Island- Nissim Ezekiel
poem:-
Unsuitable for song as well as sense
the island flowers into slums
and skyscrapers, reflecting
precisely the growth of my mind.
I am here to find my way in it.
Sometimes I cry for help
But mostly keep my own counsel.
I hear distorted echoes
Of my own ambigious voice
and of dragons claiming to be human.
Bright and tempting breezes
Flow across the island,
Separating past from the future;
Then the air is still again
As I sleep the fragrance of ignorance.
How delight the soul with absolute
sense of salvation, how
hold to a single willed direction?
I cannot leave the island,
I was born here and belong.
Even now a host of miracles
hurries me a daily business,
minding the ways of the island
as a good native should,
taking calm and clamour in my stride.
Description of the poem
Widely considered the ‘Father of Indian English poetry in independent India Nissim Ezekiel shines a shining star.
He was a poet, playwright, critic and teacher.
He often wrestled with ideas of belonging and kindness.
He wrote prose and plays,
He worked as an art critic for the Times of India.
He taught at the University of Mumbai.
He was awarded a Sahitya Akademi award in 1983.
He was also awarded the Padma Shri.
His most famous works include Latter-Day Psalms, The Unfinished Man, Hymns Darkness etc.
His poetry dealt with themes of language and its powers and limitations.
The craft of writing, religion, scepticism, memory, and what it means to be Indian.
N.E. was born in a “modestly” bourgeois Jewish family,
His parents were teachers.
Ezekiel translates poetry from Marathi.
Ezekiel in his plays revealed his frustration for people who go abroad “for false reputation.
Ezekiel also touched on the alienation felt by his ancestors on setting down in the Indian continent.
(a) Ezekiel never shied away from his Jewishness or choice of English as his language.
(b) “Now I am through with the psalms, they are part of my flesh”.
He reiterated the Indianness of his identity, “I have never been a refuse Except of the spirit, A loved and trouble country Which is my house and enemy.
The island is taken autobiographically.
The poem refers to living in Mumbai.
But the poem can be applied to any major population centre.
The poem is 25 lines, divided into five stanzas 5 lines each.
The poem is both a tribute to and a lament of a populous urban environment.
It describes the harsh realities of living in a big city.
The “Island” of the title refers to isolation.
The poem beings saying, “unsuitable for a song as well as sense.
For the poet, the Island isn’t appealing.
All around are “slums and skyscrapers “Dragons are claiming to be humans”
It is a place of loneliness and confusion.
The poet is confused as he hears echoes of his own distorted voice.
But then how could the poet cut himself away from the place?
The place belongs to him.
The city offers “bright and tempting breezes”.
The city still has a well of opportunities and entertainment for its people.
(a) The poet cannot; leave the place, (b) though it may be ‘unsuitable’
(c) through “a host of miracles horrify me to daily business”.
The speaker cannot leave his place.
He feels that “as a good native should take calm and calm in my studio”.
In this poem, the poet tries to picture the merits and demerits of the city lifestyle.
The theme of his works has a philosophical touch also.
The poet that science philosophy and other views have a limitation
It is here that poetry helps us out of any confusion.
Ezekiel for the first time in Indian English poetry made use of irony.
He does this to make poetry meaningful.
There is no second doubt as to why N.E. is called the ‘Father of India'- Auglian poetry.
From “Indo-Ingalian poetry.in” to understand more pov.
Critical Analysis of the Poem:
“Island”, a beautiful lyric, appeared in Hymns in Darkness, which was published in 1976. It is written in five stanzas of five lines each. It deals with his favourite urban theme, the city of Bombay with all its squalor and dirt, noise and violence, poverty and human misery.
It became a part of the poet's consciousness and he could not live without it. Besides “Island”, it forms the theme of “In India”, “Background Casually”, “At the Hotel”, “The Truth about the Floods” and many other poems. Linda Hess writes: “He is a poet of the city, Bombay; a poet of the body; and an endless explorer of the labyrinths of the mind, the devious delving and twisting of the ego, and the ceaseless attempt of man and poet to define himself and to find through all ‘the myth and maze’ a way of honesty and love”.
The poet deftly employs the device of paradox and contrast to describe the city of Bombay. The poem begins seriously enough. The image of the island is worked out at many levels; the city; the poetic self, and maybe, the subcontinent itself.
In the opening stanza, the city of Bombay is described through images as an island of “slums and skyscrapers”. The glaring contrast between the poverty and dirt, symbolised through “slums”, and the radiance of riches, symbolised through “skyscrapers” imparts a sense of reality to the poem. Bombay with its paradoxical growth and contrasts reflects the uneven and paradoxical growth of the poet's mind. He has completely identified himself with it. He has to find his way in it. How succinctly, symbolically and lucidly Ezekiel describes Bombay and his identification with it:
Unsuitable for song as well as sense
the island flowers into slums
and skyscrapers, reflecting
precisely the growth of my mind
I am here to find my way in it.
Despite his complete identification and assimilation with the city of Bombay, he feels utter loneliness and isolation. In the wilderness of isolation, he cries for help but nobody helps him. So he remains silent and keeps his own counsel. The paradoxical character of Bombay has passed into the poet's consciousness, so he hears
…. distorted echoes.
of my own ambiguous voice
and of dragons claiming to be human.
The city has “bright and tempting breezes” which separate “past from future.” The air becomes calm and the poet sleeps “the sleep of ignorance.”
The city dweller, unable to escape to his “Lake Isle of Innisfree”, accepts the paradox:
How delight the soul with absolute
sense of salvation, how
hold to a single-willed direction?
I cannot leave the island,
I was born here and belong
Even now a host of miracles
hurries me to daily business,
minding the ways of the island
as a good native should,
taking calm and clamour in my stride.
The poet has a strong feeling of belonging, of finding his identity in Bombay where he was born and brought up. He cannot do without Bombay. Ezekiel accepts the urban reality with a spirit of resignation and detachment toward “The kindred clamour close at hand. He no longer feels romantically melancholic about his alienation. He takes “calm and clamour” in his stride. He loves the city of Bombay, despite its ugliness and wickedness and the neurosis and maladjustment that it causes.
0 Comments