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3. The Ballad of Father Gilligan

William Butler Yeats

The poem ‘The Ballad of Father Gilligan’ is written by

the renowned Irish poet WB Yeats. This poem is a

Ballad – a poem normally composed in quatrains with a

rhyme scheme of ABCB and which tells a story. This

poem is a typical ballad with all its features. It tells the

story of an old priest.

The poem deals with the themes of the pity and piety of an

old priest, the death and miseries of his parishioners and the

limitless love and mercy of God. The priest Father Gilligan

is very much tired and upset because half of his

parishioners are either dead or in sick-bed due to an

epidemic. The Father is in service of them day and night.

One evening while he was sitting on his chair after long

hours of tiresome work, he was sent for another sick

man. The priest unintentionally whispered in a

complaining voice that he had no rest, no joy and no

peace. Immediately he realized his mistake and repented.

He knelt and begged to God for forgiveness, and in the

prayer he fell asleep leaning over his chair. He woke up

only in the following morning at the time of sparrows

chirp. He realized that he failed in his duties and

frantically rode on his horse so fast with little care to the

sick man’s house. When he reached there, his wife asked

the priest why he came again! She also told that the man

had died an hour earlier as merry as a bird.

From the wife’s words, the priest understood that God

had sent an angel to do his duties in his absence. He said

that the most powerful God who has planets in His care

showed mercy upon the least of His creatures. He knelt

again and prayed in regret and expressed his gratitude to

the merciful God.

‘The green sods’, ‘rocky lane’, ‘moth hour’, the priest

riding the horse’ are some of the visual images. ‘The

sparrow chirp” and the whispering wind that shook the

leaves create an auditory image. The phrase ‘moth-hour

of the eve’ indicates ‘sunset’ time and the ‘sparrow

chirp’ indicates ‘sunrise’ time. There is an example of

personification in the line “And the stars began to

peep”. The man died ‘as merry as a bird’ is an example

of simile. The opening line “The old priest Peter

Gilligan” repeats four times, which can be taken as an

example of Refrain. There are many examples of

Alliteration in the poem such as ‘priest Peter, ‘die and

die’, ‘Mavrone mavrone the man has died” and in “I

have no rest, nor joy, nor peace”. There are examples of

Anaphora by which several lines are started with the

word ‘And’. The lines “And God covered the world with

shade / And whispered to mankind” make an Allusion

to the motherly care and concern of God towards His

creatures. This ballad is comprised of 12 quatrains

(four-line stanzas) having the rhyme-scheme of ABCB.

4. Poetry – Pablo Neruda

The poem ‘Poetry’ is written by the very famous

Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The poetic ecstasy

that the poet experienced when he was embraced by

the poetic creativity is celebrated in the poem. And

this is the theme of the poem as well. This poem is

composed in the Free Verse style, which does not

have a consistent stanza system, metric pattern and

rhyme scheme.

There are three phases or periods of the poet’s

experience depicted in this poem – before the

arrival of the poetry when he wished to become a

poet, when poetry arrived and touched him and

after he composed his first faint lines. The poet says

that the poetry arrived in search of him and touched

him. He does not know where it came from when

and how. He was a man without a name and fame

before the arrival of poetry. When it touched him

he became like a dumb and blind person, but he felt

something started in his soul. He could not name

exactly what it was – it was something like fever

(poetic passion) or forgotten wings (nameless

emotions or inborn but unknown abilities)

Deciphering that poetic passion or fire, he wrote his

first lines. The lines seemed faint and substance- free, pure nonsense or pure wisdom of an

inexperienced person. Anyhow, when he composed

his lines some new world of heavens opened in

front of him. He could see different things in the

universe from planets to palpitating plantation.

Though he was an infinitesimal being and

similarity of ignorance, he could enjoy the beauty

of the starry sky and feel himself to be a part of the

abyss. He could travel with stars and his heart

became free from all confinements as free as the

wind!

This poem is in the Free Verse style. Poetry ‘came

in search of me and touched me’ is an example of

Personification. The poet does not know from

where the poetry came. He doubts whether it is

from the ‘winter’ or a ‘river’.‘Winter’ points to a

‘frozen state’ and ‘River’ to a ‘flowing state’ and

thus the poet creates the figure of speech Contrast.

Expressions like ‘not voices’, ‘nor silence’ ‘pure

nonsense’, ‘pure wisdom’, ‘from the others or

returning alone’ are also examples of Contrast.

There are many instances of Alliteration such as

‘Something Started in my Soul’, ‘fever or

forgotten’, ‘palpitating plantations’, ‘fire and

flowers etc.

English Eduspot

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© Prepared by Mahmud K Pukayoor

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5. Mother to Son – Langston Hughes

The poem ‘Mother to Son’ is written by the very well-know American poet and social activist

Langston Hughes. He was one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, a movement which paved

the way for the social and intellectual enlightenment of the Negro community. This is a dramatic

monologue composed in Free Verse style. In this monologue poem, the speaker is the mother and

the son is a passive listener. The tone of the poem is didactic – that is advising and encouraging the

son to face the difficulties of life.

The mother is an Afro-American woman and appears to be very poor and uneducated or illiterate.

The mother talks to her son about her miserable life experiences. She compares her life to a crystal

stair and says that her life has never been luxurious, comfortable or beautiful as a crystal stair. Her

stair of life is full of tacks, splinters and is made up of torn-up boards, which means that her life is

difficult, sorrowful and poverty-stricken. Her struggles for existence have never been easy. Her life

has always been painful and bare of all comforts. While climbing the life’s stairs, very rarely only

she reaches a landing place – gets a comfortable time. Most often she has to turn corners and

sometimes she reaches in complete darkness without any light. She means that sometimes she

reaches completely in hopeless and helpless situations without having anyone to help. But even in

her old age, she has never given up hopes or hard work. She wants her son also to work hard and face

challenges in life boldly.

The mother advises her son not to turn back or sit down or fall down on the steps of the life’s stairs.

She also encourages him to face the difficulties and to succeed in life looking at her and learning

lessons from her life.

The poem is in Free Verse so that it has no consistent stanza system, no rhyme-scheme or no metric

pattern (consistency in line-length).The life of the mother is compared to a crystal stair and the

journey of life is compared to climbing the steps. Thus the figure of speech the extended metaphor

is very aptly used in the poem. The language of the poem is an Afro-American dialect, which

depicts the mother’s backwardness, poverty and illiteracy. Examples of Alliteration can be seen in

the line “Don’t you set down on the steps”. Also, there is an example of Assonance in the line “So

boy don’t you turn back” where the vowel sound /o/ is repeated. Examples of Anaphora can also be

seen in the poem, by which the word ‘And’ is repeated consecutively at the beginning of several

lines.

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