Arraignment Of The Men - Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

As we are introduced to the poem, and particularly its name, it is made very clear, as to what is going to be imparted to us in the five minutes of this beautiful piece of poetry.

This piece is written by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz during the latter half of the 17^th century. 

Considering the context and the background of the poetess is very important in this case, as there is a brief lapse that distorts the ideas of the 21^st century from the ideas of the 17^th century.

From being a self-taught scholar and poet, she was also a Hyronymite Nun of New Spain. Considered to be a well-known Mexican writer and also a writer of the Spanish golden age, she has carried two literary emblems to her deathbed. Being a woman and realising the potential of women as human beings (with lost hope); through her work, she has made it a point for everyone to realise that women are no less than men.

In this piece a very particular trend can be noticed; that of degrading men and accusing them of the women’s societal problems (which of course make sense). Right from the name of the poem to the last stanza, words such as, ’perverse’, ’witless’, ’levity’, ’crass’, ’creatures’ etc. are either used to describe men or what they do to the women or even the reaction to the thought of woman. 

Considering the context the argument seems feasible. It can be said that the social concept of gender equality didn’t really exist. Women never got a chance to explore or show their talents unless they were asked or allowed to do so.

Men and their dominating nature was narrated in this piece as well. Almost in every stanza the will of men is discussed and the fact that everything that the man wants to happen will happen and has to happen. ‘Witless Laws’ made by men with ‘logic crass’ isn’t exactly the best thing to have in this world. How these laws restrict women from achieving anything and the minimal freedom that is parted to them is reflected after a good reading of this poem.

Women being just objects of use and the hypocrisy that men employ when it comes to women is also a prevalent motif among the piece. The last stanza rightly proves so.

In this very biased piece of verses, she has brought about a certain disruption in the thought of equality and contrasts the point of the poem as she makes the user think of distinguishing man and woman instead of equality. Considering the time period this poem was written in shows us the inhumane gender inequality that existed. With the extreme gender partition that this poem creates, enchants one into thinking of man and woman as two different entities opposed to just human beings. That seems to be the only downside to the poem’s conclusion.

The Deer at Providencia - Annie Dillard

The Deer at Providencia is a short story by Annie Dillard which deals primarily with our response to suffering.

The story goes as follows. The author along with 3 of her friends from North America, are on vacation in the Amazon jungle, eating lunch with a tribe. While they are eating, the narrator notices a wounded deer tied to a pole. Upon asking the villagers about it, she discovers that it was caught in the morning and will probably be prepared for the evening meal. After the meal, she overhears some of the other tourists talking about her and her apparent lack of sympathy for the wounded creature. They are certain that if any of their wives were in her stead, they would have cried or at least attempted to help the deer. From this point, the story takes an abrupt turn.

The author immediately, with a switchover of barely a line or two, begins to talk about a man she had read about in the newspaper who had been burned severely for the second time. She describes the torment and agony that such victims must go through day after day and the high suicide rates of burn survivors. The story concludes with her giving a pitying glance and a kind word to the deer, followed by the line, “I knew at the time it was a ridiculous thing to say.”

The primary theme throughout the piece is that of the mystery of suffering, of pain and sorrow, and of its universality. People from all walks of life must endure it, money has no weight in its hands.

The vivid contrast between a bunch of well off people pitying an injured deer and a hideously burned man in pain and with no reason to live on, provides rooting for the aforementioned concept of sorrow’s universality. The tone in which the first half is written is quite descriptive and realistic, on a relatively upbeat note. The second part of the story is written with vivid details of the man suffering, and by doing so, renders the seemingly insignificant suffering of the deer obsolete.

The only thing in common between these two almost entirely clashing themes is the concept of suffering and our inability to do anything about it. The narrator couldn’t help the deer with her kind words at the end, and neither could she help the burn victim with a consoling letter. The implied conclusion is to accept that suffering is present in the world, but also accept the fact that the vast majority of the time, there is little to nothing that we can do about it.

Tow Path - Imtiaz Dharker

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1.

Every step we take

Could have been a step

In another direction.

This time we choose

To go to the canal.

By the time we reach it

The day decides to stop

Following us around.

·         First Line. Here, we refers to women in general. Women of the Indian tradition and culture to be specific.

·         Second, Third Lines. These lines clearly suggest the lack of independence given to women considering the path they are allowed to follow. Even these paths they are allowed to choose from are laid down by the society.

·         Fourth, Fifth Lines. The women finally have to make a choice similar to the other choices given unto them by the society. Generalizing the kind of choices that are given to them, it becomes very clear that most of these are based on serving the men of the world and carrying out the traditional household duties. In this line the woman chooses the path to the canal to fetch water for the household.

·         Sixth, Seventh, Eighth Lines. It takes long for the women to bring back water from the canal. By the time they arrive its sundown already. And usually in villages women leave their homes in the morning and they have to travel by foot to reach the canal which is the closest source of drinkable water. By the time they reach there its afternoon and by the time they come back, its sunset. Much of the water either evaporates or spills as they carry it back to their homes.

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2.

While we are picking

Our way down, watching our feet

The parks pack up, the city

Moves a few miles away.

Children’s voices are balloons

Released to open sky.

Behind us footsteps fade,

Streets turn into water.

·         First, Second Lines. As the women are going back to their villages through the cities which they have to pass as they go back home, the look down in shame to the ground as they are looked down upon by the society. There is a fear which has evolved within the females as they have been brought up in a certain congested way giving rise to narrow-mindedness, discouragement to move forward in life.

·         Third- Eighth Lines. In these lines one can see as how everything is moving away from women. As they continue travelling on their pre-laden path, they experience a gradual increase in loneliness. Here, the city moves away from them as they don’t serve any purpose there. Children abandon them as they get married and move on with their lives. Footsteps here symbolise the history of the women which isn’t preserved in any form. Like footsteps on the beach their impressions in the sand are ignored and these impressions fade away.  The line ‘Streets turn to water’ suggests that all the roads they have travelled throughout their lives are as plain as water. They cannot be distinguished anymore like the Atlantic which sunk to the sea and no one can tell if such a feat was really accomplished or was it just a story.

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3.

Leaf by leaf, the day grows smaller.

Whoever we are now,

This has been bequeathed to us.

Every other claimant has stepped aside.

Our steps the only steps.

The last finger of light points out

Landmarks we do not recognise.

·         First Line. This line tells us that it is autumn and winter is close suggesting death and how is moving near to them.

·         Second, Third Lines. The will of women is not given to women by themselves. It’s a will of society forged by men under selfish circumstances. This will has become so common that women also feel that they should follow the tradition which has been bequeathed to them by the society without and prejudice or reasoning of any kind.

·         Fourth, Fifth Lines. Here claimant refers to man who accepts women for an arranged marriage. Widows here haven’t been accepted by any man for marriages. Unmarried women in India and women who cannot bear children are deemed as cursed women by the society. The line ‘Our steps the only steps’, tells us that these widows move along this beach of life alone without anyone beside them. When death strikes their existence seems much useless as they have no material existence nor are they remembered by anyone rendering their lives almost non-existent.

·         Sixth, Seventh Lines. In the end when women get hope and direction it is hard for them to understand how exactly they get on with their lives after living in such a monotonous and suppressive society. Here, ‘Finger of light’ symbolises direction which gives the women hope and ‘landmarks’ here show the destination of arrival where women might find a new life to start. But what is the use when one does not know how to use the boat when he/she has to travel by the river even if they have the boat of the best kind.

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4.

Still, between the cobbled banks,

Cradled by bare branches.

We know we will be safe.

Now, even the unknown path

Will tow us home.

·         In this stanza, ‘home’ refers to the old life that they followed. This stanza tells us that, whatever path these women take, in the end, they would always end up going home. Change is something that is very uncommon and they do not expect it to happen anytime soon suggesting that they have lost hope in hope itself.

·         The word ‘Tow’ over here has been used very intelligently. This can be taken in a very aggressive sense as ‘tow’ is a strong word. The poetess is trying to tell us that whatever happens in the lives of these women, in the end they are dragged back to their normal lives of service and solidarity.

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Core themes:-

.Freedom

.Gender politics

.Communal Conflict

.Violence, Oppression

.Injustice

.Feminism

.Journeys

Songs of the Ganga - Arvind Krishna Mehrotra

Songs of the Ganga by Arvind Mehrotra personifies the Ganga into different things and also uses it as a symbol for life. The Ganga rises in the Western Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and flows south and east through the Gangetic Plain of North India into Bangladesh, where it empties into the Bay of Bengal.(…)This river is precious as a religious entity and also acts as a lifeline for millions of people who use the water from Ganga. Considering this, the river Ganga is a very good symbol for life and the poem bring it out beautifully with vivid descriptions.

1.

I am Ganga Snow from the mountains. The keeper of water. 

I am the plains I am the foothills I carry wishes of my streams, to the sea.

I am both man and woman.

I am paper boats for children. I am habits for fishermen. I am a cloud for shaven monks. I reflect all movements.

I am the bridge. I am the fort and the archer taking aim. I am the great dissolver of men 

I give life and I take it back. 

·         The first line of the stanza is Ganga describing itself and its point of origin, i.e. the Ganga is formed from the snow of the Himalaya. By the keeper of water it says that it isn’t water but an entity which carries water, like the goddess Ganga.(…)

·         The second line suggests the path that the river treads, it travels the plains as well as the foothills after descending from a mountain. The wishes here mean the baths that people take to wash away their sins are taken from the streams to the Bay of Bengal. Desires of my streams can also mean the natural force of gravity which carves way for the river.

·         The third line says that it is middle way, neither man nor woman. This suggests that the Ganga doesn’t differentiate between man and woman. And there is also a Hindu concept having to do with seeing through or resolving opposites.

·         The fourth line basically says that it contains everything that a human may need. May it be fun, fish, inspiration etc. (respectively).

·         The fifth line. I am the bridge is a symbolic element here suggesting the bridge between life and death, from material existence to spiritual existence, as the ashes of most dead Hindus are given back to the Ganga as it is said to be the source of life. The Ganga has enough power to guard an area (fort) with its tides and still enough power to destroy it too (archer). It dissolves the ashes of the dead (Great dissolver).

·         The sixth line. As Ganga is the bridge connecting material existence and spiritual existence it says that it gives life and takes it back. Putting it in a rational context this could mean that the water from the Ganga helps millions of people to survive, and when the Ganga gets flooded it could take all the life back.

2. 

I go out into the world, I am the world, I am nations, cities, people I am the pages of an unbound book.

My room is the air around me.

I am dressed in water, I am naked as water, I am clarity.

A friend comes along offers me a flag and says a government has toppled.

I’m going to catch rain, I say and spread out a net .

I am poison.

·         The first line here shows how Ganga spans along a wide area and is a part of people’s life. It is an unbound book as there is no telling how the Ganga may grow what would happen next with the Ganga, will it flood? Would it not? Etc.

·         The second line just says that the only thing that’s around Ganga is the air around it. This line is kind of important as air is seen as a free element of nature, but thinking about it closely, so is water. Water is just more disciplined than air and is also very free.

·         The third line. The waters of the Ganga are clean and clear. You could see through them. By clarity it means that it can give you the answer to all questions. This is religious symbolism considering all travellers in search for enlightenment visit the Ganga River at least once in their lives.

·         The fourth line. This line suggests independence and the fall of the British Government.

·         The fifth line. As it is going to rain, the river Ganga spreads out a net and increases in volume.

·         The sixth line in relationship with the fifth line can be used to trace out an aspect of death. This suggests that the fifth line could mean that the Ganga is going to flood now.

3. 

Billy goats, come down from the mountain. Without finding solitude, camels return from the desert. 

I make two lines in the sand, and say they are unbreakable walls. 

I make the four directions one, I know the secret of walking. 

I am the death of fire.

·         The first line. Goats come down from the mountains to quench their thirsts and camels return from the desert for the same.

·         The second line. A small stream of water can turn into a canyon over years of erosion forming structures similar to huge unbreakable walls.

·         The third line. The Ganga washes away four directions and makes it one. Contrasting this statement the secret of walking states that the Ganga understands all kinds of movements. The arrogance in the last statement is balanced with the humility of this one.

·         The fourth line. This line is self-explanatory.

4. 

From smoke I learn disappearance from the ocean unprejudiced 

From birds How to find a rest-house in the storm 

From the leopard How to cover the sun with spots 

In summer I tend watermelons and in flood I stay near the postman’s house 

I am a beggar I am a clown and I am shadow less.

·         The first line talks about the evaporation of sea water and romanticizes with the subject. The ocean is unprejudiced as it does not distinguish between man and animal and devours them both at point.(Life of Pi Reference)

·         The second and the third line tells us about the things that the Ganga has learned from the animals. (More romanticization.)

·         The fourth line. In summer watermelons which grow in the waters of the Ganga are eaten by us, hinting us that in one way or other the Ganga has given water to us all. The postman’s house is usually located in the most suitable location which is easily accessible.

·         The fifth line. Here beggar, and clown are used in a very random sense suggesting that the Ganga can be anything and is everything. I am shadow less means that, the Ganga does not have an end nor do people know where it properly starts (until recently).

This stanza tells us of the experiences the river Ganga has had. And how instead of us learning from it al the time it learns from us too. Us meaning everyone else other than itself as it is non prejudiced it takes humans and animals and birds as one.

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References:

https://www.englishforums.com/English/HelpMeWithThePoemGanga/wcch/post.htm

Nani - Kamala Das

Nani, by Kamala Das is a poem symbolic in itself of the problem risen due to Castism and nonchalance towards the woman figure. Nani, is a maid who worked for Kamala Das’s family at the time when she was a kid. One day suddenly she hangs herself to death in the privy. Thinking of this as a game that Nani might be on, Kamala Das who was a little girl that time thought that Nani was just trying to amuse them. The fact that Nani was there hanging for three hours is morbid indeed. When Kamala Das asked her Grandmother of the Nani, she refused to have any memory of someone like her. And after that lines of logical and philosophical introspection are laid out unto such truths of life.

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“Nani, the pregnant maid hanged herself

In the privy one day.”

These opening lines of the poem tell us that Nani hung herself with a baby in her womb. Considering that she was a working Dalit class woman, the burden of having a child would’ve made her do so as she wouldn’t have been able to provide for the child. From other sources this also suggests that the maid would’ve gotten pregnant from sexual abuse by her master.

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“…a clumsy puppet, and when the wind blew

Turning her gently on the rope, it seemed

To us who were children then, that Nani

Was doing, to delight us, a comic dance…”

The poetess being a child at the time could not understand what happened here, so she assumed that Nani was playing a puppet game of some sort. This is symbolism to Nani’s job as Nani was only a puppet to the family she worked for, and her life was getting worse and worse day by day.

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“The shrubs grew fast. Before the summer’s end…

…doorway and the walls”

This set of lines suggest the passing away of time without notice. This is very contrasting as someone’s death usually makes the environment a bit gloomy, dull and eerie. Here Nani’s death didn’t have any effect on the people, just as if she wasn’t even a person and all her life was in vain. This makes us question humanity and the caste system which has made people heartless.

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“The privy, so abandoned,

Became an altar then, a sunny shrine,

For a goddess who was dead.”

The above tells us that Nani was a Goddess. This must mean that Nani must’ve been a really good and caring person. So humane that she was eligible for the title of Goddess. It’s in the humanity that we find God, and not in the heavens.

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“Another year or two, and I asked my Grandmother one day,

Don’t you remember Nani, the dark plump one?

Who bathed me near the well…?

Grandmother shifted her reading glasses on her nose, and stared at me.

Nani, she asked, who is she?

With that question ended Nani.

Each truth ends with thus a query.”

The poetess asks of her Grandmother about Nani, but the grandma refuses to have any memory of her. It is heart breaking to know that a person can forget about such an incident that happened in their own house, where a kid remembers it and you can’t. Well it is justifiable that the lady is old and maybe can barely remember anything. But this is just one perspective to these lines. The last three lines in the above excerpt suggest that the grandma might’ve done it willingly so that her granddaughter doesn’t have to remember a death from her childhood. The last three lines tell us how with one sentence how a person’s memory can be erased from existence, how truths can be manipulated to look like nothing with constant unreasonable questions and questioning.

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“It is this designed deafness,

That turns mortality into immortality,

The definite into the soft indefinite.

They are lucky, who ask questions,

And move on before the answers come.”

From here the poetess writes about the ethical aspect of the poem. The designed deafness meaning, the way people selectively ignore something instead of listening to the point and analyzing it. This turns mortality to immortality because if something is questioned and the answer received is very appropriate, it would replace the original truth in context with a new truth. This makes the truth before mortal as it is no more and hence this designed deafness helps retain immortality in ideas.

Those who do not question these truths are happy as they have something that is very constant and they believe that it would be constant hence they do not have to deal with the soft indefinite. Whereas, the ones who keep asking questions have nothing constant in their life in terms of truth, their idea of truth keeps changing and so does their mind.

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“Like music in the Koel’s egg,

Like lust in the blood,

Or Like sap in a tree”

This is the end of the poem and symbolises human nature in 3 contexts. All humans are the same. All of them have lust in the blood just like the Koel who would break the egg and grow to sing, and sap in a tree which can’t be seen but is there.

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Nani is a complete poem in the sense of bringing out the inhumanity in us and showing us the way to retain our own true nature or will by following what is given unto us and respect it.

A London Cab Horse - Anna Sewell

A London Cab Horse is an extract from Black Beauty, written by Anna Sewell. In it, the author narrates from the point of view of the horse. Throughout the extract, the author focuses primarily on the pleasures the horse derives from the kindness of its owners, its fellow horses, and its experiences in the city as a cab horse.

The passage begins with the horse’s introduction of his new master and the latter’s family. She speaks briefly of the wife, children, and the other horse of the master; an old stallion who used to belong to an officer in the Crimean war. She goes on to describe the next morning and the process of readying and grooming her. In the afternoon she is put into the cab (tethered to the carriage), and sets off to the cabstand.

At the cabstand sundry other cab drivers gather around her, passing remarks. After some time, a senior cabbie driver by the name of Grey Grant comes up to her, and compliments her owner on his choice.  He is portrayed as a kindly trusting and optimistic person.

The narrator then proceeds to describe the frightening noise and bustle of the jostling city, but how her fears were abated owing to the masterful skill of her driver. She continues to compliment him for the rest of the story; speaking of how he never took to the whip but guided with gentle whispers, and how he gave them (the horses) sufficient food and water, with ample living space.

The primary theme in this piece would be a rather subliminal message of human-animal equality. The author’s choice to write from the perspective of the horse, rather than the perspective of a human, serves this purpose greatly. It is already established that Anna Sewell’s intent behind the writing of this book was to induce a kindness and sympathy in those that owned and reared horses.

Another aspect, from more of a historical basis as opposed to a literary one, is that most horse owners, cab drivers in particular, tended to mistreat their horses. In attempts to cut costs and maximize profits, many chose to keep their horses tethered outdoors, and never bothered to supply them with fresh water. The optimistic trajectory of the story line in the passage is indicative of the author’s mentality. By combining the aspect of the perfectly functioning give and take relationship between the horse and its owner, and the optimistic path of the story line, the writer seems to be appealing to the reader’s humanity; inducing the thought that properly caring for the horse would not be a lost investment, rather, the horse would be more cheerful and obedient if it were treated such. 

Songs of the final meeting - Anna Akhmatova

“Song of the Final Meeting” is a poem by Anna Akhmatova, a famous Russian poet who lived most of her life in the early 20^th century. Owing primarily to the time into which she was born, a time in which many atrocities and horrific crimes were being perpetrated by the Communist government, she was a strong voice against Stalinism. This, combined with the fact that she was a woman, provided her poems with a unique touch, one not present in the other contemporary poetry of that time.

The poem, “Song of the Final Meeting”, examines, with the usage of colorful imagery and numerous apt metaphors, the end of a relationship between two lovers, as narrated by the female party.

The poem begins with the following lines:

_____________

My breast grew helplessly cold,

But my steps were light.

I pulled the glove from my left hand

Mistakenly onto my right.

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The first line itself establishes the tone and emotions associated with the poem. The first line in this stanza serves to evoke a sense of impending doom, a cold unshakable dread that fills one’s chest. The use of the word, “helplessly”, in this line, induces a melancholic sense of bleak inevitability in the reader, the knowledge that the final outcome cannot be changed, try as one might. The second line can be interpreted as the poet’s mental response to these emotions.  It suggests that, bleak as the future may be, there is nothing that she can do about it (linked to concept of inevitability on first line), and being such, there is no need to worry about it, thus, her steps are light.

In the 3^rd and 4^th lines of this stanza, the poet, citing an apt example of her putting on the wrong glove, conveys her absence of mind to the reader. The probable and logical cause for her being preoccupied, based on the previous lines, would be her anticipation, and simultaneous dread, for the meeting

The second stanza is as follows:

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                It seemed there were so many steps,

                But I knew there were only 3!

                Amidst the maples an autumn whisper

                Pleaded: “Die with me!”

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In this stanza, the first line can be interpreted as being indicative of the ever growing sense of anticipatory dread felt by the poet. Anticipation so much that one can hardly focus on their surroundings, is the general concept put forth. The second line shows, once again, the absent-mindedness of the poet at this stage, linking back to the same concept in the last two lines of the first stanza.

In the third line of the above stanza, an important aspect is introduced which, if interpreted on a physical level, serves to describe the environment. The short phrase used by the author, of the maple trees through which the poet walks, combined with the reference to autumn, induces a powerful image of her surroundings in the reader’s mind. The usage of maple trees, in particular, contributes greatly to this effect, seeing as how they possess their telltale bright orange leaves during autumn.

The use of the word ‘autumn’ in the third line, if interpreted symbolically, could be understood as a metaphor for unavoidable change. Autumn, the season in which leaves turn orange and fall from their branches, is the end of the spring and the beginning of the long, hard, cold winter. As it affects nature so drastically, reflected in the mass migrations of animals, and the telltale orange color taken on by leaves of trees in the North West, it is bound to, and does, evoke very strong emotions in one. In the words of Ernest Hemingway in ‘A Moveable Feast’,

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold wintery light…When the cold rains kept on and killed the products of spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.”

The above quote quite aptly epitomizes the negative emotions induced in one during such a season. The writer, Anna Akhmatova, manages to link the above emotions related to autumn, with the emotions and feelings associated with the end of a relationship.

In many pieces of classical literature, autumn is symbolic of the earth with respect to beginning and end, harvest, and the end of spring, the leaves falling from the branches. It is also commonly used to represent an end, in the literal sense; the end of summer is naught but the beginning of fall.  In poetry especially, spring is associated with youth and new, budding life. Summer is the pinnacle of life, when you are older, but still young enough to have family, success, etc. Autumn is often the time of retirement, but you have a sense of fulfillment, richness, wisdom, freedom. Winter is old age, illness, the death of loved ones and, ultimately your own death. The author has managed to take the above symbolism, and twist it, ever so slightly, so that, rather than the seasons being indicative of the course of one’s lifetime, they represent the inevitable stages of a relationship. The stage in which the author is currently, autumn, represents the inevitable and unstoppable transition of summer to winter, happiness to gloom, and joy to melancholy.

In the third line of this stanza, the autumn whisper could be interpreted as being the voice of change inevitable. The words which precede it, the reference to the maple tree, further strengthens this concept. The maple trees, whose leaves are green during spring, turn a bright signature orange-red color during autumn. This fact would strengthen the aforementioned interpretation of autumn representing an inevitable change, unavoidable, destined by time to occur. The fourth line, the pleading of autumn to the author, for the latter to die with the former, if interpreted with relation to the above metaphor (autumn representing change), could be likened to the end of a relationship. The ‘death’ of which autumn speaks, could be nothing more than the inevitable coming of change, the unavoidable transition from summer to winter through autumn. Just as autumn is but a temporary season, so is the life of the author’s relationship, bound to eventually draw to an end.

The second stanza, particularly the second half, deals primarily with the obstacles faced by the author (the symbolism of autumn, and the oncoming inevitable change the author is faced with, depicted through metaphors). The third stanza however, deals primarily with the author’s reaction to aforementioned events. The third stanza goes as follows:

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I’m led astray by evil

Fate, so black and so untrue.

I answered: “I too dear one!”

“I too, will die with you…”

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                The tone of the third stanza is quite dark. A sense of depression and treachery permeates the paragraph. The personification of evil in the first line, combined with the usage of the phrase, “Led Astray”, evokes a sense of betrayal in the reader. The second line, “Fate, so black and so untrue,” is reflective of the extremely bleak and seemingly desolate future faced by the poet.  The word ‘untrue’, links back to the concept of betrayal and misleading, as shown in the previous line.

                The third line of this stanza consists of the poet’s response to autumn’s whisper (concept introduced in the final two lines of the second stanza). She accepts the latter’s proposition, as stated in the next line. Her answer, her agreeing to die with autumn, is indicative of her acceptance of change, her indomitable will to move on. The ellipses, however, that is present at the end of the sentence, provides the image of doubt in the reader’s mind. Despite the poet’s attempt to accept the change, there is still a part of her that dares to hope for a brighter tomorrow.

                The fourth and final stanza, is the conclusion of the poem. It also descriptively portrays, for dramatic effect, the environment, the house, in which the poet is, presumably with her lover. It is as follows:

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                This is a song of the final meeting.

                I glanced at the house’s dark frame.

                Only bedroom candles burning

                With an indifferent yellow flame.

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                A dramatic effect is created by the iteration of the title in the first line of the stanza. It instills a sense of ending, a culmination of sorts, in the reader. The second line of the stanza gives the reader the first image of her current surroundings. The context in which the word ‘glanced’ is used in the second line could indicate a lack of interest of sorts, on the writer’s part. The usage of the word ‘dark’ to describe the house, is partially responsible for the gloomy and depressing atmosphere that permeates the final stanza.

                The third line, if interpreted on a physical level, completes the setting of the environment. The burning of the candles may also be simultaneously interpreted on a symbolic level. Just as the candle burns bright with a beautiful flame, it is this very flame which, over time, takes its toll on the candle, devouring more and more of it, until finally, the flame is extinguished. Many parallels can be drawn between this process and a relationship. The candle may represent the energy and efforts put forth by each respective party into the relationship, the flame, the fruits or products of aforementioned efforts, the flame of love. Over time however, the flame begins to dim, as the candle shortens. Eventually, there is no wick left in the candle, no more than has been can be given. At this final point, the flame of love is extinguished.

                The final line of the poem is, by far, the most powerful, in terms of the emotions evoked in the reader, and, at the same time, the line most open to interpretation in the poem. Before I continue, let me elaborate on the rather small, yet still quite ironic concept, introduced in the last two lines of the final stanza.

                Candles, as a whole, are extremely linked to romantic settings and intimate environments. Just as people find the sight of the setting or rising sun romantic, so is the same with candles. The dim light of the flickering candle flame seems to hide one’s imperfections and bring one’s strengths and positive qualities to the forefront. For these reasons, candles are generally associated with romance and love. In this case however, candles illuminate the room of the lovers’ final meeting. The fact that a symbol for romance and love is present in such a depressing and melancholic atmosphere, evokes a sort of dark irony in the reader.

                The ‘yellow’ color of the flame mentioned in the final line, represents a good deal. The color yellow, in general, as it is the color of the sun, is associated with feelings of joy, happiness, and well being. As can be gleaned from the general tone of the poem, the above effect is far from the effect the writer was trying to convey. It can be noted however, that certain negative emotions and feelings are associated with this same color. Dull (dingy) yellow represents caution, decay, sickness (owing to jaundice), and jealousy. As the phrase, “Yellow-Bellied coward”, indicates, yellow can also be associated to feelings of cowardice, unfaithfulness, and most importantly, betrayal. This concept of betrayal can be linked back to the sense of the same, generated in the first two lines of the third stanza.

                Finally, the indifference of the flame, of which the author speaks, has a great deal of symbolism. The candle seems unperturbed by the events unfolding around it. Be it on a romantic date or a tragic setting, such as the one painted verbally by the author, the candle still shines the same, not altered in the slightest by heavy-hearted tears or the laughter rife with mirth of those around it. While, in the minds of the once lovers, an indescribable amount has changed, the candle is not altered in the slightest, still flickering in the darkness, with its dim yellow flame.

                Also, the concept of nature, despite being one that is not directly referenced throughout the poem, still pervades the overall essence of the piece by providing a vivid image in the back of the reader’s mind of the poet’s surroundings, and, at the same time, being used symbolically and metaphorically by the poet. On a physical level, the usage of nature, primarily in the 3^rd line of the 2^nd stanza, provides a vibrant setting of the author’s environment for the reader. On a metaphorical level however, the use of nature in the poem is symbolic of change, unstoppable and inevitable, likened, by the author, to the changing of seasons.