Streams in the keen wind like a banner blowing, And the bright ice creaks under him again. But day soon flickers out. At the forgotten Hearth, where the fire purrs low or leaps like wind, I read, or nourish long thoughts in my mind. X And I forget the world in the sweet silence, While I am lulled by fancy, and once more The soul oppressed with the old lyric fever Trembles, reverberates, and seeks to pour Its burden freely forth, and as though dreaming I watch the children that my visions bore, And I am host to the invisible throngs Who fill my reveries and build my songs. XI And thoughts stir bravely in my head, and rhymes Run forth to meet them on light feet, and fingers Reach for the pen, and the good quill betimes Asks for the foolscap. Wait: the verses follow. Thus a still ship sleeps on still seas. Hark: Chimes And swiftly all hands leap to man the rigging, The sails are filled, they belly in the wind— The monster moves—a foaming track behind. XII It sails, but whither is it our ship goes? . . [1833]

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Summary This is too an elegy and was posthumously published in 1841. music that comes from the alternation of stressed (masculine) and unstressed (feminine) endings. Pushkin, it will be noticed, has opposing patterns of masculine and feminine rhymes in the odd and even stanzas; this is not an accident, it helps shape the 'feel' of the poem, and it is worth preserving, in order to give some idea of how a '' elegy or epistle works. Pushkin has followed the key conventions of classical prosody (iambic lines, a rich rhyming scheme, alternation of masculine and feminine endings) in this poem. He is conversational and witty, but modulates effortlessly into a poetic exultation suggested by the Derzhavin epigraph. According to Brodsky, 'verse meters in themselves are kinds of spiritual magnitudes for which [in ] nothing can be substituted'. However in this translation we notice that the 'task of the translator' is to point to the essential qualities of the original. In this autumn poem these essential qualities concern form and structure as well as thought and vision; like Evgeny Onegin these are edifices of stanzas, with regular metres and arrangements of rhyme. Within these stanzas, all sorts of things can - and do - go on, but the stanza is there to hold them and give them power. Pushkin loved to dedicate his poetry to seasons, especially to autumn and winter. Autumn is probably his favorite time of the year, the most productive and creative period. The poem was written in 1833 during his second autumn in Boldino village- "as fruitful as the first" (268), "the period of his creative peak"- he wrote a great number of his well-known works. After reading this poem about the Boldino's autumn, I realized that it was not just portraying the beauty of the weather but Pushkin's inner life through love, freedom, patriotism and a whole Russian picture of living. The first four stanzas are describing the simile of spring, summer and winter as well as the reflection of life. The way the season goes- the way life goes. Landowners' hunt during late autumn and how "the winter wheat will suffer from this wild fun", ice skating and his memories of the winter's holidays. Finally, it comes to summer -"a summer fair! I would have loved you, too," if not heat and dust of summer "and like the fields, we suffer from the drought;"

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And only beginning from the 5th stanza we see autumn in her full description, which would always remain his dearly- beloved one: "A melancholy time! So charming to the eye!" and the whole tone of this line is very emotional, stable and convincing. Pushkin loved to talk about his love to autumn- his delight – he loved and glorified so much-"the gold scarlet raiment of the woods" and "beauty in its parting." Pushkin's autumn is an idiom of beauty and love to nature which Russian people consider to be symbol of the patriotism and that they call "Russian Soul". We like the Pushkin's manner of addressing to his listeners: "kind reader", "tell you honestly", "excuse me for this awful prosaism"- which helped to understand him better. Actually, by the courtesy of the author a reader tries to listen and appreciate his love to: "her quiet beauty", "silence sweet" You don't want to argue because his feelings are so pure. Unintentionally, you catch yourself on the thought that autumn is probably the most perfect period of the year. That's how Pushkin can write! It's even more than just his thoughts – it makes you fall into a free and easy conversation between the author and the reader. Autumn, which we usually compare to some symbol of sleep and dying, is completely different here-in the poem. The author found so many motivations and sensations while observing this season in Boldino village. He wrote: "When autumn comes, the grove is shaking last reluctant leaves from the naked boughs.” Glossary and Notes Prosody: Poetic structure Exultation: happiness Edifice: association Boldino: name of the village Reluctant: unwilling Check Your Progress 1. From where does the music come in Pushkin’s stanzas? 2. Which key conventions does Pushkin follow in writing this poem? 3. In which village does this Autumn occur which is described in this poem?

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Answers to Check Your Progress 1. From the alternation of stressed (masculine) and unstressed (feminine) endings of the stanzas. 2. Key conventions of classical prosody (iambic lines, a rich rhyming scheme, alternation of masculine and feminine endings). 3. Boldino village Exercises 1. In which stanza there is simile describing seasons? 2. From which stanza we read full description of Autumn? 3. What do we like as far as poet’s manner of addressing readers? 2.4 Thematic Concerns of Alexander Pushkin Alexander Pushkin’s first verses were written in the style of French classicism and sentimentalism. His models were and Evariste Parny, , Zhukovsky, and Batyushkov. He wrote light, voluptuous verses, occasional pieces, and epigrams. Even in his early works, of which the most important is Ruslan and Liudmila , he shows restrained eroticism, always tempered by his classical training, which led him from the very beginning into excellent craftsmanship, brevity, and simplicity. Wit, humor, and satire The lively wit, humor, and satire that were evident from the first continued to characterize Pushkin’s work. Ruslan and Liudmila is a mock-epic, and the same strain appears in chapters 1 and 2 of Eugene Onegin. Gabriel , a on the Annunciation, which caused Pushkin a great deal of embarrassment with the authorities, has many witty passages, such as Satan’s ensnarement of Adam and Eve by love. Pushkin achieves his humor by the use of parody, not hesitating to use it in dealing with the greatest authors such as Shakespeare and Voltaire, and with his friend and master Zhukovsky. Like Molière, however, he never really offends; his satire and dry irony produce a generally good-natured effect.

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Political poems Pushkin first became known in St. Petersburg as a writer of liberal verses, and this—coupled with charges of atheism—made him a constant target of the imperial censors. His famous “Vol’nost’: Oda” (“Ode to Freedom”) is severe on Napoleon and condemns the excesses of the French Revolution, yet it reminds monarchs that they must be subservient to the law. In “Derevnya” (“The Countryside”), he longs for the abolition of serfdom, yet looks to the czar for deliverance. Pushkin did not conceal his sympathy for the Decembrists, and in his famous “Vo glubine sibirskikh rud” (“Message to Siberia”), he reminds the exiled revolutionaries that “freedom will once again shine, and brothers give you back your sword.” His later poems address more general issues, and in 1831 during the Polish Uprising, he speaks out clearly in favor of the czar in “Klevetnikam Rossii” (“To the Slanderers of Russia”). Finally, The Bronze Horseman addresses the very complex theme of the individual in conflict with the state. Heroines and love poetry Pushkin knew many passions in his brief lifetime, and several women inspired both his life and poetry. Marya Raevskaya became the model for many of his heroines, from the Circassian girl in The Prisoner of the to Marya in . Amalia Riznich, destined to die in Italy, reappears in “Dlya beregov otchizny dal’noy” (“Abandoning an Alien Country”) in 1830. Elisa Vorontsova, the wife of Pushkin’s stern superior in , was a powerful influence who haunted the poet long after his return to the north. The ring she gave him is immortalized in “Khrani menya, moy talisman” (“Talisman”) and “The Burned Letter,” where the ashes recall her memory. was the inspiration for the almost mystical “Ya pomnyu chudnoye mgnoven’ye” (“I Remember a Wonderful Moment”). Natalya Goncharova, while still Pushkin’s fiancé, likewise assumes a spiritual role in “Madona” (“Madonna”). Pushkin’s love poetry, while passionate, is also delicate and sensitive, and even the most voluptuous evocations concentrate on images such as those of eyes and feet. Nature In Romantic fashion, Pushkin was one of the first to introduce nature into his works. First inspired by the trip to the south, where the beauty of the Caucasus overwhelmed him, he sees freedom in the wide expanses and steep mountains. Later,

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on a second trip—as described in “Kavkazsky” (“The Caucasus”)—he evokes the playful rivers, the low clouds and the silver-capped mountains. He feels that the sight of a monastery brings him to the neighborhood of Heaven. The north also has its charms, particularly the Russian winter. There are exquisite verses on winter in the fifth chapter of Eugene Onegin , and in his lyrics about the swirling snowstorm in “Zinniy Vecher” (“Winter Evening”) or the winter road that symbolizes his sad journey through life. Both city and country come alive in the crisp cold of winter in the prologue to The Bronze Horseman . Melancholy Despite ever-recurring wit, irony, and gentle sensitivity, Pushkin’s poetry is fundamentally melancholy and often tragic. This dichotomy corresponds to the division of his personality: dissipated yet deep. The southern poems all end tragically, his plays are all tragedies, and Eugene Onegin ends with the death of Lensky and the irremediable disappointment of Tatyana and Onegin. Pushkin frequently writes of the evil and demonic forces of nature (as in Tatyana’s dream), of madness (Eugene in The Bronze Horseman ), and of violence (in “Zhenikh,” “The Bridegroom”). A melancholy vein permeates his lyrics as well. Like the Romantics, Pushkin speaks frequently of death, perhaps foreseeing his own. The hour of parting from a loved one, a frequent subject of his lyrics, foreshadows death. As early as 1823, in “Telega zhizni” (“The Wagon of Time”), he sees the old man as the one who calmly awaits eternal sleep. Pushkin’s tragic vision is complicated by the absence of a Christian worldview with a belief in life after death. Unlike Dostoevski, Pushkin writes of unmitigated, not of redemptive, suffering. S. M. Frank, who does admit a spiritual dimension in Pushkin, compares his work to Mozart’s music, which seems gay but is in fact sad. Yet it is this very sadness which puts him in the tradition of Russian literature, anticipating ’s “laughter through tears.” Ruslan and Liudmila Pushkin’s first major work, Ruslan and Liudmila , was published in 1820. It is now usually placed in a minor category, but it was important at the time as the first expression of the Russian spirit. Witty and ironic, the poem is written in the style of a mock-epic, much in the tradition of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1516, 1521, 1532; English translation, 1591). It also echoes Voltaire, and the fourth canto Zhukovsky’s “Spyaschaya carevna” (“Twelve Sleeping Maidens”). In fact, the whole

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plot resembles Zhukovsky’s projected “Vladimir.” It consists of six cantos, a prologue added in 1828, and an epilogue. Pushkin began the poem in 1817 while still in school, and he was already in exile in the south when it was published. Glossary and Notes Eroticism: about love making Voluptuous: sexually attractive Mock-epic: Parody of epic Ensnarement: capturing Serfdom: being a serf Circassian: are a Northwest Caucasian nation native to Circassia, many of whom were displaced in the course of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus in the 19th century, especially after the Russian–Circassian War in 1864 Dichotomy: opposition Permeate: pervade Epilogue: conclusion Check Your Progress 1. In which style were the first verses of Pushkin were written? 2. In which poem does Pushkin show restrained eroticism? 3. What were the charges on Pushkin in St. Petersburg? Answers to Check Your Progress 1. in the style of French classicism and sentimentalism 2. in Ruslan and Liudmila 3. charges of atheism Exercises 1. What was the longing of Pushkin in “The Countryside”? 2. In which poem Pushkin speaks on his favour of Czar? 3. Who inspired both the life and poetry of Pushkin?

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2.5 Symbols and Images Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) is rightly considered to be the founding father of the modern . He rejected the high-blown style of classic Russian poetry, breaking down the barrier between colloquial speech and the elevated odes of the past. still use Pushkin’s language today. Pushkin had an unbelievably broad scope as a writer. He wrote classical odes, romantic poems, love and political verse, in verse, historical drama, realist prose, novellas, short stories, fairy tales, travel journals – and much more, besides. Many of his works became foundational texts in their genres. Another reason for Pushkin’s continuing popularity is the seeming simplicity of his works. He had the ability to create vivid images with just two or three words, imprinting them in the reader’s mind. There is an illusion of spontaneity to his precise use of language, yet his notes show that he meticulously crafted every line. “Storm”: buria, buri The key word buria “storm” is repeated twice in the nominative case in subject position (line 1 = line 25), and once in its genitive form buri in line 13. This is the only content word that is repeated, in and of itself (in line 13), rather than just as part of a repeated grammatical construction, and as the same lexeme (the other repetitions below involve morphological derivation, rather than simply an inflectional difference in case ending). This shows the thematic importance of this key word in the poem. “Howl”: za-voet, za-vyv-an’e The root meaning of “howl” is repeated in different parts of speech. In line 3 it is the verb zavoet “it starts to howl”, while in line 13 it is the deverbal noun (gerund) za-vyv-an’e “[ongoing] howling”. Since both the prefix and the root are repeated, these two lexemes are very closely related, referring to the same action. Iconically, the repetition reinforces the sense of ongoing howling, especially one that varies in intensity, with the effect of starting over and over again. “Friend”: drug, po-druzh-ka Another root which is repeated and diminutivized is “friend”, in line 14 and 17. In both instances, it is part of an utterance directly addressed to the nanny by the poet, and grammatically is in the nominative case with vocative function (the vocative case is no longer extant in modern Russian, except in Church Slavic). In line 14, although addressed to the old woman, the noun is

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masculine in gender, moǐ drug “my friend”. This usage of the masculine form of drug to a female addressee is quite normal, and indicates respect. In lines 17-18, the nanny is addressed as dobr-aia po-druzh-ka/ Bednoǐ iunosti moeǐ “kind friend/ Of my poor youth”, using the derived feminine noun po-druzh-ka, but with an extended description of the nature of the friendship. In this case po-druzh-ka, which derivationally is also a diminutive, can be interpreted as a term of endearment. The description of the relationship makes clear the age difference between the two personages of the poem, removing the possibility of a sexual connotation. “Round” (Etymologically): kru-tia, kruzhka A rather hidden lexical repetition of the same root is the adverbial participle kru-tia “whirling/ turning” (line 2 = 26), a form of the verb krutit’ “to turn”, and the noun kruzhka “cup/ mug/ tankard”. Etymologically, both are related to the noun krug “circle” and adjective kruglyǐ “round”, containing the root kru(g). The idea of the storm “whirling snowy winds” (line 2 = 26) is an important image in the poem, and the clandestine repetition of the same root in kruzhka reinforces this image of roundness or turning. Glossary and Notes Meticulously: accurately Lexeme: lexical item Iconic: creating a memorable form Check Your Progress 1. Who is considered as the founding father of the modern Russian language? 2. Which term is repeated twice in the nominative case in the subject position? 3. How does address nanny? Answers to Check Your Progress 1. Pushkin 2. “Storm” 3. “Friend” Exercises 1. Which is a rather hidden lexical repetition of the same root?

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2. Etymologically which two expressions are related to the noun and adjective? 3. Which is an important image and the clandestine repetition of the same root? 2.6 Books for Reference 1. Poems of Pushkin Alexander Pushkin Published by Henry Jones (1963) 2. and Other Narrative Poems Pushkin Alexander 3. Bibliography of Alexander Pushkin in English Leighton,Lauren 4. Poet and profligate: the secrets of Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin’s (1799– 1837) personality and maladies Vladimir Lerner, Eliezer Witztum 5. JOURNAL ARTICLE Review: SOME RECENT TRANSLATIONS OF PUSHKIN Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40651218

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Unit-3 French Symbolist Poetry: Stéphane Mallarmé

Contents: 3.0 Objectives 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Background of the Symbolist Movement in France 3.2.1 Origin of the Symbolist Movement 3.2.2 Features of the Symbolist Movement 3.2.3 Impact of the Symbolist Movement 3.2.4 Check Your Progress 3.3 Stéphane Mallarmé: The Poet 3.3.1 Elegies/ Tomb poems 3.3.1 a) “Funerary Toast” 3.3.1 b) “The Tomb of ” 3.3.1 c) “The Tomb of ” 3.3.1 d) “Homage” 3.3.1 e) Check Your Progress 3.3.2 The poems about poetic art 3.3.2 a) “Prose” 3.3.2 b) “Fan” 3.3.2 c) “Another Fan” 3.3.2 d) “Album Leaf” 3.3.2 e) “Remembering Belgian Friends” 3.3.2 f) “Little Ditty I” 3.3.2 g) “Little Ditty II”

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3.3.2 h) Check Your Progress 3.3.3 A Few 3.3.3 a) Sonnet (i) 3.3.3 b) Sonnet (ii) 3.3.3 c) Sonnet (iii) 3.3.3 d) Sonnet (iv) 3.3.3 e) Check your progress 3.4 Exercise 3.5 Keys to check your progress 3.6 A list for further reading

3.0 Objectives: A study of this unit will help you to understand: (a) the background and origin of the Symbolist Movement in French poetry, (b) features of the French Symbolist Movement, (c) contribution of Stéphane Mallarmé as a French symbolist poet, (d) Mallarmé’s poems and aspects of his poetry. 3.1 Introduction: The19th century is a remarkable period in the European Literature. The period witnessed emergence of several new ideas at every frontier of life. In the literary world too, it exhibited different trends and tendencies. It was a high period of Romanticism. It manifested the new thoughts shaping the realistic mode of art and also showed the naturalistic ways of presentation. It was a vibrant site that shaped the artistic sensibilities of the European world. It influenced the other Western countries as well. Hence we find several new principles of arts forming the literary world of Europe. This century shows how from the aesthetics of Romanticism there evolved the counter theories of Realism and Naturalism which paved the way for the modernist theory of literary art. In the second unit of this paper you have studied

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Russian Romanticism and the poems by Alexander Pushkin. In the next unit you will be learning the American Romanticism and the poetry of Walt Whitman. In the present unit you will study the French Symbolist poetry and the contribution of Stéphane Mallarmé as a symbolist poet. All these units exemplify the mood and tone of the 19 th century that had shaped the contemporary literary art. So before we learn French , it would be useful to consider the French literary ethos of the 19 th century. 3.2 Background to the French Symbolist Movement: The French Revolution in 1789 marked a discernible break from the existing political system of monarchy and invigorated the path of democracy through the principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The thoughts of Rousseau who advocated individual liberty were pervasive in Europe and they deeply influenced the literary genius of the day. Naturally, the impact of Rousseau’s thoughts and the French Revolution brought a remarkable change in the spirit of the age. Influenced by these doctrines, there originated the movement of Romanticism in literature, at first in Germany and then in the other European countries. We know that in England, The Lyrical Ballads published by and S. T. Coleridge in 1798 reveals the spirit of Romanticism. However, it was a product of the cultural exchange that we find in the late 18 th century. The thoughts of Rousseau influenced the German writers like , Schlegel and their works in return, influenced the temperament of the British poets. The early decades of the 19 th century France also reveal this reciprocal exchange where the spirit of Romanticism is dominantly present in the poets of the day. The works of , Nerval, Theophile Gautier, Chateaubriand exemplify the dominance of the romantic sensibility. Salons in Paris were the influencing locations that shaped the French romantic sensibility. The French poets very particularly expressed through their poems the sense of ‘break’ they had experienced and the sense of ‘loss’ they had felt due to the Revolution and the consequent social transformation. If at one level, there was an urge to reject the traditional means of form and style at another level, there was a tendency to preserve the by-gone culture. So the romantic sensibility of the French poets exhibits the melancholic mood and an attempt to synthesize the visionary and philosophical yearnings with the innovative poetic styles. Like British Romanticism, French Romanticism too exhibits Nature as a source of inspiration. Their mystic

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vision and the dominance of ‘subjective experience’ as its features are communicated through intense lyrical expressions. If the early decades of the 19 th century witnessed the spirit of Romanticism, the later decades of the 19 th century reveal an opposition to it. The period from1840s to 1870s is marked for its Realism and Naturalism, the movements that came as a reaction against the excessive emotionalism of the Romantic Movement. If the Romanticism celebrated the dream world and the world of idealism, the Realism as a movement highlighted the inevitability of the ordinary, mundane, common world. The consequences of the industrialization and the growth of materialism made man to comprehend the sordid reality of human world out of which emerged the principles of Realism. The realist artist depicted the world of man living in the rotten –corrupt society. The works of , Gustav Flaubert or Balzac present the stark realities of life. Through their works, these writers recreated the prevalent social ethos with its factual details. In another way it became the photographic presentation of life where the literary world would appear as the mirror reflection of the real life. Realism in literature emphasized the exactness of details, objective and unemotional depiction of human life and asserted a need to see the inseparable existence of beauty with the inevitable appearance of evil. Though the novelists were considered the major contributors of the realistic art, the poetic works of Charles Baudelaire in a way was accepted as a realistic, anti-romantic vision towards life. Like Realism, the movement of Naturalism further claimed to depict man’s nature through art. Naturalistic school proposed a very distinct theory about man’s relation with Nature. Man, in a Darwinian imagination was seen as an element of nature, evolved as a higher-ordered animal. It assumed that Man was governed by his natural drives and lives in his environment which is devoid of any religious or spiritual world. Seen from this perspective, the writers of the Naturalist movement tried to depict the human characters that are mere subjects to their Natural instincts. The writers of this school made a very scientific observation and also depicted in the same manner the events of man’s life. The writers like Émile Zola, Goncourt are associated with the movement of Naturalism which existed in the late decades of the 19 th century. The extremities of Realistic and Naturalistic mode of expressions were rejected by the other movements like Decadence and Parnassian. However, the profound opposition to such work of art came in the form of Symbolism.

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3.2.1 Origin of the Symbolist Movement: We know that poets have been using symbols in poetry for ages. It is a core element of great poetry. The language of poetry is basically symbolic and that is the reason why it is different from prose. In your study of poetry you must have earlier referred to several poetic devices such as metaphor, simile, imagery or symbol. You may have found differences among them. Though all of them include the form of comparison, they differ in their nature. So in the lines “O my love’s like a red, red rose/ that newly sprung in June” we find a comparison between 'rose' and 'love' which is communicated through the device of simile. In the line “She was our queen, our rose, our star; /And then she danced- O Heaven, her dancing”, we see the comparison between the words ‘queen’ and ‘rose’. But this comparison is not explicit as it is in the example of earlier lines and shows the metaphoric use of the word 'rose'. But when we turn to symbol as a poetic device, we find that there is not just a plain comparison between two objects. The poet uses the object to bring the set of associations in comparison and by that way makes a symbolic use of language. For example in the lines “Tyger tyger, burning bright,/ in the forests of the night;” has used the word ‘tyger’ as a symbol. By symbol then we mean a word, a phrase or a thing that refers to an object that signifies beyond itself. Etymologically, the word symbol comes from the Greek word, ‘symbolon’ which means an object cut into two constituting a means of recognition when the pieces are reassembled by the carriers to make a unified whole. In this sense the word symbol illustrates the inherent quality of getting referential meaning with its object. In its widened form then, the word ‘symbol’ comes very close to that of an‘image’. Image creates a picture of an object in the reader’s mind, in an immediate moment and builds a perception very unconsciously. So there is an inseparable link between the object and the perception of it in the reader’s mind. See, for example, the symbolic image in the following lines of the poem by W. B. Yeats: Cast a cold eye On life, on death Horseman, pass by! (“Under Ben Bulben”) In these lines there is an image of ‘Horseman’. It is the image of 'rider'. It recalls a journey motif of the medieval time. It symbolizes the travelling spirit of man. Thus through the use of a word ‘horseman’ the reader gets an inseparable grasping of the 101

object of an image and its referential meaning in its immediacy of the moment. Symbol has thus a quality to reveal and represent the ‘idea’ behind the ‘word’. Symbols can be conventional or private. For example, see the conventional symbol of the ‘sun’. It is a symbol of brightness of life. In the same way, ‘a sunny day’ symbolizes the bright beginning of life. The ‘Cross’ is another conventional symbol that stands for Christianity. But sometimes poets use their own ideas and refer to certain objects to symbolize these ideas. For instance, read the poem “Ode to Nightingale” by John Keats. In this poem, the poet uses the image of the bird ‘nightingale’ to symbolize the poet’s fate and state. It is a private symbol used by the poet. The object ‘nightingale’ symbolizes so many things. The plurality of its meaning gives the object its symbolic status. We may feel to ask then how do the symbolist poets differ from the other poets who did not call themselves Symbolists deliberately . The symbols used by the poets before the Symbolist Movement were many times conventional. They conveyed the fix associations. They were based on the similarities between the object and its connotations that would be commonly shared by the society. They represented the shared ideas through the words/symbols. So these symbols had the communicative value. But as explains, the symbols of the symbolist schools are usually chosen arbitrarily by the poet to stand for special ideas of his own. They are a sort of disguise for these ideas. Using symbols in this manner created the possibilities of multiple meanings. Secondly, for the symbolists, symbols were the expressions of invisible essence. They used it as a higher mode of expression. The group staunchly believed that the symbols have great power of suggestiveness and give language of poetry a deeper, meaning. Hence, before this particular Movement, symbol may have been used by different poets, a conscious mode of symbolic expression was proclaimed by the group of poets in the last decades of the 19 th century. This group of poets called it the Symbolist Movement. The Symbolist Movement was a twofold revolt that appeared in the French Literary scenario in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. First it was a direct reaction against the literary art of Realism and Naturalism that presented the form of the exterior world through language. Secondly, it was also a revolt against the Romantic sensibility that depicted the personal world extensively. Hence the Symbolist Movement in France, in a way, exhibited a germination of Modernism that

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was later adopted by the famous modernist poets of the 20th century. The Symbolist Movement was promulgated formally in 1886 when its manifesto was published in the French newspaper ‘Le Figaro’ by Jean More to differentiate it from the Decadence Movement in art. However, we can trace the beginning of this Symbolist Movement in the works of Charles Baudelaire. It is very interesting to note that if the thoughts of the French Philosopher, Rousseau, influenced the European Romanticism, the aesthetics of American writer, Edgar Allan Poe shaped the theoretical background of the French Symbolist poetry. Charles Baudelaire admired E.A. Poe and translated his works into French. This helped to popularize his aesthetics that contributed in the making of the Symbolist Movement. The group included the poets like Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Paul Valery, Stéphane Mallarmé and Arthur Rimbaud. Besides their particular emphasis on the use of symbol they shared certain other ideas of poetic art that made Symbolist Movement a peculiar phenomenon of the 19 th century. Let us discuss some of the ideas of the Symbolist Movement that will help to understand the poems of Stéphane Mallarmé. 3.2.2 Features of the Symbolist Movement : i) Influence of Edger Allan Poe: French Symbolist Movement was a culmination of many of the ideas expressed by Edgar Allan Poe. Though Poe began as a Romanticist, his aesthetics further developed in the direction of Symbolism. Poe rejected the extravagance and looseness of Romanticism. He expected the art of poetry to go in its purest form. He stated that the poem need not perform any function but should try to achieve the path of its own beauty. His constant efforts to achieve the pure form of poetry have largely influenced the poetics of the Symbolists in France. ii) Emphasis on the doctrine of 'Correspondences': While reviving the ancient myths and symbols, the symbolist poets revisited the ancient belief that “there exist inherent and systematic analogies between the human mind and the outer world and also between the natural and the spiritual world”. Nerval, one of the exponents of Symbolism thought that “all things correspond”. On the basis of this doctrine, the symbolist poets believed in the interconnection of the discrete, overtly fragmented things. They felt that the physical world where we get various objects; particularly the objects of nature have capacity to evoke the interior world. By that way there is a link, a correspondence between the outer world of objects and the

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inner, spiritual world. Though the colours of picture, sounds of music and words of literature are different objects of outer art forms, internally they are all linked to reveal the ‘oneness’, the unity of them. This theme of ‘correspondence’ was explicitly communicated in one of Baudelaire’s poems called “Correspondences”. It further influenced many symbolist poets such as, Mallarmé, Rimbaud and Valery. So we find several day-today objects like window, door, rainbow, fan or flower used by these poets as the poetic symbols. iii) Suggestive and Evocative nature of poetry: The Symbolists believed that words in poetry do not simply convey the conventional meaning of them but evoke the impressions in readers’ mind. Words are actually suggestive and language of poetry exploits this power of suggestiveness in recreating the poetic experience. The function of poetry is not to instruct or communicate but to reveal. Language of revelation is basically suggestive. It is a search of reality that gets perceived not through reason but transcending the reason. In this connection they rejected the descriptive form of expression and used the symbolic language that would evoke the infinite world with the finite visible objects. They believed that the symbols have potential to transcend the day-today world and help us reach to the soul of that reality which is indiscernible in day-today life. So the symbolist poetry was assumed to be spiritual in nature. iv) Rejection of the scientific and rationalistic attitude towards the world: We have discussed earlier that the 19 th century world was remarkable for its new ideas at the different frontier of the society. The period manifested ‘the idea of progress’ due to the several scientific inventions and industrial developments. The era also marked the dominance of ‘the idea of reason’. It was assumed that the light of reason will definitely help to resolve several mysteries related to mankind. The Symbolists rejected this view as they assumed that the reality lies beyond the domain of rationality. Scientific attitude also emphasized the physical world and rationalistic understanding of the world. Therefore, we find the rejection of this rationalistic attitude by the Symbolists. v) Obscurity of meaning: The poems of the symbolist poets are consciously obscure. It is a kind of challenge to the rationalistic understanding of the words and their meaning. The poems become highly difficult to understand as there are impasses in the poems that are difficult to cross. We know that the suggestive language and arbitrary personal symbols challenge the conventional interpretation of 104

poetry. The difficulty of the poem also arises due to the linguistic structure that poets employ while writing such poems. vi) Aim to achieve the status of music for poetry: The symbolist poetry was influenced by the music quality of (German composer, 1813–1883). The innovative orchestration of Wagner intensely appealed the listeners. For Mallarmé, it was a dream to become a ‘Wagner’ of Poetry. He believed that, the most complete work of the poet should be that which becomes a perfect music. For him, poetry was ‘a visible music’. Poetic structures of the Symbolists, hence, tried to achieve the symphonic effect through their poems. The pure art of music, through the arrangement of sounds, evokes the hearts of its listener and does not propose to inform or instruct anything. In the same manner, the Symbolists aspired to bring this quality of music in poetry. The symbolist poetry aimed to appeal to the senses rather than to the sight of the mere visual objects. In a way, it was a dream of the symbolist poets to achieve the pure form of poetry and make poetry equivalent to music. vii) Revolt against the traditional French Metrics: The Symbolist Movement revolted against the traditional French metrics. Instead of using the clear, logical structure of lines which was the typical poetic structure of classical French poetry, the symbolist poets began to use free verse in poetry. They called it “vers libre”. For them a poem was to be unfolded and to be revealed and was not informative. In search of musicality their poems became rhythmic patterns. viii) Emphasis on the world of Imagination: For the Symbolists the world of imagination played very important role in poetry. The associative power of imagination was important for them. Imagination was a possible tool to explore the inner realities of life. Hence, many times, we find too much subjective voice, use of dreams, different overtly discreet ideas forming the material of the symbolist poetry. For the Symbolists, physical world was monotonous and tiresome world; it was a world full of hideous realities. Even Nature that was the part of this physical world was not the place of real beauty. Many of the symbolist poets show the rejection of this physical world. For them, the world of imagination was the real world. It shows their sense of withdrawal from the real world and acceptance of poetry as the site of refuge. ix) Mystic Vision of the Symbolist Poets: The symbolist poetry exhibits the mystic vision. They assumed that the pure form of poetry is mystic and the poet has

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to explore it. Hence in their poetry we find the images that create the mystic world. Consequently their poems became obscure. The difficulty of symbolist poets is a difficulty caused due to the attempt to explore this pure form of the poetry through the inner reality. The indefiniteness of language was a major concern of these poets. So their poems are difficult. They did not mean to ‘communicate’ through the poems to the other world. It was a monologue of the poet. x) The use of Irony in the Symbolist Poetry: The poetic vision of the Symbolists is primarily ironic. As the physical world was full of vices and boredom for them, they had a sense of criticism for this world. Hence in their poems we find ironic expressions that sometimes turn to bitterness. The poems of Baudelaire or Mallarmé exemplify this ironic tone. At one level, we find that the symbolist poetry manifests the extreme end of Romanticism. And sometimes it is also observed that it is an outgrowth of Romanticism. But there are the fundamental differences between these two schools of poetry. Though, both the Symbolism and the Romanticism valued subjectivity, imagination and the spiritual world of the inner self, the Symbolists, like the romanticists did not assert their individuality. Rather the symbolic poetry was an extinction of the personal world. The Symbolists saw world of which nature was also a part, full of sin and detached from this world completely in favour of imagination and pure state of art. For example, we know that ‘flower’ is a romantic image. It stands for the beauty, beauty of nature, simplicity and naturalness. But Baudelaire collocated this image with ‘evil’. The title of his poetry collection is “The Flowers of Evil” (in French “Les Fleurs du mal”). The word ‘Mal’ in French means decease – moral or physical, or sin. It also expresses a meaning of disappointment. The collocation of this word with the romantic image of flower elaborates the difference of aesthetics through which the world of nature was seen by these two schools. 3.2.3 Impact of the Symbolist Movement: The Symbolist Movement is a beginning of the French Modernism that shaped the modernist sensibility of the European literature. It paved way for several new forms of poetic experimentation. The movements like Dadaism, Surrealism or Concrete poetry were developed from the aesthetics of the Symbolist Movement. The sense of disillusionment and degeneration that was reflected in the symbolist poetry became a predominant theme of the 20 th century poetry. We find great

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influence of the symbolist techniques in the works of T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, and Ezra Pound the significant poets of Modernism. The organization of bizarre images, use of free verse and the suggestive, indirect mode of communication in their poetry are the outcomes of the symbolist influence. In the following part of the unit we will now study the select poems of Stéphane Mallarmé who stands as a representative of the Symbolist Movement of poetry in France. 3.2.4 Check your progress. A) Answer the following questions in one word/phrase/sentence each. 1) In which year the manifesto of Symbolist Movement was published? 2) Which American writer influenced the aesthetics of Symbolist Movement? 3) Which political event invigorated the path of democracy? 4) Name the 20 th century movements developed due to the influence of Symbolist Movement? 5) Which movements in later 19 th century came as a reaction against Romanticism? 6) How did Darwin’s theory project man? B) Fill in the blanks by choosing correct alternative. 1) The Flowers of Evil was written by……….. a) Stéphane Mallarmé b) Paul Valéry c) Charles Baudelaire d) T. S. Eliot. 2) The Symbolists’ doctrine of Correspondence was based on……. a) French classical theory b) Darwin’s theory c) German Aesthetics d) ancient beliefs of Greeks 3) The Manifesto of Symbolist Movement was published by……. a) Stéphane Mallarmé b) Paul Verlaine c) Arthur Rimbaud d) Jean Moreas 4) The poem “The Raven” was translated into French by …… a) Stéphane Mallarmé b) Charles Baudelaire 107

c) E. A. Poe d) Theophile Gautier 5) The Movement of ………. is well represented by Emile Zola. a) Symbolism b) Naturalism c) Realism d) Decadence C) Write short notes on the following: 1) Movement of Naturalism in France 2) Movement of Realism in France 3) Origin of French Symbolist Movement 4) Impact of Symbolist Movement D) Broad answer type questions: 1) Write a critical note on the features of Symbolist Movement. 2) Discuss the socio-literary ethos of the 19 th century that helped to emerge the Symbolist Movement. 3.3. Stéphane Mallarmé: The Poet Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898) is one of the best representatives of the Symbolist Movement. He was the most influencing figure of this group. Every Tuesday several artists and poets used to visit his home where Mallarmé would express his ideas about poetic art. His aesthetics shaped the sensibility of many young poets. Among them was Paul Valéry, who later became another great symbolist poet. By profession Mallarmé was a teacher. Bur he was not happy with his teaching career. He rather devoted his life for the poetry and the poetics. His personal life was full of sorrows. When he was five years old, he lost his mother; fifteen months later his father remarried. His younger sister died when he was fifteen years old. His father too died soon.When he was 37 years old, he lost his son. All these personal losses and the bitter experiences of the world due to financial crunch left a deep impact on Mallarmé’s poetic aesthetics. Thus for him the poetry became a shelter from the harsh realities of life. He wrote relatively small collection of poetry. But they are the excellent work of art. He contributed the very aesthetics of symbolism, and his poems are attempts of attaining this aesthetics. His aesthetics later influenced the movement of Concrete Poetry that flourished in the 1960s. His poem “A Throw of Dice…” written in 1897 is the best example of a Concrete Poem.

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Mallarmés poetry can be roughly divided into poetry published till 1860s and poetry published after 1860s. His remarkable poetry is seen mainly in the later phase.His famous works include his translation of Edgar Allan Poe into French entitled The Raven . The Afternoon of the Faun (1876), Herodias (1876) are his dramatic poems. Divagations (1897) is a collection of his and articles. “The Sky” (1864), “See Breeze” (1865), “Funeral Toast” (1873), “The Tomb of Edgar Allan Poe” (1876), “Prose” (1885), “To Vasco da Gama” (1898), etc. are some of his significant poems. Poetics of Mallarmé had been shaped by the works and ideas of Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire and Richard Wagner. He was also influenced by the French painter Edouard Manet. His interest in fine arts made him rethink the role of language and poetry. We know that the period of 1860s is a period of crisis. It shows the loss in religious faith. The theories of Darwin and its consequences compelled man to doubt his very existence. In such turmoil, poetry for Mallarmé became a means to analyse the nature of the ideal world and its relation with the reality. Throughout his life Mallarmé was obsessed with the ideal world that lies beyond the physical reality. He believed that beyond the real world there lies nothing, but an empty world. And the ideal world lies in the void. His poetry is then an exploration of this world. Naturally Mallarmé believed that poet’s role was to perceive the essence of the reality through his art. He considered the poet as a ‘veritable God’ creating something from nothing and conjuring for his readers “the ideal flower that is absent from all the real bouquets.” Consequently, he avoided the overt descriptions in favour of suggestion, allusion and ambiguity. His thoughts over language and its role in poetry made him experiment with the language. He exploited the oral-aural qualities of the sounds of the words. So his poems create many possibilities of meaning. He handled the language in a very subtle and minute manner. He played with the phonetic ambiguities of the language and manifested the possibilities of the multiplicities of meaning. That is the reason the poems of Mallarmé are very difficult to translate. Being densely difficult his poems defy an easy communication. Hence he is considered one of the most obscure French poets. With this introduction, let’s switch over to Mallarmé’s poems which are prescribed for your syllabus. For the sake of convenience, we will categorize his poems into three groups: 1) Elegies/Tomb Poems 2) poems about poetic art and 3) A few sonnets

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3.3.1 Elegies You must have read that elegy is a form of poem that mourns the death of a particular person. You may have even read and studied some of the famous elegies such as “In Memoriam” by Lord Tennyson or “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray. In such poems, there is a lament over the mortality of human beings and the loss it causes. However, poets do not use this form simply to lament the death. Such poems reflect the meditative tone where poets hail the transcendental value of the poetic art that gets victory over the fate of mortality. Elegies particularly written on the death of the other poets exemplify writer’s celebration of the dead poet’s poetic art that helps to achieve the status of immortality. So these poems mourn the physical death of a poet as human being but celebrate his immortality confirmed through his poetic art. The elegies written by Mallarmé celebrate the poetic triumph of the dead poets. He aspires to build the poetic tomb of the dead poet through his poems that would help to sustain the fame of the poet in contrast to the actual tomb that may decay in the course of time. These poems reveal Mallarmé’s faith on the transcendental value of poetic art over the ephemeral world of physical reality. In the prescribed poems of Mallarmé you may find such poems. Let us discuss them in detail. 3.3.1 a) “Funerary Toast” You fatal emblem of our happiness! A toast of lunacy, a wan libation, not to the passage’s magic aspiration I raise my void cup bearing a gold monster in distress! Your apparition is not enough for me: 5 I myself set you in the porphyry. The rite requires that hands should quench the torch against the strong iron gates at the tomb’s porch: chosen for our feast simply to declare the poet’s absence, we must be aware 10 that this fair monument holds all of him.

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Unless the bright fame of what he has done, until the ashes’ hour so common and so grim, through glass lit by a dusk proud to fall there returns toward the fires of the pure mortal sun! 15 Sublime, total and solitary, then he fears to breathe out the false pride of men. ‘We are’, declare these haggard teeming hosts, ‘the sad opaque forms of our future ghosts.’ But with blazons of woe strewn across each vain wall 20 I scorn the lucid horror of a tear, when, proud, mute, blind, the guest of his vague graveyard shawl, one of those passers-by, failing to stir or hear even my sacred verse, goes through a transformation into the virgin hero of posthumous expectation. 25 That dream the void, a massive chasm hurled by the fierce wind of words he did not say into the mist, howls at this Man dead long ago: ‘Recalled horizons, speak, what is the World?’ and space, a voice whose clarity fades away, 30 toys with this cry: ‘I do not know!’ The Master’s keen eye, as he went, brought ease to Eden’s restless wonder, whose last throes in his unique voice wake the mysteries of a name for the Lily and the Rose. 35 Is none of this destiny enduring? none? Forget so dark a credo, everyone.

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Radiant eternal genius leaves no shade. Mindful of your desires, I wish to see in our task, the ideal that our star’s parks have laid 40 upon us, for this man who vanished recently, a solemn stir of words stay alive in the air in honour of the calm catastrophe–– a huge clear bloom, a purple ecstasy, which his diaphanous gaze remaining there, 45 rain and diamond, on these flowers that never fade away, isolates in the hour and radiance of day! Already within these true groves we stay, where the true poet’s broad and humble gesture must keep them from dreams, those enemies of his trust: 50 so when he rests in pride at break of day, when ancient death is as for Gautier not to speak nor to open his consecrated eyes, an ornamental tribute of the path may rise, the solid tomb bedding all forms of blight, 55 and grudging silence and the massive night.

Glossary: libation: a serving of wine poured in honour of a deity haggard: tired and worn out of overwork diaphanous: transparent; see–through blight: withering; diseased

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You might have read the poem carefully. What do you think the title of the poem suggests? Whose death is mentioned in the poem? How is the memory of the dead evoked? Is there any rhythmic pattern in the poem? Let’s try to find answers to these questions so that we can understand the poem. As the title suggests, it is a ‘toast’ i. e. a short speech in an honour of a person followed by ritual of taking drink. It is a gathering of people where they raise their glasses in cheerful memory of the dead person. The words ‘Funerary’ and ‘toast’ suggest that it is a poem written to pay tribute to the dead one. Naturally, we expect to read the words of lament and loss, said in the memory of the dead one. “Funerary Toast” is in this sense, an elegy written in the memory of the great 19th century French poet Theophile Gautier. Stéphane Mallarmé pays tribute to this poet who had died in 1872. The poem was written in 1873, when one of Mallarmé’s friends Catule Mendes, decided to publish a volume of tributary poems in the memory of Gautier. Form of the Poem : Study the visual form of the poem. This is a longer poem and is divided into four parts. Each part is a musical unit as we find in the symphony. Here the poem follows the rhythmic pattern. The first line is addressed to Gauthier. It is separated from other four parts of the poem. The first part looks like a sonnet with fourteen lines. They are divided into irregular units of lines. The next two movements consist of 16 lines whereas the last unit has nine lines. Notice the several punctuation marks used in the poem. They include exclamation marks, colons and question marks. There are many commas in the poem. The very first line of the poem is in an exclamatory expression. Find out all such exclamatory sentences in the poem. Apparently they create a pleasant, cheering mood of the speaker. Almost every stanza takes one exclamatory expression. Like the exclamation mark the poem uses colons. They create the pauses in the rhythmic structure of the poem. Besides these punctuation marks the poet also uses the question marks in the poem. Underneath this exclamatory expression there is very essential question. It is an interrogation to the apparently understood meaning of the world. The poet seems to pose this question through the poem. Find out other such punctuation marks and their impact in the ‘making’ of a poem. Imagery and symbols in the poem : In the beginning of the poem Theophile Gautier is recalled as an emblem, a symbol of mankind’s happiness. In the first five lines of the poem the speaker of the poem, talks to the poet, who is dead. In these addressing words, the speaker declares that he doesn’t believe in the religious beliefs 113

where people assume that there is ‘a passage’, a possibility of meeting the dead and the living beings. Such magic that gives the idea of resurrection is seen by the speaker as an act of lunacy. Rather, he believes in the ‘physical death’ of a person. In the remaining lines of the first Stanza, he refers to the poet’s tomb, his ‘monument’ and declares that, “we must be aware/ that this fair monument holds all of him”. Both the words ‘tomb’ and ‘monument’ are the symbols of physical death. They refer to man’s inevitable status of being mortal. Through these lines the speaker communicates to the audience who have gathered to pay tribute to the poet. They have gathered to express the ‘poet’s absence’. It is also emphasized in the early lines where speaker refers to his ‘void cup’. This is a physical absence; the ‘void’ or the vacuum created by the death of a person. But the speaker does not mourn this death. Because for him, the work of the poet is present in the form of ‘bright fame’. Until this fame reunites with the burning flame of sun, the existence of the ‘poetic art’ and hence that of the poet will always be perceived by the people. The images of ‘the quenching torch’, or ‘dusk’ and ‘pure, mortal sun’ symbolize the dissolution of the physical, concrete identity against which stands the image of the ‘bright’ fame of the poet’s art. The lines reveal the poet’s endeavour to quench, to capture the essence of living against the inevitable presence of mortality. If the movement I of the poem manifests the acceptance of mortality of human being realized through the construction of a tomb, the second and the third part of the poem celebrates the poetic art and its potential to change the common, concrete ephemeral world of mortality into the form of eternity. In the beginning of the second movement, the poet differentiates the common ordinary men and the poetic creed. He calls these ordinary people, as ‘the haggard teeming hosts’. For them the life is nothing else but the ‘opaque form of the body’ that transfers after death into the shadow form of ghost. The death is seen by these people as an agent transforming the existence of the concrete human entity into the form of apparition. They don’t have the power to ‘see’ the world. The life is simply a status of sadness for them. Hence the speaker who is also a poet differentiates himself and the dead poet from these people. By these two images the speaker manifests two different approaches towards death. One is that of the common people who mourn the physical death and exhibit their sorrow with the ‘blazons’ on the wall and another of the speaker ‘who scorns the horror of the tear’. For him the human beings are the passersby on the earth. The dead poet among these teeming hosts seems to be a guest and lies in the

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tomb unaffected. Now the world for him transforms into the dream of nothingness. The speaker points out Gautier’s art of poetry that recreated the world in fierce wind of words, without mist. His clear voice is represented against the voice whose clarity fades away’ after death. The words re-sound the haunting question, “what is the world” and gets with feeble voice, an answer, “I do not know”. The speaker in the third movement of the poem communicates Gautier’s qualities of art where he is compared to the ‘Master of the Eden garden’. The poet is presented as ‘Master’ with ‘keen eye’. He is a ‘seer’. He has a unique voice that is capable to awake the objects of the original world. The image of ‘Eden’ symbolizes man’s first home, where God had created everything for Man. It is a wonderful land full of new things waiting for their concrete identities. As God in this original world of paradise named the thing, the poetic art of Gautier tried to recreate the world of objects by naming them. We know that to name the things is to give them the linguistic identity. It is a recreation that never fades away. In other words it is a glimpse of that ideal world that lies beyond the physical world. Only a visionary can see it. Gautier’s art has the capacity to glimpse that ‘ideal flower’ for which a true poet searches. So Mallarme praises Gautier as another God. He glorifies him as a ‘star’. He praises the poet’s ‘Radiant eternal genius’ and seeks to get such form of art in his work. In a way it is a prayer to achieve the greatness of art in his poetry. This quality of art stands in contrast to the poet’s concrete tomb where the dead poet lays ‘not to speak nor to open his consecrated eyes’. The world of silence and darkness implied through the images of ‘grudging silence’ and the ‘massive night’ emphasizes the sense of mortality against which the poetic art like the radiant eternity stays. It is perhaps the answer to the nagging question the speaker asks, ‘Is none of this destiny enduring? none?’ The close reading of the poem reveals that when Mallarme brings out the poetic genius of Gautier he also glorifies the poetic art. A contrast between the concrete tomb and the poetic tomb he constructs through this poem is presented through the lines: an ornamental tribute of the path may rise, the solid tomb bedding all forms of blight, and grudging silence and the massive night.

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Thus, the poem pays homage to both the poet and the poetic art and by that way emphasizes the need of art in human world. 3.3.1 b)“The Tomb of Charles Baudelaire” The buried shrine disgorges through its foul sepulchral sewer-mouth slobbering sod and ruby vilely some Anubis-god its muzzle blazing like a savage howl or when new gas wrings the wicks that erase 5 shiftily insults suffered (as we know) it lights eternal loins with a wild glow whose flight beds out according to its rays What foliage dried in any nightless town could consecrate as she can do and sit 10 against the marble of Baudelaire in vain, departed from the veils that form her gown with shimmers––she, his Shade, a guardian bane to breathe forever though we die of it

Glossary: to disgorge: to eject the contents of stomach through mouth sepulcher: a chamber that is used as a grave muzzle: forward projecting part of the head of certain animals; includes the jaws and nose slobbering: dribble consecrate: dedicate to a deity by a vow

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You might have read the poem carefully. What did you notice about the lines? Can you identify a form of the poem? Do you find any division of thought in the poem? Did you notice that there are no punctuation marks in the poem? Form of the Poem : The poem as you may have found is another elegy written in a Petrarchan sonnet form. It falls into two main parts: an octave(eight lines) followed by sestet(six lines). Generally lines in the octave rhyme as abbaabba and that of the sestet with cdecde . The octave forms one thought and the sestet adds another thought. In this poem we find that the octave illustrates the poetic qualities of Baudelaire and the sestet presents the possible form of dedication or tribute to him. But Mallarme divides eight lines of the octave into two quatrains (Quatrain is a stanza of four lines) as in Shakespearean form and sestet into two tercets (it is a stanza of three lines). By that way he makes the experimentation with the Petrarchan sonnet form and tries to introduce new rhythm to the sonnet form. The poem is a tribute to Charles Baudelaire’s poetic art. In the early part of this unit you have read about Baudelaire. He is regarded as the pioneer of French Modernism. His poetry collection, The Flowers of Evil brought a significant break from the romantic sensibility. Through these poems he presented the dark and ugly side of human life and exhibited the modern world. The romantic idea of beauty was challenged in his poetry and he revealed the beauty, corruption and immorality as the common signs of modern world. His poetic vision exemplifies his blazing eye with which he revealed the dirt and sordidness of the modern world. For his vision, Eliot calls him a ‘hermit of Brothel’. Imagery and Symbols : Such poetic art is inter textually woven in the making of “The Tomb of Charles Baudelaire”. Literally speaking the poem appears in the form of ‘poetic tomb’ on which are engraved the poetic qualities of Baudelaire paying him an eternal tribute. See the images present in the opening lines of the sonnet. They all create the disgusting, ugly sense in the mind. It is a buried shrine of Charles Baudelaire, that ejects through its mouth ‘slobbering sod’ and ‘ruby’. Look at the images of ‘sod’ and ‘ruby’. Their collocation communicates the coexistence of the ugly and the beautiful, the trivial and the precious. See again the image of ‘Anubis–god’, whose muzzle blazes like a savage howl. Anubis–god refers to the Egyptian god of Tombs who is the ruler of the underworld. Comparing Baudelaire with Anubis, Mallarme highlights Baudelaire’s poetic world that depicts the harsh and nauseating reality of the modern world. His voice through his work remains 117

there like a ‘savage howl’ reminding the masked, civilized society of its underneath reality. Though banned and restrained in the society his poetry would safeguard itself as a ‘muzzle that blazes like a savage howl.’ See how images of the voice and sight are woven together to render the poetic art of Baudelaire. The modern sensibility of Baudelaire is depicted through the image of ‘gaslamp’. We know that the sun and the moon are conventional images of sources of light. In contrast to it Mallarmé uses the modern object as a symbol of light. ‘Moonlight’ is the romantic image that glorifies the night. It is many times used as a beautifying agent in the romantic love poetry. But Mallarme states that in the light of gaslamp the sufferings and insults of women(basically, prostitutes) are exposed. Its light does not romanticize love but reveal the disgusting nature of desire of which they are victim. Like the gaslight Baudelaire too exposes the unromantic, evil side of desire through his poems. The image of the ‘gas lamp’ that lights ‘eternal loins with a wild glow’ thus symbolizes the nature of Baudelaire’s poetry. In a very skilful manner Mallarme makes the use of diction such as ‘wicks’ and ‘wrings’ that echoes Baudelaire’s poems. The quatrain resounds Baudelaire’s theme that how, the world of beauty can be corrupted and defamed in an unworthy manner. The poem indirectly refers to an image of prostitute whose world Baudelaire depicted through his poetry. The pronoun ‘she’ with the earlier image of ‘loins’ and ‘flights’ collectively create a picture of suffering beauty that sits against the marble (tomb) of Baudelaire to offer herself to the tomb of Baudelaire. She is depicted as a figure that is departed from the flickering veil of gaslight. She, who has turned to ‘dried foliage’ in a nightless town of Paris offers her consecration. Though exposed to the worldly torture offering herself to Baudelaire she at once becomes a shade and a guardian bane; a server and a destroyer. Her existence against the tomb has made the tomb the everlasting existence. In its suggestive metaphor the ‘dried foliage’ also means this very poem, written on a paper that wishes to consecrate to the art of Baudelaire. The lines, “what foliage dried in any nightless town/ could consecrate as she can do and sit/ against the marble of Baudelaire in vain” also imply that the poetic tomb can be taken as an act of consecration and can become a shade, a guardian bane that would live eternally though we, (the readers) die. Thus the poem itself becomes a kind of ‘buried shrine’ that contains Baudelaire’s poetic remains and disgorges through its sepulchral mouth

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the ruby of Baudelaire’s art. The inter-textual quality of the poem has made it one of the finest examples of Mallarme’s art. 3.3.1 c) “The Tomb of Edgar Allan Poe” Changed to Himself at last by eternity, with a bare sword the Poet has bestirred his age terrified that it failed to see how death was glorying in that strange word.

The spell was drunk, so they proclaimed aloud 5 (as vile freaks writhe when seraphim bestow purer sense on the phrases of the crowd), in some black brew’s dishonourable flow.

If our idea can carve no bas-relief from hostile clod and cloud, O struggling grief, 10 for the adornment of Poe’s dazzling tomb,

at least this block dropped by an occult doom, this calm granite, may limit all the glum Blasphemy-flights dispersed in days to come.

Glossary: bestirred: rose; to make someone active freak: addict; monster like; abnormal to writhe: to move in a twisting motion, especially when struggling blasphemy: profanities; impious manner

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Read the poem carefully. What is the form of the poem? Whom the pronoun ‘they’ refers to? Can you tell who are called ‘vile freaks’ in the poem? What does the phrase ‘hostile clod and cloud’ suggest? Form of the Poem : As the title suggests the poem is written as a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe. When a volume to commemorate Poe was to be published, Mallarmé contributed it by writing this poem in 1876. The poem, as you may have noticed is in the sonnet form. Its 14 lines are divided into octave and sestet. Like “Funerary Toast” or “The Tomb of Charles Baudelaire”, the poem is a ‘poetic tomb’ for the art of Poe. We know that Poe was a great influencing figure for French symbolists. Mallarmé admired him for his art that revealed the demoniac reality of life. So in the poem he depicts the picture of Poe as a poet warrior. Also notice the use of capital letter for the word ‘himself’ in the opening line of the poem, ‘Changed to Himself at last by eternity’. The death of the poet has transformed him into eternity. Death comes here as a purgatory agent that purifies the poetic self from the physical identity. The image of Poe with ‘sword’ and use of capital letter ‘H’ to refer to him create association with god like(particularly, Prophet like) figure. It reminds us of Mallarme’s belief that poet is in a way god–like figure. In this poem too we find the contrast between the poetic persona and the society. The pronoun ‘They’ is used to differentiate the poet from the people of his age. Imagery & Symbols : In the lines, ‘with bare sword the poet has bestirred/ his age terrified…’ the image of the poet with ‘bare sword’ communicates the rebellious nature of the poet who aimed to stir the world, the society. The ideas that poet communicated were failed to be accepted by the people and they dishonoured him in his lifetime. The society is described by Mallarme as ‘vile freaks’. Against their freak, vile nature is depicted the image of the 'poet' that stands like a 'seraphim'. ‘Seraphim’ is an image of an angle. It is represented as a winged head of a child. It denotes the innocence and the purer nature of the senses. Poe is presented as a kind of ‘Seraphim that ‘bestow(s) the purer sense’ on the crowd. But the world has remained hostile to the poet. It has called his poetry a ‘drunk spell’ and reveals indignation about his art. So Mallarmé wishes to adore Poe through this poetic tomb. In contrast to the calm granite tomb, that epitomizes the death of the poet, Mallarmé talks of this block ‘dropped by an occult doom’ which would limit the dishonouring of the Poe in the future time and bring him the fame.

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Reputation of Poe as an artist had been overshadowed due to his personal life. People’s charges against his personal life had affected the value of his art. Hence, Mallarmé as an artist desired to reveal Poe’s real esteem as an artist. Magnificent tomb of Poe was not possible as both the heavenly (expressed through the image of ‘cloud’) and the earthly (referred to as clod) agents were against Poe. The tragedy of Poe’s life is ‘a struggling grief’ for the poet. Removal of it is possible only through his praise in future. Edgar Allan Poe’s tomb was built in Baltimore. But it was a very neglected site. It was simply built with the sandstone bearing no name of the poet but an inexplicable no.80. And while proper marble stone tomb was under construction the original one was broken in a catastrophic railway accident. The block was cut from this doom. This context may have been referred by Mallarme in the poem that uses the phrase ‘occult doom’. Against these ill-natured treatment stands the calm granite, this block, of poetic tomb that Mallarme thinks would limit all the charges made against the poet and people would revere the poet’s genius in the coming days . The poem reveals a common truth about the great poets who are generally denigrated in their life time. Being visionary they are ahead of their time and the change they present through their works is normally dishonored by their contemporaries. However, their works have potential to sustain and though posthumously, people judge the value of their poetry. 3.3.1 d) “Homage” Already mourning, the silence of a pall casts more than one fold on the furnishing which the central pillar’s collapse must bring suddenly down with no memorial.

The old gay triumphs of our magic scrawl, 5 hieroglyphs by the thousand scurrying to spread familiar flutters with their wing! bury them in a cupboard after all.

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From the original smiling noisy crowd hated among the master lights has gushed 10 to a shrine born for their representation,

gold trumpets on the vellum swooning loud, Wagner the god lighting a consecration which the ink’s Sibylline tears have scarcely hushed. Glossary: pall: burial garment hieroglyphs: a writing system using picture symbols vellum: fine parchment prepared from the skin of young animal

Read the poem aloud. Do you get any syntactic order of lines clearly? What do you think about the form of the poem? Can you identify to whom the poem offers homage? What is the tone of the poem? Form of the Poem : The poem is a tribute to the German music composer Richard Wagner. Wagner died in 1883, and Mallarmé wrote this poem in 1886. After reading the poem you might have found that the syntactical order of the poem creates certain amount of ambiguity. Though the poem uses the commas and the other punctuation marks, the poem brings the cyclical movement to the words that obscures the linear reading of the poem. It is a typical Mallarméan way of forming syntax to the poem. His arrangement of the words leads to several possibilities of meaning. They hint at the instability of the language about which Mallarmé explored throughout his poetic career. You may have noticed that like other tributes this poem is also written in a sonnet form. The octave of the poem describes the burial of the old hieroglyphs whereas the sestet of it pronounces the greatness of Wagner. Here we may find that when Mallarmé expresses his reverence for Wagner’s art of music, he also feels sulky to declare the death of old form of poetic art. So the tone of the poem is that of contemplation than simply of devotion. 122

Imagery and Symbols : Look at the image of ‘magic scrawl’, ‘hieroglyph’ ‘fluttering wings’. These images communicate the art of poetry. ‘Magic scrawl’ is one of the favourite images of Mallarmé. It is described as the old triumphs. The art of hieroglyphs is very ancient one. Writing poetry is also an ancient art. But this ancient art has worn now due to its overuse. Read the lines ‘hieroglyphs by the thousand scurrying/to spread familiar flutters with their wing!’ They talk of the unimaginative, common way of writing poetry. The art of poetry over the years has lost its magic. Note the use of ‘thousand scurrying’. It denotes the indelicate and unskilled way of writing poetry. The word ‘thousand’ may refer to large number of poets writing poetry over the years. Once seen as ‘gay triumph’ the art of poetry has now reached to the status of ‘burial in a cupboard’. The cupboard is a piece of old furniture, carrying the old things in it. The poetry due to its worn out state has become a thing to be stored in a cupboard. The image of ‘wing’ symbolizes the flight of imagination. It’s strength of a poet. However these wings do not fly but spread ‘familiar’ flutters. The word ‘familiar’ exemplifies the known and frequent use of something. It denotes the lack of newness and inventiveness. Art of poetry over the years has been using the same linguistic expressions to make it dying lifeless act. Mark the opening expression of the poem. The state of poetry is “already mourning”. It holds nothing original at its centre and hence its pillar collapses on which falls a cloth of burial announcing its death with no memorial. This status of poetry is contrasted with the dazzling art of Wagner. See the contrast between the sounds and words of the octave and those of the sestet. The octave creates the image of fall, of death whereas the sestet communicates the images of rise, and life. The image of Wagner is presented as a new, original, god of music. Here too we come across the dichotomy of the crowd and artist; a famous duel present in Mallarme’s poetry. Against the noisy ‘crowd’ stands the original smiling image of Richard Wagner. The magnificent appearance of Wagner is depicted through the lines “original smiling…vellum swooning loud”. ‘The noisy crowed’ and ‘the hating master lights’ are the images communicating the common people and the musicians before Wagner respectively. Their noise is contrasted with the ‘vellum swooning sound’ and ‘the sound of gold trumpet’. Both the vellum and the trumpet are the musical instruments manifesting the loud rhythmic and sensational quality of music. Richard Wagner’s orchestral ability made him innovative and original musician against the earlier artists. His contribution to music

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is saluted by calling him ‘god’ who devotes his music. Richard Wagner was a great German composer who brought revolutionary appeal to music. His language of music was understood as a new language of communication replacing the language of poetry. Hence, the ‘poetry’ has been presented as a ‘sibylline sending the ink’s tears’. It is impossible for the already mourning poetry to resist the rise of Wagner’s music till she reinvents a new, language of poetry. Thus, “Homage” is a critical comment on the status of the 19th century French poetry. At one level Mallarme pays sincere homage to Wagner’s music but at another level ironically criticizes the denouncing nature of poetic art and its cheap popularity. After reading these poems you must have found that though Mallarme writes over the deaths of the poets he does not manifest the sentimental expressions or emotionalism anywhere in these poems. Instead there is a celebration of poetic genius and art of each poet. A “Funerary Toast” points out Gautier’s potential to recreate the world with his keen observation. “The Tomb of Charles Baudelaire” illustrates Baudelaire’s art that exhibits the corrupt and degenerating modern society and “The Tomb of Edgar Allan Poe” depicts Poe’s revolutionary figure. In a very subtle ironic tone his poems criticize the society that cannot value the genius of the artist. Mark the opposition in the use of the words describing the dead poet and the society. In its widened perspective his poems become a ‘word-construct’, a poetic tomb that stands in contrast to the actual tomb. These poems at large use the ‘concrete tomb’ as a symbol of 'mortal world' and 'poetic tomb' as a symbol of 'eternal world'. 3.3.1 e) Check your progress. A) Answer the following questions in choosing correct alternative. 1) The poem “Funerary Toast” pays tribute to ….. a) Charles Baudelaire b) E.A. Poe c) T. Gautier d) Richard Wagner 2) ….. is described as a ‘savage howl’ by Mallarmé. a) E. A. Poe b) Charles Baudelaire c) Gautier d) Richard Wagner 3) … is compared to the image of ‘seraphim’ by Mallarmé. 124

a) E. A. Poe b) Charles Baudelaire c) Gautier d) Richard Wagner 4) Vision of Gautier is seen as …. a) a wild glow b) diaphanous gaze c) gaslight d) lightening 5) In the poem “Homage”, Wagner is described as … a) Anubis-god b) Master c) prophet with bare sword d) the god B) Answer the following questions in one word/phrase/sentence. 1) How do the haggard teeming hosts describe human beings? 2) What do seraphim bestow on the crowd? 3) What does the buried shrine of Baudelaire disgorge? 4) Whose death is suggested in the poem “Homage”? 5) Who asked Mallarmé to contribute a tribute poem for Gautier? C) Write a short note on the following: 1) Nature of poetic art as depicted in the poem “Funerary Toast” 2) Duality of artist and society as reflected in Mallarmé’s elegies 3) Poetic art of Poe as rendered in “The Tomb of Edgar Allen Poe” 4) Depiction of Baudelaire as Anubis-god 5) Tone of Mallarmé as reflected in “Homage” D) Broad answer type questions: 1) Discuss in detail Mallarmé’s celebration of poetic art through his elegies. 2) Elaborate the symbol of ‘tomb’ used in Mallarmé’s tomb poems. 3.3.2 The poems about poetic art: If the poems in the early group comments on the poetic genius of the different poets, in the following part of the unit, we will discuss the poems that talk in a

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symbolic manner about the poetic art or the making of the poetry. They mainly discuss Mallarme’s views about poetry or the poetic act. Though the poems discussed earlier also reveal his ideas about poetry, they discuss particular poet. Let us know more about his views about poetic art in the following poems. 3.3.2 a) “Prose” Hyperbole! can you not rise from my memory triumph-crowned, today a magic scrawl which lies in a book that is iron-bound: for by my science I instil 5 the hymn of spiritual hearts in the work of my patient will, atlases, herbals, sacred arts. Sister, we strolled and set our faces (we were two, so my mind declares) 10 toward various scenic places, comparing your own charms with theirs. The reign of confidence grows troubled when, for no reason, it is stated of this noon region, which our doubled 15 unconsciousness has penetrated, that its site, soil of hundredfold irises (was it real? how well they know) bears no name that the gold trumpet of Summertime can tell. 20 Yes, in an isle the air had charged not with mere visions but with sight 126

every flower spread out enlarged at no word that we could recite. And so immense they were, that each 25 was usually garlanded with a clear contour, and this breach parted it from the garden bed. Ideas, glory of long desire, all within me rejoiced to see 30 the irid family aspire to this new responsibility, but Sister, a wise comforter, carried her glance no further than a smile and, as if heeding her, 35 I labour on my ancient plan. Let the litigious Spirit know, as we are silent at this season, the manifold lilies’ stem would grow to a size far beyond our reason 40 not as the shore in drearisome sport weeps when it is fraudulent, claiming abundance should have come in my initial wonderment hearing the heavens and map that gave 45 endless evidence close at hand, by the very receding wave, that there was never such a land.

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The child, already dexterous in the ways, sheds her ecstasy 50 and utters ‘Anastasius!’ born for scrolls of eternity before a sepulchre chuckles ‘Ha!’ beneath its forebear any sky to bear the name ‘Pulcheria!’ 55 veiled by too tall gladioli

Glossary: irises: a type of flower that has three petals litigious: argumentative Anastasius : Greek word for resurrection Pulcheria: Greek word for beauty

Did you read the poem carefully? Do you find any structural peculiarity in the poem? What is a form of the poem? Why do you think the poem is titled “Prose”? What is the dominant image in the poem? What does it symbolize? Form of the Poem : Look at the poem. You will find that the poem is divided into several quatrains. As there are fourteen lines in the sonnet there are fourteen quatrains in this poem. Notice the regularity in the length of lines and also the consistent pattern of rhyme scheme. The lines in the poem are short. Besides, in each quatrain the lines rhyme alternatively (a-b-a-b). With a few exceptions each quatrain carries full stop and presents a singular thought. The poem manifests a very peculiar uniformity of structural form. Apparently all these qualities suits to the Prose form of narration. But you may have also noticed that the flow of lines that take very few pauses create an impression of floating of the words. It suits to the metaphor of journey revealed through the lines. The alliterative form of the words gives the poem intense musicality. It creates singing quality in the poem. And still the poem takes

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the title ‘prose’. We know that ‘prose’ is an opposite of poetry. The typical, conventional qualities of poetry are considered to be absent in prose. Prose carries sentences and not lines and it is assumed to be dry, intellectual construction of language in opposition to poetry. However, Mallarmé makes conscious use of poetic language and ironically calls it a prose. His poem builds a construct that gets combination of prose and poem. In the 19th century, with the symbolist poets, there emerged the form of poetry called “Prose-poems”. These poems rejected the conventional stanza (particularly Alexandrian) form of poetry. But while choosing this title to the poem Mallarmé plays with the language. We know that ‘language’ was a major concern of Mallarmé. He made lots of experiments with linguistic structures of the words. Here the word ‘prose’ also means ‘a ‘religious litany’ that refers to singing of hymns. These hymns are sung in the church during the Mass prayer. They are sung between the readings of Gospel. In this sense then the poem becomes a hymn. Mallarmé exploits this meaning and contextualizes it by collocating it with the word ‘hyperbole’. So the poem becomes a hymn to hyperbole. Hymns have a chanting rhythm. In this context the word ‘prose’ itself refers to the use of language with chanting and rhythmic effect. The poem is written in 1885 and Mallarmé himself considered it as a part of his “Grand Oeuvre” which he was searching for a pretty long time. The poem is dedicated to Floressas des Esseintes, the decadent hero of J. K. Huysman’s novel Against Nature (1884). Huysmans was an admirer of Mallarmé. His fictitious character in the novel also admires Mallarmé and refers to his poetry in a praising manner. So writing “prose” is in a way response to this admiration of ‘poetry’. Imagery and Symbols : Mallarmé’s poetic quest all through his life reveals a tension between pain and ugliness of real world versus beauty and happiness of ideal world. He was obsessed by the search of the ideal world. In the poem “The Sky” he had proclaimed, “I am haunted by the sky, by the sky, by the sky, by the sky”. He believed that “the whole purpose of poetry is to create ideal forms unsullied by any contact with reality”. So, it’s but natural that the poem “Prose” begins with an address to ‘hyperbole’. Hyperbole is a poetic device. Literally the word ‘hyperbole’ means ‘exaggeration of a thing’. At one level, it rejects the apparent logical truth and tries to build the world of exaggeration. It is assumed to be a lie. But hyperbolic expressions have the capacity to communicate that truth which cannot be logically explained. It transcends logicality to get intuitive communication. Religious texts

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make ample use of such devices. The epic form too reveals the reality through these hyperbolic expressions. Bible is a good example of it. The Bhakti and Sufi poetry from Indian tradition is abundant with the hyperbolic expressions. So, it is very significant when Mallarme calls ‘Hyperbole’ to take a stroll with him. It is very explicitly his reaction against the movement and spirit of Realism, dominant in his age. He challenges their rationalistic and logical way of thinking in favor of transcendental reality. So he invokes ‘hyperbole’. He personifies it as a sister. But as the poem proceeds we find that ‘hyperbole’ does not become simply a technique or device of poetic language but rather becomes a very poetic process through which the poet wishes to comprehend the poetic art. He calls her to rise from his memory. She has the magical qualities. We find the attraction of magical world in the symbolist poets. This magic world is a world that questions the day-today reality. The poem expresses the rising of hyperbole from the religious, hard bound books to the magical island. Note that the poet says that the hyperbolic technique lies in the religious text. It is used to explain the religious truth. But now the poet invokes it to help him in the science of his art. ‘Iron bound book’ represents the religious text. So it reveals a journey of Hyperbole from Religion to Art. Aspiration of this journey metaphorically highlights the 19 th century status of art and religion and also the decline of religion in favour of art. The speaker of the poem highlights the ‘charm’ of hyperbole. The charm of land of nature and the charm of poetic land are compared. The poet hints at his journey to that site which ‘bears no name’. It is an island. Its air is charged and its soil grows hundreds of irises. They are so large in size that no word can describe their abundance. It is a journey from the common land to the land of magic. Island represents the poetic world. But the island marks the ambivalent site of imaginary world and the concrete entity. The image of ‘wide flower’ is at one level the metaphor of Beauty and at another level it is a mark of creation. The speaker uses the hyperbolic expressions in describing the size of flowers. He states the inability of language to grasp the description of flowers and of the land where they are produced. His experience of such blossom brings happiness which he had desired for a long time. Favour of Hyperbole has made him achieve aspiration of greatness. However his overjoyed status is controlled by the glance of Hyperbole. Hyperbole is a ‘wise comforter’ for the poet. Hyperbole and the poet had a dialogue. But it is a mute dialogue. Instead of words she speaks with her eyes. The poet listens to the language

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of eyes. He follows the art that relates him to the ancient poets. Companionship of Hyperbole has assured the poet that “there would grow manifold lilies’ stems to a size far beyond our reason”. He addresses to the argumentative spirit that though silent at this particular time the soil would surely blossom in abundance. It assures the possibility of artistic creation. However visit to such kind of land is not possible. The location of the land is invisible on the map and hence the place becomes unbelievable. There are people who would doubt the existence of such a place and may assert ‘there was never such a land’. A divide in the opinion is exemplified in the poem by using the pronouns and the places. One place is the island where the poet and the hyperbole can enter. They are referred by ‘I’ and ‘you’ and another place is that land where people (referred as ‘they’ in the poem) don’t believe in such an island. ‘Receding waves’ create doubt in the minds of the people about such island. They are the people living on the shore. It appears like a ‘make believe’ land. Now read the last two quatrains. After the magical world of island these quatrains bring the image of 'tomb'. They take the readers back again to the world of concrete reality where the ‘sepulchre’ refers to the epitome of death. The last quatrain refers to tomb on which the word ‘Pulcheria may be written. ‘Pulcheria’ is a Greek word for ‘beauty’. The poet intends to communicate that before ‘Beauty’ or Idea dies and rests in the tomb hyperbole in the skilful manners resurrects her and asks her to born for scrolls of eternity . Symbolically the whole poem talks of poet’s journey to the epiphany experience of ‘beauty’. It is in a search of that ‘artistic beauty’ the poet invokes hyperbole. The idea of beauty and artistic creation is communicated through the symbolic image of flowers of irises and lilies. The poet’s experience of its abundant blossoming is possible only through his companionship with Hyperbole. Personified image of ‘hyperbole’ symbolizes artistic inspiration that would help the poet in the artistic creation. The invocation and assimilation with Hyperbole is a direction towards the new way of art which is possible when one leaves the concrete land of rationality and enters into the magical land where hyperbolic expressions may bring the essence of truth. See how the poet refers to this land as unnamed, unknown land. For the poet naming is losing pleasure of the poetic experience. He believes in revealing the perceptions than the descriptions. The poem in its rich suggestive form uses concrete objects of the day-today world and turns them into the poetic symbols that illustrate Mallarme’s views on poetic art.

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3.3.2 b) “Fan” Fan (Belonging to Madame Mallarmé) With no language but a trace just a beating in the skies so the future verse will rise from its precious dwelling-place

thus the herald its wing low 5 this fan if it has become that by which behind you some looking-glass has shed its glow

limpidly (where grain by grain some specks of invisible 10 scattered dust will surely fall which is all that gives me pain)

like this may it always stand in your never-idle hand

Glossary: limpidly: in a clear and lucid manner herald: messenger

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Look at the poem. How are lines arranged in the poem? What is a form of the poem? Who are the addresser and addressee in the poem? Whom is fan compared to? Form of the Poem : We see that there are fourteen lines in the poem which makes it a sonnet. You have already read some of Mallarmé’s sonnets. Do you find the same structure of sonnet in this poem? Instead of two quatrains and two tercets, we have in this poem three quatrains and one couplet. It shows that it is not the Petrarchan but the Shakespearean sonnet. However Mallarmé uses the Petrarchan rhyme pattern in making of its quatrains followed by rhyming couplet. Such rhyme scheme is called enclosed rhyme scheme. The poem reveals experimentation with the sonnet form. You may have noticed that there is no punctuation mark in the whole poem. The flow of the poem is broken through the division of the quatrains. But the last line of the earlier quatrain relates it to the first line of the next quatrain and by that way forms an arching of the lines that creates the visual effect of the object on which the poem is written. The poem was written in 1890 and published in 1891. The title of the poem suggests that the poem is about a fan. However the poem was literally written on the real cane fan or Japanese fan that carried twelve cane blades. It was given as a gift by the poet to his wife. Such a kind of writing was done by Mallarmé as his search in probing the status of language, concrete book and its relevance to the art. Naturally, it was in an experimental from. The poem is also a good example of symbolic art where the object of the day-today world is turned to a poetic symbol by the poet. We know that the Japanese fan is a very common object. Besides, it is taken from the feminine world. The object illustrates the 19th century feminine world of fashion, where women used to carry the designed fan in hands. The poet makes use of this object to convey his thoughts. Imagery and Symbols : The opening lines of the poem show the movement of the fan. It creates the image of a winged bird that soars in the infinite space i.e. sky. The resemblance of fluttering of the fan and fanning of the wings of the bird are depicted in the first quatrain. As the book gets revealed page by page the fan gets opened fold by fold creating the rainbow like arch or the figure of horizon seen in its marvellous manner. The poet makes the metaphoric use of fan as a messenger or a herald that tells the making of a poem.

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Opening quatrain of the poem communicates the image of a fan opening fold by fold. The second quatrain presents the image of ‘you’ with a fan in the hand reflected in the ‘mirror’ whereas the third quatrain communicates the image of the ‘specks of dust’ that fall on the reflecting looking glass. It blurs or obstructs the image in the mirror. The feelings of the speakers are presented in the parenthesis and the couplet at the end expresses the wish of the speaker that the ‘fan’ may always be placed (stand) in the ‘never-idle’ hand of its owner. The fan belongs to Madam Mallarmé and the speaker wishes that the gift given by him should always be carried and used by her. However, as a typical symbolic poem, we find the web of associations referring to the symbolic meaning of ‘fan’. In this context, ‘fan’ does not then remain a mere object carrying the lines of poems, that is again been carried by Madame Mallarmé. It becomes a symbolic image of a messenger. It appears as a harbinger of poetry who foretells the nature of future poetry. The poem in this sense opens with lines: With no language but a trace just a beating in the skies so the future verse will rise, from its precious dwelling place The quatrain refers to that art of poetry that Mallarmé explored all through his life. It is a poem that transcends the system of language and constructs itself through the traces of meaning. We know that Mallarmé always dreamed of ‘pure poetry’ that would be perceived through the sounds which are the core elements of poetry. He always opined that ‘suggestions’ should have to be read, grasped and experienced than direct presentation. Here the poem refers to this act of ‘tracing’. Image of the ‘sky’ in its infinity again extends the thought further where tracing of the meaning opens up the multiple possibilities. Image of the ‘sky’ is one of the favourite images of the Symbolists. It is used as a symbol of infinite, abstractness with multiplicity of identities. It is mystic, unknown that is a precious dwelling place of the future poetry. In its assonance comes the next image in the second quatrain where ‘fan’ becomes a symbolic image of the ‘herald’. It is with wings. The image of the ‘winged herald’ is another image referring to the flight in the sky. Descending of this messenger spirit and its act of making ‘the looking-glass (has) shed its glow limpidly’ is another

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symbolic act that refers to the beautifying of the real world with its creative power. However, the parenthetical lines: where grain by grain some specks of invisible scattered dust will surely fall which is all that gives me pain talks about the possible gradual decay. It is a fear, a doubt that the artistic power may not sustain for a long. It makes him wish its everlasting appearance in his hand. Hand is again a symbolic image of ‘creativity’. Fan is then the herald of poetic art that poet wishes to hold always with him. ‘Dust’ is the image of degeneration. The mirror that carries the reflection of the real world is going to be covered by invisible particles of dust. It is not possible to see the agents of decaying as they are beyond the human control and still inevitable. Look at the use of the word ‘surely’. The moments of decay are then inevitable and that is a cause of pain. It is not a physical pain. But it is a pain of loss. The loss is inevitable and real but undesirable. Against this sense of loss is placed the couplet of the poem. The usage of pronoun ‘you’ then gets referred to dual identities. At one level,it refers to the madam who carries the ‘fan’, and at another level, it refers to the poet who desires to carry the ‘Fan’. In this sense then, the poem creates the duality in the relations of addresser–addressee. The state of never-idleness is the state of creative artist who is always afraid of the loss of this creativity and so the urge is to hold it. 3.3.2 c) “Another Fan” (Belonging to Mademoiselle Mallarme) Dreamer, that I may plunge in sweet and pathless pleasure, understand how, by ingenious deceit, to keep my wing within your hand.

A coolness of the evening air 5 is reaching you at every beat;

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its captive stroke with delicate care drives the horizon to retreat. Dizziness! space is quivering, see! like one immense kiss which, insane 10 at being born for nobody, can neither spurt up nor abstain.

Feel how the untamed Eden slips like a buried smile of caprice down from the corner of your lips 15 deep into the unanimous crease. The sceptre of shores tinged with rose stagnant on golden waning days is this, a white flight which you close and set against a bracelet’s blaze. 20

Glossary: ingenious: clever to spurt: to move or act with a sudden increase in energy sceptre: the imperial authority

Form of the Poem : Now you must have become familiar with the poetic form of Mallarmé. Like earlier poems, this poem too uses quatrains. It is written in five octosyllabic quatrains. You might have seen that every quatrain is marked with full stop. They create the pauses in the poem. Visually even, each quatrain is seen separated by white black space and each of them provides one complete thought. Here the crossed rhyme scheme of a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d is used in all quatrains, and they provide the regularity of the rhythm. In the earlier poem “Fan” there are no punctuation marks, but this poem makes use of commas, exclamation marks and full stops, bringing the minor pauses in the flow of the rhythm. The poem is in a form of 136

address.It was written in 1884. Like the earlier poem, the text of this poem was also inscribed on the actual fan of paper. A piece that was decorated and gifted to his daughter, Genevieve. The words like ‘wing’, or ‘beat’ in this poem relate this poem to the earlier poem and imply the continuity of thought. It is addressed to a Dreamer. The words ‘My wing’ used by the speaker may relate it to the wings of the fan or as we have seen in the earlier poem, to the herald with wings. In this context then, the addresser may be considered as a ‘fan’ or ‘the messenger’ of the poetic art. The image of ‘you’ then also creates the duality of its nature, where ‘you’ refers, at one level to the human figure in whose hands the wings of fan rest, who closes it and sets it against a bracelet’s blaze. At another level it is a poet who like a dreamer wishes to handle the skilful art of poetry with his hands. It also refers to the poet–speaker who as a father addresses to his daughter. Imagery and Symbols : In the first quatrain of the poem, fan suggests its urge to plunge in the world of pleasure and addresses the dreamer to understand the skill to hold this fan artistically. The person holding the fan is a feminine figure. The fan expresses its wish to keep itself in the hands of her and gets the sweet pleasure. The second quatrain describes the movements of beating of the fan. It is an evening time and fan gives the coolness of the air with each of its beat. Its delicate movements and strokes create the arch like horizon that seems to retreat with each movement of the fan. It talks of the comfort that fan gives to the owner. The third quatrain talks of the dizziness resulted from this cool breeze of air, and describes the quivering of the space. It is compared to the desirous kiss that carries the deep longing but is controlled. The next quatrain uses the image of a ‘smile’ that is compared to the slipping of the ‘untamed Eden’ down. Again this smile is also a buried smile indicating the restrain of the desire. The last quatrain describes the setting of the sun across the sea shore with the images of ‘golden waning days’ and the ‘shores with the tinged roses’. The fan that gets open in the first quatrain is closed in the last quatrain and is put against the blazing bracelet. In its suggestive form the use of the word ‘Dreamer’ communicates an address to the obsessed artist. In this context fan as referred in the earlier poem becomes the messenger. The poem again describes a journey to the poetic process where, the messenger leads the poet to the pathless pleasure. He urges dreamer to understand the 'ingenious deceit' that may help the poet to hold his wings in his hand. The image of 137

‘wings’ refers to the flight of imagination; the act of keeping the wing in the hand suggests the artist’s skill to use his imaginary power for the poetic art. The captive strokes are the strokes of fan in the air, but they are the strokes of lines too through which, with delicate care the poem can take its form. The poem may bear in its purest form like an ‘immense kiss’ that is born for nobody. It is at once inevitable to be born, spurt up and still abstaining. The images of ‘immense kiss’ and ‘buried smile’ may hint at the physical pleasure, but they also hint at their restrained nature. The retreat of the horizon refers to the alluding nature of the poetic land that seems to come in hand and slip. Following to that land is possible with the captive strokes of rhymes. But like the earlier poem, in the end of this poem also the poet talks of a fear, a doubt. Through the images of ‘waning days’ and close of a ‘white flight’ the poet suggests the fall of the winged messenger: ‘...is this, a white flight which you close/ and set against a bracelet’s blaze’. The end of the day, the stop of the fluttering fan and the fall of the white flight are all collocated to bring out the multiple possibilities of meanings of the ‘fan’ that makes it a purely symbolic poem. 3.3.2 d) “Album Leaf” Album Leaf Suddenly and as if in play Mademoiselle who wished to hear some of the wood of my array of varied flutes appear

I feel this trial which took place 5 in a pictorial vista tended to have some value when I ended and looked upon your face

yes this vain breath limited as it was even in its final state 10 by my poor crippled fingers has

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no power to imitate

your crystalline utterly careless childlike laugh that charms the air.

Glossary: mademoiselle: girl (in French) vista: a distant view of a wide. Pleasant area crippled: unfit; lame

Form of the Poem : You must have noticed that the poem “Album Leaf” is in the form of Shakespearean sonnet. It has three quatrains and one couplet. It carries the interlocked rhyme scheme. The poem like many Mallarméan poems deters the use of punctuation marks. In a series of lines, the poet reflects a thought that comes to its climax in the lines of a couplet; where the full stop gives it completeness. Imagery and Symbols : Note the images used in the poem. In the first quatrain there is the image of a ‘girl’ (Mademoiselle) who appears in a sudden manner. Then there is the image of ‘array of flutes’. Flute is a musical instrument. It is made up of wood. So it is a symbol of Music. But look at the collocation of the word ‘flute’ with the word ‘array’. It shows the combination of naturalness with the decoration. Flutes are placed in arrays. They are now more of the decorative pieces than the instrument bringing melody of the natural music. The next stanza mentions the ‘pictorial vista’. It is a picturesque landscape. At the background of this landscape is the image of the poet who tries to play the flute. The girl’s wish to listen the music of flute symbolizes an act of going back to natural life and music. But playing flute has been seen by the poet as an act of ‘trial’. So when he finishes his playing, he considers the whole event quite valuable as he has filled his breath in the flute to create music. But when he sees the ‘careless childlike laugh’ of the girl, he finds his act very trivial. The beauty and naturalness of the ‘laugh’ stand in contrast to the playing of the flute. He thinks his fingers poor and crippled to play the flute. They manifest the limitations on the pact of the artist. The girl’s ‘crystalline’ careless ‘childlike laugh’ creates that

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image of beauty whose charms affect the air. The music of her laughter and the music created through flute are compared to elaborate the nature of crystalline beauty that remains unmatched and impossible to be imitated by the poor, crippling finger. Thus the smile of a ‘girl’ in the poem symbolises the world of innocence and originality against which the art of the poet appears trivial. Her smile poses a challenge before him to explore that originality of music which is pure in its form and beyond human potential. 3.3.2 e) “Remembering Belgian Friend At certain times, when no breath stirs it, all the almost incense-hued antiquity as I feel widowed stone let her veils fall fold on fold furtively and visibly

floats or seems not to bring its proof unless 5 by pouring time out as an ancient balm over our newborn friendship’s suddenness we immemorial few who feel so calm

O dear companions met in never trite Bruges multiplying dawn in canals now dead 10 where various swans are voyaging outspread

When solemnly the city showed to me those of its sons who trace another flight to light the mind like a wing instantly

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Glossary: furtively: in a secrecy; concealed trite: overfamiliar through overuse; unoriginal

Read the poem carefully. What is the form of the poem? Did you notice the structure of the lines? Can you easily get meaning of the lines? Which city is mentioned in the poem? What is its significance in the poem? Form of the Poem : The poem is in the form of the Petrarchan sonnet but divided into two quatrains and two tercets. The two quatrains follow the alternate rhyme pattern but the tercets vary in their rhyme scheme. The formal division of the quatrain does not make the division of lines or thought. Though the reading of the poem creates a peculiar sensory image in the mind the inversions of phrases and ambiguity in the clauses bring a kind of obscurity in the meaning. Hence you will find that we cannot easily get any particular statement or paraphrase possible of this poem. You may also find repetition of the particular images such as 'wing', 'light' and 'flight' in the poem. They create a peculiar semantic structure of the poem that helps us to trace the meaning at certain level. Imagery and Symbols : As the title suggests, it is a recalling of his Belgian friends. The poem is set at the backdrop of the Bruges city, which is one of the oldest cities in Belgium. It is famous for its canals and swans. The poet uses the historical greatness of the city and interweaves it in poetic imagery. The poet had visited Belgium and had delivered some lectures and read his poems in some of its cities. One of these cities was Bruges. He was well received there. He had a group of poet friends. The reminiscences of this friendship are at the background of writing the poem. It is a kind of tribute to the friendship. See the imbedding clausal structure of the first quatrain and the skilful use of simile that conveys the image of the ancient place. The antiquity is described as an 'incense-hued antiquity' and is compared to the 'widowed stone'. Note also the image of the ‘widowed stone’. It is described as 'letting its veils fall fold on fold, furtively and visibly'. It creates the sense of erosion of the stone that is compared to the slowly but perceptibly eroding antiquity of the city. But the essence of the antique land, proof of its smell is not perceived unless the time pours over the new-born friendship

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its ancient balm and makes the new generation feel calm. The simile and the metaphor create a kind of image that communicates the link of the old and the new framing it in an instantaneous moment of time. Look at the handling of the ‘time’ from the beginning of the poem. It describes those moments when no breath stirs..! A stillness of the moment and the furtive but visible pouring of the time are woven together to show the floating of an antiquity. The image of the ‘city’ is depicted in the I tercet of the poem where ‘canals’ are the links of the past and present. Canal is the image of ‘water’. The image of ‘water’ symbolizes the antiquity of the river and its continuity in the present. The multiple dawns of Burges, its ever flowing canals and the meeting and departure of his companions are connected with the moments of present where “various swans are voyaging outspread”. The speaker reminds of the city in the last tercet where he shows how the city solemnly introduced him to its sons. Mark the image of the ‘sons’ mentioned in the last line. The image of the ‘sons’ is compared with the image of the bird that takes flight in an instant moment of time. The flight of the bird and tracing of the sons for another flight are embedded to create a metaphor of journey that lights the mind. The poem through these images celebrates the city and the friendship with that city. But it also talks about the process of reading of the poem. Look at the ‘widowed stone’ once again. The falling of its veil, fold by fold creates the sense of disclosure of the centre. It is an opening of something fold by fold. The references of ‘we, immemorial few, ‘voyaging swan’ with their spread wings and ‘trace of its sons for another flight to light the mind’ all collectively communicate the voyage into the meaning of the poem for which one needs the floating of the antiquity and the pouring of the time. By using the multiplicity of images thus the poet creates the multitudinous layers of meaning to the poem. 3.3.2 f) “Little Ditty I” Little Ditty I Some kind of solitude with no swan and no pier reflects its desuetude in my gaze withdrawn here

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from the vain pomp too high 5 for anyone to hold mottling many a sky with sunset’s varied gold

but languorously skirt like cast-off drapery 10 of white some fleeting bird if nearby joyously

your naked bliss should plumb the wave that you become.

Glossary: pier: a platform built out from the shore into the water desuetude: a state of inactivity mottling: colour with different shades plumb: completely; totally

Have you read the word ‘Ditty’ before? What does it mean? Did you identify the form of the poem? What do you think is the setting of the poem? Do you find any difference of tone between the earlier poem and this one? Read the last few lines of the poem. Whom do you think the pronoun ‘you’ refer to? Form of the Poem : You must have noticed that the poem is the perfect example of the Shakespearean sonnet with a rhyme scheme of abab -cdcd, efef gg. It is in a form of Ditty. Ditty is a small, casual, song like poem. Like many poems of Mallarmé, it depicts the scene of the setting of the sun. The poem carries a lyrical tone. Note the use of words that create a mood in the poem. The lyric or a song 143

normally communicates a passionate, emotional thought. The poem is a word picture and through its diction creates a languorous mood of the evening time. Imagery and Symbols : The opening lines of the poem create the sense of solitude with the hinted image of ‘water pool’. But water does not carry any swan. Instead it reflects its desuetude, inactive state in the eyes of the speaker. The speaker’s ‘gaze’ is also withdrawn. The lines create the pictorial image of silence, of calmness where the world seems to have been withdrawn in desuetude. The second quatrain depicts the image of the ‘sky’ from where the speaker’s gaze has shifted to the water. The sky is coloured with the varied shades of sunlight. It seems to be mottled by the light of the sun. The image of the ‘sun’, as in other poems, is depicted as a pompous object, ‘too high for anyone to hold’. The speaker withdraws his gaze from the sky to the earth. It is a symbolic shift from high imaginary world to the earthly world. In this context the third quatrain and the couplet reveal the image of this earthly world in the form of naked bliss. In his syntactical interruptions in lines he produces the grammatical ambiguities that create a host of possible senses and connections. By not putting any punctuation mark or clear idea of syntax the poem opens up several possibilities of the interpretations. This is a typical Mallarméan strategy to construct the ideal world cut off from the harsh real world. The speaker in the poem who hints at another figure with the pronoun ‘You’ may suggest the listener of the poem, but the status of an addressee is not made clear. It may be the solitude of the outer world or his inner state. It may be a woman, hinted through the use of a word ‘skirt’. In a complex syntactical structure, the poet hints at the visual image that embodies the existence of both the bird and the woman. It may be joyously fleeting bird near the lake that casts off its white feather like a drapery and dives into the water to become one with it. Or it may be a woman who like a fleeting bird casts of her skirt languorously and dives in the middle of the water to merge into it completely. Or it may be even the silence of the evening that merges in the lake and the interior of the water and the nearby world of silence unify into one. Thus through the poem we see the poet’s deliberate attempt of the evasion of the real world and the real entity. In Mallarmé’s poems the image of the ‘swan’ is dominant one. It symbolizes the poet or the artist. ‘Pier’ is another frequently used symbol. It is a kind of connector to two different worlds. Absence of both of them in this particular moment of time indicates the absence of creative time and lack of connectivity between the world of 144

reality and the world of imagination. Find out how the shifting of the gaze from the sky to the earth and status of the lake without swan in totality brings out the withdrawn of the poet from his world of imagination to the world of earthly things. 3.3.2 g) “Little Ditty II” Utterly invincibly as my hopes seek it in flight must have burst lost on the height with silence and savagery

alien to the thicket or 5 with no echo left, the bird whose voice in this life is heard one time only and no more.

Singer of this haggard tone, it must perish in a doubt 10 whether worse distress poured out not from its breast but my own torn apart O may it stay whole upon some traveller’s way!

Glossary: invincibly: unbeatably; indomitably thicket: a dense growth of bushes haggard: thin; tired

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Now you know the meaning of the word ‘Ditty’. Do you find similarity of form between these two poems? Which bird do you think is referred to in the poem? What is the tone of the poem? What must be the setting of this poem? Can you identify the specificity of its diction? What does it signify? Form of the Poem : You may have found easily that like earlier poem this poem too is the Shakespearean sonnet. But in case of the rhyme scheme it follows the Petrarchan form of sonnet. After comparing these two poems, we can say that if “Little Ditty I” expresses the languorous mood, “Little Ditty II” expresses the serious mood. There are very few punctuation marks in this poem. The lines are very short and they create fast movement. There are some minor pauses, expressing the sense unit. The lyrical quality of the poem is sensed through the repetition of the sounds and internal rhythm. They give the poem a singing quality. The singularity of thought with a unified rhyme scheme makes poem compact and concise. The precision of the expression dominates the structure of the poem. Imagery and Symbols : The ‘dying of the bird’ is the central image of the poem. The bird referred to in the poem is a swan. It's name is not mentioned directly in the poem (which we now know is the poet’s technique as he is having a particular stance regarding this). But it is communicated through the suggestive lines. See, for example, the peculiar description of a bird in the second quatrain; Alien to the thicket or Without no echo left the bird Whose voice in this life is heard One time only and no more. The phrase ‘alien to the thicket’ points out that the bird is not to be found out in the trees. Its dwelling is somewhere else. The rest of the lines talk of the rare phenomenon of the bird. The bird sings his song only once in a life and then is “no more”. The words ‘no more’ refer to both the end of the song and the end of the bird i.e. his death. In a way, these associations refer to the legend of swan, where it is said that swan sings only once in its life and that is at the time of its death. Then its voice vanishes. The third quatrain refers to the bird as a singer of this haggard tone. This song is a song of distress that is poured out from its breast. Then heart is torn apart and he

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dies. The song of the swan is the saddest song of his life followed by death. The poet hopes the pouring of that song should come out from his breast and his breast should tear apart. The hope mentioned in the second line of the poem is explained in the final couplet of the poem. We know that ‘swan’ is a persistent image referring to ‘poet’ in Mallarmé’s work. In this poem there seems a unification of the image of the swan and the image of the poet. The poet wishes to sing his distress through his heart and hopes that their sorrow and death should be identical. It hints at the principle characteristic of art that is created at the cost of the destruction. The song of the dying swan symbolically refers to the dismemberment of the poet and the possibilities of creation. The poem in its symbolic image of the ‘swan’ communicates the desire and fate of the poet as an artist. Through the lines, “alien to the thicket or /with no echo left, the bird/whose voice in this life is heard/one time only and no more”, it talks of poet’s place in the society and his uniqueness in it. It illustrates his desire to reach at heights and lose his existence. The flight of the bird and flight of the poet are unified to be lost with silence and savagery. 3.3.2 h) Check Your Progress A) Answer the following questions by choosing the correct alternative: 1) Soil of island grows hundredfold … a) roses b) lilies c) irises d) gladioli 2) A girl asked the poet to play … a) flute b) viola c) trumpet d) vellum 3) Bruges city is known for its … a) waterfalls b) seashore c) rivers d) canals 4) The bird described in “Little Ditty” is alien to … a) lake b) land c) singing d) thicket 5) Floressas des Esseinties is a character from a novel written by … a) Emile Zola b) Stendhal c) J. K. Huysman d) Balzac

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B) Answer the following questions in one word/phrase/sentence. 1) What is a poetic form of the poem “Album Leaf”? 2) To whom is the poem “Another Fan” devoted? 3) What is the setting of the poem “Little Ditty I”? 4) Whom does the poet address at the beginning of the poem “Prose”? 5) Which is the central image in the poem “Little Ditty II”? 6) Which city is mentioned in the poem “Remembering Belgian Friends”? C) Write short notes: 1) Poet’s symbolic journey as depicted in “Prose” 2) Symbolic aspect of ‘fan’ in Mallarmé’s “Fan” poems 3) Symbol of ‘swan’ in Mallarmé’s poems 4) Central theme of the poem “Remembering Belgian Friends” D) Broad answer type questions: 1) Explain the poetic art of Mallarmé with reference to the poems you have studied. 2) Elaborate the use of imagery in the “Ditty” poems. 3.3.3 A Few Sonnets Till now you have read select poems of Mallarmé. You must have noticed that many of these poems are in a sonnet form. Sonnet form is one of the most handled forms of poetry by Mallarmé. In this group of poems too you will study the sonnets. But by now you would have noticed that he does not use the sonnet form as a given structure. Petrarchan sonnet seems to be his favourite form. But he has changed its formal structure. Though he follows the ‘octave’ and ‘sestet’ structure, the ‘octave’ like the Shakespearean sonnet is divided into ‘quatrain form’ of lines and the ‘sestet’ is divided into the ‘tercet’. In the Petrarchan sonnet we normally see the ‘octave’ rhyming abbaabba and the ‘sestet’ rhyming cdecde. But in Mallarme’s sonnets sometimes we find two quatrains (that form the octave), rhyming like the Shakespearean sonnet ababcdcd and tercets forming the varying rhyme patterns. In certain instances we find that he uses the Shakespearean sonnet form with three

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quatrains and one couplet but combines it with the Petrarchan rhyme pattern for the quatrains. Such kind of experimentation with the poetic structure was an attempt to exploit the phonetic feature of the language to create musicality as well as multiple possibilities of meaning. It was an effort in response to the advent of ‘verse libre’. He aspired to take French poetry in new directions. However in doing so he did not sacrifice the prosodic order of the poem as it was for him an indispensable part of the poem. We have seen that many times he discards the use of punctuation marks. Poetic lines are interrupted by inserting other lies or parentheses. Due to this kind of line structure we as readers cannot get the continuous syntax from the lines. Mallarme’s poems cannot be read with the conventional ideas of poetry. They are rather riddles of grammatical structures and of sound patterns from which getting a particular meaning or finding out a central idea seems to be futile. Writing poetry in this manner was actually his attempt to free the poetic language from its worn patterns of meaning and take it to its purest form. Let us discuss his few sonnets exemplifying these ideas of poetry. A Few Sonnets (i) When the shade threatened with the fatal decree that old Dream, my bones’ craving and their blight, pained to die under the funereal height it bowed its doubt-less plumage deep in me.

Splendour––ebony hall where, to allure 5 a king, illustrious wreaths writhe in their doom–– you are merely a pride lied by the gloom to the faith-dazzled solitary viewer.

Yes, Earth has cast into this night afar the startling mystery of sheer dazzlingness 10 beneath dread aeons darkening it less.

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Space, its own peer, whether it fail or grow rolls in this tedium trivial fires to show the genius kindled by a festive star.

(ii) This virginal long-living lovely day will it tear from us with a wing’s wild blow the lost hard lake haunted beneath the snow by clear ice-flights that never flew away!

A swan of old remembers it is he 5 superb but strives to break free woebegone for having left unsung the territory to live when sterile winter’s tedium shone.

His neck will shake off this white throe that space has forced the bird denying it to face, 10 but not the horror of earth that traps his wings.

Phantom imposed this place by his sheer gleam, he lies immobile in scorn’s frigid dream worn by the Swan dismissed to futile things.

(iii) The fine suicide fled victoriously blaze of fame, blood in foam, gold, storm and stress! If, below, regal purple is to dress only my absent tomb, what mockery!

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What! out of all that brilliance not one shred 5 stays, in the dark that fêtes us (it’s dead night) except the arrogant treasure of a head sheds its caressed nonchalance with no light, yours yes a constant pleasure! yours alone retaining from the heavens that have gone 10 a trace of childish triumph for your crown of light when on the pillows you lay it prone like some child-empress’s war-morion that in your likeness showers roses down.

(iv) With her pure nails offering their onyx high, lampbearer Agony tonight sustains many a vesperal fantasy burned by the Phoenix, which no funerary urn contains on the empty room’s credences: no ptyx, 5 abolished bauble, sonorous inanity (Master has gone to draw tears from the Styx with that one thing, the Void’s sole source of vanity).

Yet near the vacant northward casement dies a gold possibly from the decorations 10 of unicorns lashing a nymph with flame;

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dead, naked in the looking-glass she lies though the oblivion bounded by that frame now spans a fixed septet of scintillation. Glossary: decree: an official order that becomes law to allure: to attract; to tempt wreath: garlands of flowers in a circle shape writhe: moving of body due to pain eon: a long period of time woebegone: miserable shone: past tense of shine throes: violent pains phantom: like a ghost shred: small piece; particle to fetes: to welcome, praise or entertain somebody publicly nonchalance: casual; relax manner morion: like a helmet onyx: a type of stone that has layers of different colours used for decorative objects bauble: cheap and inartistic piece of jewelry credence: a kind of sideboard styx: a river in Greek mythology sonorous: pleasant sound inanity: total lack of meaning septet: a group of seven scintillations

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The present poem is a group of four sonnets that looks like a one, single poem. The division of four sonnets is present through the major stanza breaks after every fourteenth line. Each sonnet is also divided into two quatrains and two tercets. 3.3.3 a) Sonnet (i) Form of the Poem : The first sonnet begins with the line, “When the shade threatened with the fatal Decree”. It has irregular line structure. The octave comprises of two quatrains with enclosed rhymes abbacddc and sestet has two tercets rhyming effgge. It exemplifies Mallarmé’s urge of presenting the senses and not the objects through the poems. Through the science of images Mallarmé creates the sight of night sky and evokes the sense of darker evening in the mind. Imagery and Symbols : The poem presents the aura of light playing on the earth, space and at the heights of the sky. Read the first and second quatrains of the poem. They depict the picture of the setting sun. The images like ‘threatened shade’, ‘funereal height’, ‘ebony hall’ communicate the darkness causing due to setting of the sun. The event of the setting of the sun is an age long act, and still it is fatal for the sun. It is an act of dying at the end of every day. The ‘splendour’ that the sun creates while it departs is darkened in the ebony hall where against its death arises the illustrious ‘wraths’. The image of ‘wraths’ may refer to those stars that writhe in the doom of the sky after the fatal submission of the sun into darkness. The poet calls their writhing as a sign of pride. Their existence is possible only when there is darkness in the sky. The image of ‘illustrious wraths that allure king’ is a deliberate image showing contrast between the status of the sun and the stars in the sky. This drama of light and darkness has been appearing due to the casting of the earth for ages. It creates “the startling mystery of sheer dazzlingness”. The sun’s rising or falling as a fatal act is compared to the act of genius kindled by the festive star. Trivial fires and the kindle genius are contrasted at the end of the sonnet. The genius refers to a poet who at the late evening time is a solitary viewer of this site of the sky. It is assumed that when the sun sets,it bows the doubt-less plumage of it very deep into poet. Thus the mortal sun gets absorbed in another mortal object. But it gets resurrected through the genius whose craving bones struggle to sustain the ‘old Dream’ against the physical blight.

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The sonnet marks the symbolic vision of the poet who exploits the geographical reality and blends it with the outer world to tell a metaphoric tale of immortality of art. 3.3.3 b) Sonnet (ii) Read the second sonnet carefully. Which image do you get in the poem persistently? What season is implied in the poem? Why do you think the letter‘s’ of the swan in the last line is capitalized? Form of the Poem : We know that it is a same form of sonnet where first two quatrains follow the abba-cdcd rhyme scheme and the last two tercets have eef, ggf rhyme scheme. It brings the irregularity of the rhythm. It is a kind of experimentation practiced by Mallarmé in handling the sonnet form. Note also the uneven lines in the poem. What effect do they create when the poem is read loudly? There are pauses in the poem presented through the punctuation marks. But there are also pauses in between the poem marked by the syntactical order of lines. For example, read the first four lines of the poem. At the end of the last line of the quatrain, there is the exclamation mark. Again the second line of the poem begins with the question. But that question ends in the fourth line with an exclamation mark. It creates a big pause at both syntactic and semantic level of the poem. The interrogative tone creates a sense of doubt. This is a doubt not simply for the speaker but for all those who accompany him. Look at the use of pronoun ‘us’. The speaker represents them. The first line of the poem puts the image of ‘day’. It stands in contrast to all other images further placed in the whole poem. The day is virginal. It is lovely and the speaker thinks that it may be long-living. It is an assumption of the speaker. In the following lines is an image of ‘lake’. This lake has become hard and is covered with the snow. The speaker has lost this lake but it remains haunting him. Then there are images of ‘wings’ and ‘flights’ but the wings have never flown away and fights are iced. Both the wings and their flights are affected by the snow. The next quatrain presents the image of ‘swan’. He is striving against the grief. He has left the living place unsung. This is surrounded by the white throes and he struggles to shake off this whiteness that stands as phantom creating ‘sheer gleam’. The image of ‘winter’ is communicated through all these images and it is depicted as a sterile, tedious period. A long frosty winter has closed the possibilities of flight for the swan. The swan’s wings are trapped and speaker says that he may shake off the

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trouble of snow from his neck but he cannot shake off the horror of the earth that has trapped his wings. We see here that the poet uses the symbol of ‘swan’ for a creative artist. Swan’s immobility to fly from the hard lake, his inability to sing and his entrapped state in the frosty winter symbolically communicate creative artist’s fate. The symbolic image of ‘winter snow’ communicates those harsh conditions that have disabled the artist to sustain his creativity. The image of ‘ a swan’ in the second quatrain changes in ‘the swan’ of the last line to address the universality of the fate of an artist who waits for the virginal day to tear this winter state. The poem ends with a sad note where the swan is ‘dismissed to futile things’. It suggests that the question asked at the beginning of the poem may not get the positive answer. The hope ‘to tear the hard lake with the winds' blow’ may remain a mere wish against the horror of the earth. Thus the poem tinged in utter pessimism reveals Mallarmé’s state of mind. Mallarmé feels frustrated as he is unable to locate and define the ideal world through his poetry, the world which he craved all through his life. 3.3.3 c) Sonnet (iii) What did you notice about the form of this sonnet? The poem is included in the cluster of sonnets. Being a sonnet it carries fourteen lines. But is it the Petrarchan sonnet or the Shakespearean one? What did you notice about the rhyme scheme of the poem? Is it conventional or experimental? Also note the length of lines in the poem. Do they have the regularity of meter? What setting do you visualise after reading them? Do you find any resemblance with the earlier sonnets from this group? Which images are communicated in the poem? Let us discuss these questions in detail. You know that the poem is a sonnet. But it does not follow the regular rhyme scheme of either the Petrarchan or the Shakespearean sonnets. The rhyme scheme of the first quatrain varies from the second and the two tercets also make the irregular rhyme. The irregularity of the lines and the irregularity or variation in the rhyme makes it experimental in its prosodic form. It is one of the salient features of the Mallarméan poetry. As in the first sonnet of this group, the image of ‘setting sun’ is present in this sonnet also. The images of ‘night’ and ‘setting of the sun’ are dominantly present in the poem. The two quatrains of the poem depict these images. The first line brings

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the image of ‘death’. It is ‘a suicide’. But it is ‘fine’ suicide and ‘victorious’. The phrases, ‘blaze of fame’, ‘blood in foam’, ‘gold’ ‘storm and stress’ create the violent actions that are associated with the victorious flying of fine suicide. The word ‘below’ implies that all these actions are happening in the sky. The web of all associations depicts the imperial fall of a king. In the earlier sonnet also, the sun is referred as a king. The setting of the sun is seen as a suicide. The poem seems to be addressed by the sun. He feels it mocking when he finds that -below, regal purple is to dress Only my absent tomb, what mockery? The ‘regal purple’ refers to sun’s imperial royal attire of gold. It is expected to be used to cover his tomb. But the tomb is absent. And then all this splendour in the heaven seems to be ridiculous. The sense of mockery is heightened in the second quatrain when the sun realizes that nothing remains of all his brilliance; even not a single ‘shred stays’ and the world becomes deadly dark. In contrast to his fall is only one constant pleasure that is referred as ‘the arrogant treasure of a head’. The first three lines of the sestet refer to the image of a ‘listener’. Only on the face of the listener has been left the trace of light from that whole brilliance. But now that bright light turns to darkness. The head retains this light from heaven as the only consolation for the sun that has lost all its glory. This treasure is seen as a ‘childish triumph’. Last three lines of the sonnet present the image of ‘head’ that lies on a pillow like some ‘child–empress’s war helmet’. Its beauty is shedding showers of roses down. The head in its feminine depiction may refer to the image of the moon that is left in the sky after the magnificent glory of the sun is gone. Or it may also refer to the Venus who retains a trace of light on her crown and stands as the empress in the sky. Through the symbolic image of the 'sun' and its act of setting down, the poet ironically points out the common pain of man, “What! Out of all that brilliance not one shred/ stays, in the dark that fetes us”. 3.3.3 d) Sonnet (iv) Read the sonnet carefully. Did you find its reading easy? You may have found that certain sounds are repeatedly used in the poem. Note the use of the words in the poem. What effect do they have on the phonemic and thematic structure of the poem? Let us discuss in length.

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Both the octave and the sestet of the poem bring out a kind of obscurity in the poem. See the use of words like ‘onyx’, ‘phoenix’, ‘styx’ or ‘ptyx’. ‘Phoenix’ and ‘styx’ are the mythological words. Onyx is a stone that is used in jewellery. But the word ‘ptyx’ doesn’t give a particular meaning. However as a rhythmic word it fits in the poetic structure very appropriately. The sound of ‘x’ is very hard sound. Find out other such sounds in the poem. The first quatrain brings a feminine image of ‘lamp bearer agony’. She is a sign of suffering, but she offers with her pure nails the onyx high. Like the earlier two sonnets, the time described in this sonnet too is night time. The shining onyx may refer to stars blinking high at night time. But the following image of the phoenix is not a happy image. We know that phoenix is a mythical bird that burns and takes rebirth from its own ashes. Phoenix has burned along with it the ‘vesperal fantasies’. So the line shows a loss of the fantasy world. The grimness is further enhanced to find that there is no burial urn in which the ashes of the burned fantasies can be preserved. Then these ashes are sustained by the agony. The second quatrain of the poem, presents another set of images. There is the image of an ‘empty room’. It is abandoned by its master. Note the use of phrase ‘no ptyx’, ‘abolished bauble’, ‘sonorous inanity’. All these phrases bring out the sense of nothingness. Look the word ‘void’ with capital V. It also suggests the emptiness. The master of the room carries that void with him. Both the quatrains create the sense of loss and nothingness. The words are sonorous but full of inanity. Loudness and depth are felt but they create no sense. The sestet begins with the conjunction of contrast– ‘Yet’. The decorative piece of gold near the vacant northward casement exhibits the scene of lashing to a nymph by the unicorn. Unicorn and nymph are depicted dying, and the reflection of that dead body is present in the mirror of the room. The image of ‘naked, dead body’ again suggests the loss. So the image of ‘vacant room’ is communicated all through the lines. Its emptiness is reflected in the only possible thing in the room– that is a looking glass. But the sense of contrast is reflected in the last lines of the poem. The frame of the mirror that has gone into the oblivion also reflects the image of the ‘septet of scintillations’. It denotes the image of Great Bear. It is a fix number of constellation that rotates around the North Star. The North Star and the Great Bear are the images of fixity. Hence amidst the sense of emptiness and the loss or nothingness, there emerges something fix that brings the possibility of renewal of 157

evening fantasies. The vesperal fantasies that are sustained by the Agony may reborn like a rebirth of phoenix. This possibility can be associated with the empty room’s ‘credence’. In total if the group of sonnets is considered as a one long poem, it primarily highlights the sense of darkness and sterility. The loss of the splendour, glory, blaze of fame of which the sun is the embodiment is consistently present in the poem. But along with this gloomy, doomed tragedy, there is presence of ‘the faith dazzled solitary viewer’, ‘long-living lovely day’, ‘a treasure of a head retaining light from heaven’, ‘the offerings of onyx at height’ and ‘the reflection of great bear in the glass of now vacant room. The invocation of dream and void of which Mallarmé was haunted are present in these sonnets. Especially the fourth one where as Mallarmé himself has declared, “the sonnet evokes the internal mirage created by the words themselves”. 3.3.3 e) Check your progress: A) Fill in the blanks choosing the correct alternative. 1) “A Few Sonnets” is a cluster of … sonnets. a) three b) four c) five d) six 2) Vesperal fantasies are burned by … a) agony b) sun c) phoenix d) unicorn 3) Wings of swan are trapped in … a) horror of earth b) ice of glaciers c) hard lake d) frigid dream 4) In the sonnet, the word ‘styx’ refers to … a) a bird b) the stars c) a mythical river d) a mythical animal 5) In the first sonnet, the solitary viewer is described as … a) faith dazzled b) doubtless c) proud d) dread 6) The phrase ‘sonorous inanity’ refers to … a) singing quality b) senseless vacuity c) inactive state d) loss of meaning

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B) Answer the following questions in one word/phrase/sentence. 1) What is meant by the septet of scintillations? 2) Who lashes the nymph in a decorative piece? 3) How is a ‘head’ described in the sonnet (iii)? 4) Who preserves the vesperal fantasies? 5) Where does the sun bow its plumage? C) Write short notes: 1) Symbolic aspect of the ‘sun’ in “A Few Sonnets” 2) The sense of void and loss as depicted in “A Few Sonnets” 3) Symbol of ‘winter’ and ‘swan’ as depicted in “A Few Sonnets” D) Broad answer type questions: 1) Discuss in detail the handling of the sonnet form by Mallarmé with reference to “A Few Sonnets”. 2) Explain how Mallarmé’s sonnets evoke the internal mirage created by the words themselves. 3.4 Exercise: After reading the select poems of Mallarme you have become acquainted with his poetic style. You have come to know that while dealing with Mallarme’s poetry one needs to read and reread his poems to comprehend them. His linguistic complexities, his symbolic vision create impasse in poetry. Reader is left baffled to find the paraphrasing of his poems. But once you get a bit of thread to enter into his poetic world you enjoy it. So here is one of the poems given for you to read and comprehend on your own. Try to read and enjoy its complexities and then the perception you get of it would help you to reach near its meaning.

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[‘To introduce myself into your tale . . .’]

To introduce myself into your tale is as a mighty man afraid if his bare footprint has been laid on some expanse of grassy dale I do not know what innocent 5 sin that assaults the glaciers may laugh in loud victory today which you did nothing to prevent say if I am not glad to see in the air that the fire has shot 10 full of holes where dispersed realms lie as if in purple it must die the wheel of my sole vesperal chariot rubies and thunder at its axletree

Here are some questions that may help you to comprehend the poem. 1) Can you find out a form of the poem? 2) What do the images ‘mighty man’ and ‘grassy dale’ communicate? 3) Did you mark the syntactical ambiguity in the second quatrain? 4) What do the phrases ‘disperse realms’, ‘the fire’, ‘in purple it must die’ communicate? 5) Did you find out the repetitive elements or images in the poem? 6) What is ‘axletree’? What does it refer to?

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3.5 Comprehensive questions: 1) Elaborate the element of obscurity in Mallarmé’s poetry with reference to the poems you have studied. 2) Discuss Mallarmé as the Symbolist poet. 3.6 Keys to check your progress: 3.2.4 A) 1) 1886, 2) E. A. Poe, 3) French revolution, 4) Surrealism and Dadaism, 5) Realism, naturalism and symbolism, 6) Man as a higher ordered animal B) 1) c) Charles Baudelaire, 2) d) ancient beliefs of Greeks, 3) d)Jean Moreas, 4) a) Stéphane Mallarmé, 5) b) Naturalism 3.3.1 e) A) 1) c) T. Gautier, 2) b) Charles Baudelaire, 3) a) E. A. Poe, 4) b) diaphanous gaze, 5) d) the god B) 1) opaque form of the body that transfers into the shadow form of ghost after death, 2) pure senses, 3) slobbering sod and ruby, 4) death of old poetic art, 5) Catule Mendes 3.3.2 h) A) 1) c) irises, 2) a) flute, 3) d) canals, 4) d) thicket, 5) c) J. K. Huysman B) 1) The Shakespearean sonnet, 2) Genevieve, Mallarmé’s daughter, 3) lake side, 4) Hyperbole, 5) dying of the bird, 6) Bruges 3.3.3 e) A) 1) b) four, 2) c) phoenix, 3) a) horror of earth, 4) c) a mythical river, 5) a) faith dazzled, 6) d) loss of meaning B) 1) a group of seven stars named Great Bear, 2) a unicorn, 3) child– empress’s war–morion, 4) agony, 5) deep into a solitary viewer

3.7 Suggested list for further reading: Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Prism Books Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore: 1993. Blackmore, A. M. Stephané Mallarmé: Collected Poems and Other Verse . OUP, London: 2006. Cohn, Robert Greer. Toward the Poems of Mallarme . Scrivenery Press: 2000

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Evans, David. Rhythm, Illusion and Poetic Idea: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé. Rodopi, New York: 2004. Gordon, Millan. A Throw of Dice: A Life of Stephané Mallarmé. Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd.: 1994. Pearson, Roger. Unfolding Mallarme: The Development of a Poetic Art. Reaktion Books Ltd., London: 2010. Robb, Graham . Unlocking Mallarme. Yale University Press, London: 1996. Wilson, Edmond . Axle’s Castle. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York: 2004.

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Unit-4 Song of Myself By Walt Whitman

Contents: 4.0 Objectives 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Presentation of Subject Matter 4.2.1 Section – 1 (Section from 1 to 19) 4.2.2 Section – 2 (Section from 20 to 38) 4.2.3 Section – 3 (Section from 39 to 52) 4.3 Summary 4.4 Terms to Remember 4.5 Answers to check your progress 4.6 Exercise 4.7 Reference for further study

4.0 Objectives After studying this Unit you will be able to : • understand Walt Whitman as a revolutionary poet. • explain Whitman’s idea behind the celebration of his ‘self’ and the land of America. • know pluralities of themes reflected in Song of Myself 4.1 Introduction Walter "Walt" Whitman (1819-1892), born on May 31, 1819, was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. As a humanist, he was a part of the transition between and realism, incorporating both views in his works.

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Whitman is the most influential poet in the American canon. He is often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in his times, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass , which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality. Leaves of Grass , first published in 1855, is a landmark in the history of American literature. Born in Huntington on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk. Besides being a poet he was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Early in his career, he also wrote a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass , was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died at the age of 72, his funeral became a public spectacle. American Romanticism - The Romantic Period in the history of American literature stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War, which started with the publication of 's The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman's Leaves of Grass. In this period, a new emphasis was placed upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature, a liking for the picturesque, the exotic, the sensuous, the sensational, the supernatural and remote past was fostered, and an increasing attention to the psychic states of their characters was paid, and above all, the individual and the common man was exalted. Dr. F. H. Hedge, an American transcendentalist, thought the essence of romanticism was aspiration, having its origin in wonder and mystery. Salient features - Disillusionment with the Cult of Reason: Just as the ideals of the French Revolution fed and fanned the fire of revolution in America, so also the English and German romantic movements helped, encouraged and nourished the cause of romanticism on the other side of the Atlantic also. During the first national period (1800-1860) there was a widespread disillusionment with reason and good sense. Rationalism, it was felt in America, as it was in England, was not enough. Hence American Romanticism, too, was a revolt 164

against the cull of reason. Stress was laid on the intuition and inspiration, on natural instinct and impulses, on the glory and grandeur of the individual however common or lowly, and not on ‘rules’ and conventions. American nationalism was conducive to the growth of a national literature, and the American democratic spirit was congenial to the rise of romanticism. Some Common Features: Romanticism in America had a number of features in common with English Romanticism. There was the same stress on emotion and imagination, on intuition, and inspiration as contrasted with the stress on reason of the previous age of Neo- classicism or Enlightenment. There was the same glorification of the common man. Individualism was a dominant trait of American Romanticism also. As in England, there was also the experimentation with new verse-forms and stanza-patterns there was an immense variety of literary genres and verse-forms such as blank verse, octo- syllabic lines, the Spenserian stanza, the sonnet, the ode, the lyric and the metrical romance. The need for freedom and fresh avenues was expressed by the poet William Bryant in his essay on American Poetry, where he condemns the practice of copying 18 th century poetical tradition. Romantics like Thoreau and Emerson rejected the set- pattern of the eighteenth century verse, and the liberation of the verse was complete in Walt Whitman. Some Distinctive Features: Love of wild nature was America’s original distinction. Stretching westward from the ocean was the “land of the great forests”. It powerfully affected the imagination of many American romantic. Even Irving, with his face toward the Old World, remembers America’s “trackless forest, where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence”. “The mighty forest” dominates Bryant’s Thanatopsis , A Forest Hymes , and other poems; Cooper gives a full picture of it; the ancient woods with soaring trees, the black mystery at night, the lakes and mountains here and there human figures swallowed up in the landscape. But it was Thoreau who best communicated the tonic freedom of the forest, its wildness and beauty. In The Maine Woods he described a nature “savage and awful, though beautiful”. He loved rain- storms, and enjoyed wading in cold, bracing swamps – “a sort of baptism”. “The Wild made him wild”. But such adventures in feeling were matched by an intellectual conviction: that all civilization refers back to primitive nature and form

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time to time must return to its source of vitality or decay and die. The place of haunted Gothic ruins was taken by the Great Forests. The supernatural terrors of The Great Unknown Forests were also freely exploited, and supernatural fears and terrors embedded in the human psyche were also exploited, as in the works of Edgar Allen Poe. Love of Nature: But all this does not mean that American romanticism was a mere carbon copy of English romanticism. The nationalists in America clamored for a genuine American literature- on American themes and reflecting the American ethos. The result was that American romanticism was both English and American at one and the same time. It had a number of traits in common with English romanticism, but they were modified and given a distinctive American twist. Thus the American romantics too loved nature. Freneau is almost a Wordsworth in many of his lyrics, but it was in the early 19 th century that Nature became a major concern for American poets. Love of the Past of America- The Red Indian: The romantics are fascinated by the charms of the remote, the far-off and the distant. The English romantics dissatisfied with the present went to the past, either to the past of Greek and Rome, or to the middle ages. The past also fascinated the American romantics, but it was the past of America, which they explored and celebrated. The adventures, exploits, and achievement of the great explorers who were the first to reach America, or of the first colonisers, were studied and sung by one poet after another. To Emerson at sea, homeward bound from the Old World, “America, my country” was a Land without history……. No castles, no cathedrals, and no kings: Land of the forest……. Love of the Orient: Transcendentalism: The romantic interest in the remote, the unfamiliar and the distant is seen in the interest of the American romantics in the Orient (Indian and other Asian countries) and its philosophy. Indeed, the Transcendentalism of the American poets has its roots in Oriental, particularly Hindu philosophy. Emerson found Asia rich in suggestions of a spiritual view of life. Once he came to know the sages and poets of the Orient, 166

they were never long absent from his writings. Thoreau’s interest was more studious. He liked to speak of the “Scriptures of the Nation”, by which he meant “the collected Scriptures or Sacred Writings of the several nations, the Chinese, the Hindus, the Persians, the Hebrews and others, which printed together, would make the true Bible”. Emerson sings of Brahma, the Hindu God, and for Whitman, too, ‘mystic orient’ is fascinating. The remarks of Spiller on American romanticism are interesting and so one may be excused for quoting him at some length, “The essence of romanticism is the ability to wonder and to reflect. In searching the meaning of the known, the human spirit reaches for the unknown; in trying to understand the present, it looks to the past and to the future, faith and hope lead to a positive romanticism, fear and doubt a negative one; but when both reason and authority have failed, man has further refuge in the larger emotions which have failed, man has a further refuge in the large emotions which are always his. Only when these are fully awakened is a really great literature born. Shakespeare lived in one such era, Goethe in another. In this task, the American writers- Washington Irving, , and - had an advantage over their European contemporaries, for they had almost nothing to revolt against. Like them, European writers were also straining at traditions and conventions and seeking in nature and in forgotten corners of the past, and the far-away, for the “originality” which was the mark of the romantic temper, but the American had novelty at their doorstep. It was fortunate for them that the Old World was also going through a period of literary experimentation just at the moment when American writers most needed flexibility in the models they must use for their art. Irving still looked to Goldsmith, but Bryant had Wordsworth as well as William Cowper, and Fenimore Cooper had Walter Scott. Some Important Romantics Such are the distinctive features of American romanticism, and they colour the works of a number of writers of the first national period. For the convenience of study these writers may be grouped as follows: 1. Knickerbocker writers (New Yorkers) so named after a character in Irving- Irving, Bryant and Cooper. 2. The Transcendentalists (Concord Men or New Englanders) Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne. 167

3. Cambridge and Boston Men- Poe, Longfellow, Lowell and Holmes. 4. Charleston – Simms, Timorod, H.S.Legare. Major Works of Walt Whitman-  Franklin Evans (1842)  Life and Adventures of Jack Engle  Leaves of Grass (1855, the first of seven editions through 1891)  Manly Health and Training (1858)  Drum-Taps (1865)  Democratic Vistas (1871)  Memoranda During the War (1876)  Specimen Days (1882) 4.2 Presentation of Subject Matter: Song of Myself may be considered the most egotistical poem ever written. It is all about ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’. In the first line, American poet Walt Whitman kindly informs us that he is going to celebrate himself, and throughout 52 glorious sections, he does the same. The 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass was Whitman's first published book of poems, and he kept revising and adding to this book throughout his life. Before becoming a published poet, Whitman had worked as schoolteacher and a journalist. Whitman and this poem especially, embody the ideal of "self-reliance". This principle was famously described by the American Transcendentalist and is marked by a nonconformist spirit and a belief that the best way to do things is to go your own way. No surprise, then, that when Emerson read the first edition of Leaves of Grass , he became one of Whitman's biggest fans. He famously wrote Whitman a letter that began, "I greet you at the beginning of a great career." "Song of Myself " wasn't without its controversies. The poem's frank depictions of sexuality and eroticism earned it a somewhat scandalous reputation. Whitman's contemporary, the equally influential poet Emily Dickinson, wrote about Whitman in one of her letters, saying: "You speak of Mr. Whitman. I never read his book, but

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was told it was disgraceful." When Whitman became more famous later in his career, he edited some of the juiciest bits of " Song of Myself ". The poem means so many things to so many different people, and its diversity and openness are its greatest strength. It has influenced almost every major American poet of the 20th century, including T.S.Eliot, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg and John Ashbery. It has also been profoundly important to writers of other nationalities, especially Latin American writers like Pablo Neruda and Jorge Luis Borges. In many ways, "Song of Myself" represents the best that American poetry has to offer. There are 52 sections and 1347 lines in Song of Myself . These sections are divided into 3 parts for the convenience of the students. 4.2.1 Part – 1 (from section 1 to 19) 4.2.2 Part – 2 (from section 20 to 38) 4.2.3 Part – 3 (from section 39 to 52) 4.2.1 Part – 1 (from Section 1 to 19) • Sections 1-5 (lines 1-98) : This poem celebrates the poet's self, but, while the "I" is the poet himself, it is, at the same time, universalized. The poet will "sing myself," but "what I assume you shall assume,/For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." The poet loafs on the grass and invites his soul to appear. He relates that he is "form'd from this soil," for he is born here, as were his parents, grandparents and great- grandparents. He is thirty seven years old and "in perfect health." He hopes to continue his celebration of self until his death. He will let nature speak without check with original energy." In section 2 , the self, asserting its identity, declares its separateness from civilization and its closeness to nature. "Houses and rooms are full of perfume," Whitman says. "Perfumes" are symbols of other individual selves; but outdoors, the earth's atmosphere denotes the universal self. The poet is tempted to let himself submerge in other individual selves, but he is determined to maintain his individuality.

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The poet expresses the joy he feels through his senses. He is enthralled by the ecstasy of his physical sensations. He can enjoy each of the five senses — tasting, hearing, smelling, touching, and seeing-and even more — the process of breathing, the beating of his heart, and "the feeling of health." He invites the reader to "stop this day and night" with him in order to discover "the origin of all poems." In the 3 rd and 4 th sections , Whitman chides the "talkers," "trippers," and "askers" for wasting their time discussing "the beginning and the end," and ‘the latest dates’, ‘discoveries’, ‘inventions’, ‘societies’ . . . More important is the “eternal procreant urge of the world." He prepares himself for the union of his body with his soul: "I witness and wait." As his soul is "clear and sweet," so are all the other parts of his body –and the body of every other person. "Not an inch . . . is vile, and none shall be less familiar than the rest." Section 5 is the poet's ecstatic revelation of union with his soul. He has a feeling of fraternity and oneness with God and his fellowmen ("And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own/And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own") and a vision of love ("And . . . a kelson [an important structural part of a ship] of the creation is love"). This union brings him peace and joy. • Sections 6-19 (lines 99-388) : Section 6 presents the first significant transition in the poem and introduces the central symbol in "Song of Myself." A child appears carrying handful of Leaves from the fields and asks the poet, " What is the grass? " The poet at first feels incapable of answering this question but continues thinking about it. He muses that perhaps "the grass is itself a child" or maybe it is "the handkerchief of the Lord." Here the grass is a symbol of the divinity latent in the ordinary, common life of man and it is also a symbol of the continuity inherent in the life-death cycle. No one really dies. Even "the smallest sprout shows there is really no death," that "all goes onward and outward . . . /And to die is different from what any one supposed." In Section 7 the poet signifies his universal nature, which finds it "just as lucky to die" as to be born. The universal self finds both ‘the earth’ and ‘the stars’ good. The poet is part of everyone around him. He sees all and condemns nothing. Sections 8-16 consist of a catalog of all that the poet sees — people of both sexes, all ages, and all conditions, in many different walks of life, in the city and in

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the country, by the mountain and by the sea. Even animals are included. And the poet not only loves them all, he is part of them all: And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them, And such as it is to be of these more or less I am, And of these one and all I weave the song of myself. Section 17 again refers to the universality of the poet — his thoughts are "the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands." Sections 18 and 19 salute all members of humanity. Grass, a central symbol of this epic poem, suggests the divinity of common things. The nature and significance of grass unfold the themes of death and immortality. Grass is also a symbol of the ongoing cycle of life present in nature, which assures each man of his immortality. Nature is an emblem of God, for God's eternal presence is evident everywhere. Grass is the key to the secrets of man's relationship with the Divine. It indicates that, God is everything and everything is God. These sections deal with the themes of God, life, death, and nature. Their primary aim is to reveal the nature of the poet's journey through life and the spiritual knowledge which he strives for whole of himself. They reveal an essential element in a mystical experience — the awakening of the poet's self. "Song of Myself" is a poetic expression of that mystical experience. It arises out of a belief that it is possible to achieve communion with God through contemplation and love, without the medium of human reason. It is a way of attaining knowledge of spiritual truths through intuition. Sections 1 to 5 concern the poet's entry into a mystical state, while sections 6-16 describe the awakening of the poet's self to his own universality. 4.2.3.1 Check Your Progress: 1 State whether the following sentences are true or false. 1. ‘I’ in the poem represents the poet himself. 2. The "perfumes" are symbols of flowers. 3. According to Whitman "talkers," "trippers," and "askers" waste their time discussing beginning and end.

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4. “Grass” suggests or symbolizes the divinity of common things and it also symbolizes ongoing cycle of life and death. 5. Grass is the key to the secrets of man's relationship with other men. 6. Whitman divides the world into ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. 4.2.2 Section – 2 (Section from 20 to 38) • Sections 20-25 (lines 389-581) : The poet declares that all he says of himself the reader is to say of his own, "else it were time lost listening to me." He declares himself to be "solid and sound," "deathless," and "august," and, while no one is better than he, no one is worse, either. In section 21 , Whitman proclaims himself "the poet of the Body" and also "the poet of the Soul." He is a poet of pleasures and pain, and of men and women. Calling to the earth, he thanks it for giving him love, which he answers with love: "Prodigal, you have given me love — therefore I to you give love!/O unspeakable passionate love." In section 22 the poet reveals his love for sea. He feels one with the sea. ("I am integral with you") He thinks that like him the sea also reveals many moods. He is the poet of both good and evil: "I am not the poet of goodness only, I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also"; the two qualities complement each other. In section 23 the poet affirms his acceptance of "Reality." He salutes scientists but, he admits, "your facts . . . are not my dwelling." Section 24 presents some of Whitman's basic tenets. He calls himself a "kosmos." The word "kosmos," meaning a universe, is significant and amounts to a renewed definition of the poet's self as one who loves all people. Through him, "many long dumb voices" of prisoners, slaves, thieves, and dwarfs — all of those whom "the others are down upon" — are articulated and transfigured. He also speaks of lust and the flesh, as for him each part of the body is a miracle. He expresses "The scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than prayer." In section 25 Whitman dwells on the comprehensive range of the poet's power. He declares that "with the twirl of my tongue I encompass world and volumes of world. Speech is the twin of my vision." He must speak, for he cannot contain all that he has to say; and yet "writing and talk do not prove me." What he is can be seen in his face. The poet's self-appraisal is the keynote of sections 20-25. He describes himself as gross and mystical. He feels he is part of all that he has met and seen. He is

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essentially a poet of balance, since he accepts both good and evil in his cosmos. His awareness of the universe, or cosmic consciousness, is expressed when he calls himself "a kosmos," invoking a picture of the harmony of the universe. He accepts all life, naked and bare, noble and ignoble, refined and crude, beautiful and ugly, pleasant and painful. The physical and the spiritual both are aspects of his vision, which has an organic unity like the unity of the body and the soul. Whitman realizes that the physical as well as the spiritual are aspects of the Divine. The culmination of the poet's experience of self is the ecstasy of love. Contemplating the meaning of grass in terms of mystical experience, he understands that all physical phenomena are as deathless as the grass. These chants express various stages of the poet's mystical experience of his self. The first stage may be termed the "Awakening of Self"; the second, the "Purification of Self." Purification involves an acceptance of the body and all its functions. This acceptance reflects the poet's goal to achieve mystical experience through physical reality. This is in opposition to the puritanical view of purification through mortification of the flesh. In Whitman's philosophy, the self is purified not through purgation but through acceptance of the physical. Man should free himself from his traditional sense of sin. The mystical experience paves the way for the merging of physicality reality with a universal reality. Whitman is representative of all humanity because, he says, the voices of diverse people speak through him — voices of men, animals, and even insects. To him, all life is a miracle of beauty. Sections 20-25 close on a note of exaltation of the poet's power of expression although they indicate that his deeper self is beyond expression. • Sections 26-38 (lines 582-975) : The poet resolves to listen and be receptive to all sounds. The sounds are familiar: the "bravuras of birds," the "bustle of growing wheat," and "the sound of the human voice." Soon they reach a high pitch and the poet is ecstatic at this "music." Sections 27-30 reveal that the sense of touch also brings the poet joy. Indeed, the poet's sense of touch is extremely acute. At times he is overwhelmed by it, and he asks, "Is this then a touch? quivering me to a new identity." The emphasis is on his search for individuality, an aspect of his evolving self. He will end his quest for

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being in an affirmation of his body's sensory awareness. With all his senses, the poet responds to existence and living, "the puzzle of puzzles . . . that we call Being." The poet's senses convince him that there is significance in everything, no matter how small the thing is. Sections 31-33 contain a catalog of the infinite wonders in small things. He believes, for example, that "a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars" and "the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery," for all things are part of the eternal wonder of life and therefore even "the soggy clods shall become lovers and lamps." He, himself, incorporates an unending range of things, people, and animals. Now he understands the power of his vision which ranges everywhere: "I skirt sierras, my palms cover continents,/I am afoot with my vision." Especially in sections 34-36 , he identifies himself with every person, dead or living, and relates his involvement with the various phases of American history. Realizing his relationship to all this makes him feel, as he states in section 38 , "replenish'd with supreme power, one of an average unending procession." In the earlier chants, the accent was on observation; in this sequence it is on what "I" am or what "I" am becoming. Whitman develops a kind of microscopic vision in the way he glorifies the details of the commonplace. The poet's experience is ecstatic; his joy comes to him through his senses, and the physical enjoyment suggests a sexual union as the culmination of this experience of ecstasy. The catalog of people and places is an attempt to give a feeling of universal scope. Ordinary life becomes permeated with mystical significance. The poet identifies himself with every being and every object, and this identification forms an integral part of his concept of what "I" am. The process of identification arises out of the belief that the poet's soul is a part of the universal soul and therefore should seek union with it. Whitman also discusses the relative properties of the body and the soul. He finds that the body has value, for it leads man to a unified self, a purified combination of the body and the soul. The poet praises the primitive life of animals (section 32) because they have achieved this union — they are born pure. In sections 33-37 , Whitman experiences a spiritual illumination, passing through suffering, despair, and the dark night of the soul to finally achieve purification. His self, purified, comprehends the Divine Reality, the "transcendental self". Transcendentalism is a word with varied meanings, but in Whitman's poetry it

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implies beliefs based on intuitional philosophy which transcend, or go beyond, ordinary experience. Human reason can deal reliably with phenomena, but there is a world beyond phenomena, and this world is approached through faith and intuition. Transcendentalists tried to receive their inspiration at first hand from the Divine Power. Their God was sometimes called the Over Soul. Whitman's God revealed Himself in nature. The poet's self, inspired by his insights, venerates God, the Divine Reality, who embodies the transcendental self. 4.2.3.2 Check Your Progress: 2 Fill in the blanks choosing the correct alternative. 1. Whitman thanks the earth for giving him ______. a. property b. love c. care d. nature 2 . Whitman is the poet of both ______. a. body and soul b. material and divine c. man and nature d. good and evil 3. His awareness of______is expressed when he calls himself "a kosmos," a. nature and its divinity b. the universe, or cosmic consciousness c. nature and god d. god and angels 4. Whitman realizes that ______are the aspects of the Divine. a. the physical as well as mystical b. mystical as well as religious

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c. spiritual as well as religious d. the physical as well as the spiritual 5. The ______of the poet's experience of self is the ecstasy of love. a. culmination b. foundation c. sensibility d. sensuousness 6. In Whitman's philosophy, the self is purified not through purgation but______. a. through toleration of grief b. through religiously behavior c. through acceptance of the physical d. through repentance of sin 7. In Whitman's poetry, transcendentalism is a word that implies ______a. beliefs based on intuitional philosophy b. beliefs based on spiritual philosophy c. beliefs based on American philosophy d. beliefs based on Indian Philosophy 4.2.3 Section – 3 (Section from 39 to 52) • Sections 39-41 (lines 976-1053) : These three sections express the idea of the poet as a sort of superman, flowing through life and the world doing well. He transforms the common into the Divine. In this process, the "common modes" assume "new forms." He answers the call of the needy and the despairing and even becomes a healer to the dying: "To any one dying, thither I speed/ . . . Let the physician and the priest go home." He would seize "the descending man and raise him with resistless will . . . /By God, you shall not go down! Hang your whole weight upon me." In section 41, the poet assumes the role of the prophet of a new religion, incorporating all religions: 176

Taking myself the exact dimensions of Jehovah, Lithographing Kronos, Zeus his son, and Hercules his grandson, Buying drafts of Osiris, Isis, Belus, Brahma, Buddha, In my portfolio placing Manito loose, Allah on a leaf, the crucifix engraved. He declares that all men are divine and possess powers of revelation equal to any god's. The poet denies significance to old gods because God is to be found in all men. He says, "The supernatural is of no account," meaning that the Divine is here on earth for all men, who must only become ready to accept this divinity. "The friendly and flowing savage" mentioned in section 39 is a key image which sums up the progression of ideas and feelings in this section. This image combines the idea of the primitive ancestor of man with the figure of Christ. He is a healer, a comforter, and a lover of humanity. He raises men from their deathbeds and imbues them with strength and vision. This Christ-like savage merges with the other identities contained in the total idea of the poet's self. The permittivity of savage man is divine; modern civilized man has lost this divinity but is eager to regain it. Whitman's chants recall the experience of Indian sages and mystics (the Samadhi) who, on realizing the state of spiritual absorption, are endowed with divine and superhuman power. The poet is conscious of his newly acquired, holy and superhuman power resulting from the union of his self with the Divine. • Sections 42-52 (lines 1054-1347) : "A call in the midst of the crowd,/My own voice, orotund [strong and clear] sweeping and final," says the poet, who assumed the position of prophet while acknowledging his kinship with mankind. He says, "I know perfectly well my own egotism," but he would extend it to include all humanity and bring "you whoever you are flush with myself." He sees the injustice that prevails in society but recognizes that the reality beneath the corruption is deathless: "The weakest and shallowest is deathless with me." In section 43 , Whitman states that he does not despise religion but asserts that his own faith embraces all "worship ancient and modern." He practices all religions and even looks beyond them to "what is yet untried." This unknown factor will not fail the suffering and the dead. In the next section , the poet expresses his desire to

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"launch all men and women . . . into the Unknown" by stripping them of what they already know. In this way he will show them their relationship with eternity. "We have thus far exhausted trillions of winters and summers,/There are trillions ahead, and trillions ahead of them." The poet is conscious of the confrontation of his self with limitless time and limitless space and realizes that he and his listeners are products of ages past and future. Section 45 again deals with eternity and the ages of man. Everything leads to the mystical union with God, the "great Camerado." In section 46 , the poet launches himself on the "perpetual journey," urging all to join him and uttering the warning, "Not 1, not anyone else can travel that road for you,/You must travel it for yourself." The poet ( section 47 ) says that he is a teacher, but he hopes that whom he teaches will learn to assert their own individuality: "He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher." Section 48 repeats the idea that "the soul is not more than the body," just as "the body is not more than the soul." Not even God is more important than one's self. The poet asks man not to be "curious about God" because God is everywhere and in everything: "In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass." The poet is not afraid of death. In section 49 , he addresses it: "And as to you Death, you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me?" for there is no real death. Men die and are reborn in different forms. He himself has died "ten thousand times before." The poet feels (section 50) there is something that outweighs death, although it is hard for him to put a name to it: "It is form, union, plan — it is eternal life — it is Happiness." The last two sections are expressions of farewell. "The past and present wilt — I have fill'd them, emptied them,/And proceed to fill my next fold of the future." He knows that his writings have been obscure but sees the paradoxes in his works as natural components in the mysteries of the cosmos: "Do I contradict myself? /Very well then I contradict myself,/(I am large, I contain multitudes.)" The poet can wait for those who will understand him. He tells them, "If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles," for he will have become part of the eternal life cycle. Although it may be difficult to find or interpret him, he will be waiting. "Missing me one place search another,/I stop somewhere waiting for you."

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The poet's journey and quest for selfhood have now come full circle. He began by desiring to loaf on the grass and ends by bequeathing himself "to the dirt to grow from the grass I love." These chants contain many of the important ideas and doctrines of Whitman. The poet brings a new message of faith for the strong and the weak, a belief in the harmony and orderliness of the universe. The poet, noting what has been said about the universe, shows how his own theories, which have a more universal scope, transcend them. Assuming the identity of the Savage-Christ, he delivers a sermon which imagines transcendence of the finite through a union of the individual soul with the Divine Soul. The poet offers to lead men and women "into the unknown — that is, into transcendent reality. Whitman talks about the self as part of the eternal life process. There is no death, for man is reincarnated time and time again. The poet speaks about man's relation with the moment and with eternity. Eternity reveals the endlessness of time and like it ‘self’ of the person is seen in the form of endless time. The poet does not prescribe any fixed pathway to the knowledge of the self; it is for each person to find his own way to make the journey. The poet is not afraid of death because death, too, is a creation of God and through it one may reach God. The culmination of the poet's mystical experience is revealed in his vision of eternal life. Life is neither chaotic nor finite; it is harmonious, reflecting the union of the poet's individual soul with the Divine Soul. Grass is the central symbol of "Song of Myself," and it represents the divinity contained in all living things. Although no traditional form is apparent, the logical manner in which the poet returns to his image of grass shows that "Song of Myself" was planned to have an order and unity of idea and image. 4.2.3.3 Check Your Progress: 3 Fill in the blanks choosing the correct alternative given below. 1. The poet assumes the role of the prophet of a new religion, incorporating all______. a. religions b. Gods c. people

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d. beliefs 2. The poet denies significance to old gods because God is to be found in ______. a. all men b. all nature c. all temples d. all the universe 3. Whitman's chants recall the experience of ______. a. Lord Buddha b. Jesus Christ c. Indian sages and mystics d. Mahmmad Paigambar 4. The poet asks man not to be ______because God is everywhere and in everything. a. curious about nature b. afraid of death c. curious about God d. afraid of God 5. The last two sections are expressions of ______. a. Spiritual insight b. universal self c. the poet’s mind d. farewell 6. Each person has to ______to make the journey to the knowledge of self. a. sing prayers b. finds his own way c. help the needy

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d. worship God 4.3 Summary – “Song of Myself” is a celebration of his ‘self’. However, the poem brings the multiplicity of its meaning. Through the poem he explains how much he loves the world, especially nature, and how everything fits together just as it should. Everything is good to him, and nothing is bad that doesn't contribute to some larger good. Nature has patterns that fit together like a well-built house. The speaker divides his personality into three parts: a. The ‘I’ that involves itself in everyday stuff like politics, fashion, and what he's going to eat; b. The ‘Me’ ‘Myself’ that stands apart from the ‘I’ and observes the world with an amused smile; and c. The ‘Soul’ represents his deepest and most universal essence. Whitman thinks it's important for people to learn through experience and not through books or teachers. A child asks him what the grass is, and he doesn't have an answer, which gets him thinking about all kinds of things, but especially about all the people buried in the earth and who comes before him. He identifies with everyone and everything in the universe, including the dead. He imagines that he's a bunch of different people, from a woman staring at naked bathers to a crewman on a ship during a naval battle. His soul takes him on a journey around the world and all over America. Whitman tells us a bit about what he believes and what he's opposed to. Let's start with what he's opposed to: • People who think they preach the truth, like the clergy • Feelings of guilt and shame about the body • Self-righteous judgments On the flip side, Whitman believes that: • Everyone is equal, including slaves • Truth is everywhere, but unspeakable

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• An invisible connection and understanding exists between all people and things • Death is a fortunate thing and not something to fear • People would be better off if they had faith in the order of nature (and death is part of this order) He thinks that people should take pride in themselves. At the end of the poem, he says that he's going to give his body back to nature and to continue his great journey. He'll be hanging out ahead on the road, waiting for us to catch up with him. Although the poem identifies “myself” simply as Walt Whitman, the identity of the speaker is also mythic. Instead of trying to say how unique his feelings and thoughts are, Whitman emphasizes his ordinariness. His ordinariness is in fact so comprehensive that he absorbs each American, past, present, and future. This comprehensive awareness makes the speaker of the poem greater than himself, but it is a greatness and uniqueness that is, he emphasizes, accessible to all. The idea behind “Song of Myself” is that individual identity is temporary but transcendent. The dominant tone of “Song of Myself” is joyous and mystical. The cycle of life renews itself constantly, and so conquers death. If each person absorbs this knowledge, each may feel kinship with all life, and so gain a sense of victory over mortality. “Song of Myself” includes many modulations of tone as it moves toward its climax. To work out the theme of endless renewal, the fifty-two sections of the poem move back and forth between general and specific, between description and emotion, between the body and the soul. “Song of Myself” is a powerful—sometimes shocking—poem of physical identity. Sexuality is part of common humanity, and Whitman ignores pretenses in order to reach to the universal truths of human identity, including the truths of the body. Like the rest of Leaves of Grass , “Song of Myself” is in free verse, or poetry without regular rhyme or meter. Free verse was a perfect form for Whitman to use to explore the themes of identity, nationality, and transcendence in a free country. The national motto—e pluribus unum , out of many one—might equally well serve as the motto for “Song of Myself.” Out of the many ethnic, racial, and gender identities Whitman saw in America, and out of the complexities of his own identity, he forged an epic of transcendent identity.

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The self that Whitman sings and celebrates proves as much a “uniform hieroglyphic” as the grass: equally evocative, multiform, and full of contradictions. It is as much a physical presence as a projected (spiritual) possibility. It is Emerson’s self-engendered, self-reliant man, one who exists not in Thoreauvian isolation but in “ensemble,” speaking the word “en-masse.” As self-appointed bard of democracy, Whitman projects the “I” as expansive and diverse as the country itself, in a poetic form and language as experimental and new as the nation and its democratic political system. Even as it overtly and enthusiastically expresses Whitman’s faith in cosmic evolution and therefore in the essential indivisibility of Emersonian self-reliance and Over-Soul, “Song of Myself” also expresses in the very stridency of its affirmation a division deep within the poem’s prototypical “self,” within the poet himself (psychologically considered), and within the country (both socially and politically). It offers a Transcendentalist solution to the crisis of union that, only five years after the poem made its first appearance, would lead to civil war. “Song of Myself” presents, therefore, a complex set of variations on the theme sounded in more narrowly political terms in Abraham Lincoln’s famous 1858 “A House Divided” speech. The poem did not resolve the national debate, nor did it bring about the Transcendentalist democracy Whitman envisioned—nor, apparently, did it ease the psychosexual divisions within Whitman’s own psyche. Those failures, however, must be measured against the greatness of a work generally regarded not only as its author’s most ambitious but also as one of American literature’s most representative poet. Whitman’s Song of Myself is the longest and the most important poem in The Leaves . It is a long poem in 52 clusters or groups of long lines closely related with each other. Though it is a collection of lyrics, it is epical in its value and significance. Its title implies that in it the poet would sing of himself. He would celebrate himself. But it is as much the song of America as of Walt Whitman. In singing of himself, Whitman sings of America herself. He gives us a panoramic view of the American scene as well as expresses those ideals and values which constitute Americanness. His identification with America and her masses is complete, and this makes the poem ‘the epic of America’, the ‘song of America’, ‘the Bible of democracy’, as well as a celebration of the poet’s own self. It contains the gist of all that Whitman had to say,

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and which he kept on saying in different words and forms all through his life. Song of Myself is the key both to Whitman’s art and his thought. There are at least five possible ways of interpreting the pronoun ‘I’ in the poem. The “I”, in the place, refers to the poet himself. In the second place, it includes all the Americans in their social context and with their heritage. Thirdly, it refers to the natural man who loafs and invites his soul to loaf with him, and who lies down with animals since they, like him, are guided by instinct. It is the primitive similar in nature to the wild hawk. Fourthly, the “I” refers to Everyman, represented by the poet. Finally, it symbolizes the biological race of man. Thus ‘I’ is a complex symbol, an index to the richness and complexity of the poem and a number of varied interpretations are possible. Song of Myself is a new kind of poem which shocked, puzzled and amazed the average reader, but profoundly impressed the new discriminating scholars. This was so because unlike traditional narrative works, it does not possess a beginning, middle, and an end. It seems incoherent, lacking progression and devoid of any rational scheme. Besides this, Whitman’s many technical innovations- his use of verse libre , his compound words and coinages, and his use of unfamiliar foreign words- all came in the way of a proper appreciation of this epoch-making poem. However, critics are now agreed that the Song has a coherent structure, and that there is in it a progression, a logical development of thought, and not aimless wandering. Mysticism forms only one of the any strands in the compete texture of the poem. As already mentioned above, the poem is also the ‘Song of America’, ‘the epic of America’, and “the Bible of the Democracy”, and, therefore, by implication the song of daily life of singing of himself also sings of the Modern Age Man, or the to convey the sense of the entire nation which is America, and this sense is conveyed through his complete identification with America. It is very difficult to deny that America and democracy are the themes of Whitman in the “Song”. His long catalogues, as those in Section 15, including the cheapest and meanest occupations from the President downwards, and his sweeping, ‘omnivorous lines’ are attempts at cramming the whole of America into the limited scope of a single poem. The poet’s complete identity with the masses of America of every race, colour and religion, from the highest to the lowest, is the subject of Section 16.

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It is very difficult to deny Whitman’s theme of American democracy in the face of such strong evidence as we find in the Song . Most of the times, Whitman is given to cataloguing, but his catalogues serve a very useful purpose. They help him to talk of all those rudimentary, common, even vulgar things, which otherwise would never form the subject of poetry. They also help him to translate his broad democratic vision into words. These catalogues help Whitman to identify with the people and objects of the external world. “And this enormous outgoing, identifying power makes these catalogues vibrant with life and interest… because they have become part of the poet’s identity”. Whitman is throughout going out of himself in the Song to identify with the people. Land, grass, water, air and the heavenly bodies are symbols of democracy in the Song, for they are common to all humanity in all ages and countries. By the use of such symbols Whitman’s democracy acquires universal, cosmopolitan dimensions. Indeed, the theme of democracy, brotherhood, fraternity and equality looms so large in the Song that one may be excused for pantheistic justification of Democracy which is his main theme. Mysticism is not as much a theme with Whitman in the “Song of Myself” as an instrument to elaborate his theme of American Democracy and Materialism. Because he has a very glorious vision of the future of America and that future has excited him, he is trying to justify that future. And, as he thinks, democracy can only be justified on the spiritual basis through pantheism. This merely implies a pantheistic or spiritual defence of democracy and not any kind of mysticism. He finds that the basis for America is spiritual democracy. Some critics would call him a mystic, others a pantheist, still others an atheist, but actually it is nothing but a glorification of Democracy itself. Whitman it’s the spiritual democrat and he exalts democracy. In Short, “The Song of Myself” is a complex work of art and it interpretations are bound to be as various and manifold as the critics themselves. In its spirit, in its long catalogues, and in its long “Omnivorous lines” it is an expansionist poem. It is a dramatic poem, an admirable piece of self- dramatization into which the poet has poured his own personality. It is both subjective and objective, the poet celebrates himself, but in celebrating himself, he also celebrates America. 4.4 Terms to Remember – Celebrate – to extol; to make publically known

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Abeyance – temporarily suspended Sufficed at – satisfied at Love- root, silk thread, crotch and Vine – the names of various plants, creepers and shrubs The specters in books – abstract, lifeless teachings of books Inception – beginning Leaving me baskets – their plenty – symbolizes the bless which suffuses the mystic after a mystical experience Broadchoth – a fine woolen cloth Gingham – a coarse cotton cloth Vitreous – glassy; shining like glass Prodigal – extravagant; Earth is here personified as a person, extravagant in his or her love Cartouches – ancient Egyptian oval figures, enclosing divine or royal names Quahaug – a small invertebrate animal with a shell, common in America Callous – hard; insensitive Mania – vehement passion or desire Belocity – speed Omnigenous – of all kinds; containing all Stallion – strong horse meant for breeding Out-gallop them – the poet himself with his own power can surpass the galloping speed of the horse Swoops by – comes down near the poet in hurried motion Gab – the gift of the gab, the faculty of talking too much Yawp – a loud cry or yell Coaxes – persuades by love Effuse – pour shed

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Eddies – small whirls in water Lacy Jags – ragged projections tied with laces Bequeath – given over willingly; surrender 4.5 Answers to Check your progress – 4.2.3.1. Check Your Progress: 1 State whether the following sentences are true or false. 1. True 2. False (The "perfumes" are symbols of other individual selves) 3. True 4. True 5. False (Grass is the key to the secrets of man's relationship with the Divine) 6. False (He doesn’t divide the world into ‘winners’ and ‘losers’) 4.2.3.2. Check Your Progress: 2 Fill in the blanks choosing the correct alternative. 1. b. love 2 . d. good and evil 3. b. the universe or cosmic consciousness 4. d. the physical as well as the spiritual 5. a. culmination 6. c. through acceptance of the physical 7. a. beliefs based on intuitional philosophy 4.2.3.3. Check Your Progress: 3 Fill in the blanks choosing the correct alternative given below. 1. a. religions 2. a. all men 3. c. Indian sages and mystics

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4. c. curious about God 5. d. farewell 6. b. finds his own way 4.6 Exercise – a. Justify Walt Whitman as a poet of democracy with reference to the poem Song of Myself . b. Discuss Walt Whitman as an American spokesman with reference to the poem Song of Myself . c. On the basis of his poem Song of Myself discuss Walt Whitman as a philosopher, propagandist and poet. d. Explain the use of various symbols by Whitman in his poem Song of Myself . 4.7 Reference for further study – i) Tilak Raghukul, History of American Literature , Prakash Book Depot, Bara Bazar, Bareilly, 1993 ii) Quiller-couch, Arthur Thomas, The Oxford book of English of Verse , 1250-1900 iii) Mallarme, Stephane: Collected Poems and Other Verse , Oxford: OUP.2006 iv) Allen, Gay W., American Prosody (N.Y.:1935); an analysis of the poetic technique of Leaves of Grass occurs on pp. 217-243 v) Asselineau, Roger, The Evolution of Walt Whitman: The Creation of a Personality (Camb, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1960).

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