Brainstroming 2.5 Father Returning Home

Video 2.5 Father Returning Home

2.2 Indian weaver

Poem.2.4 Have you earned your tomorrow

                              Have you earned your tomorrow

About poet:-

Edgar Guest

        Edgar Albert guest was a British born American poet who was popular in the first half of the 20th century and became known as the people's poet. The language used by him was so simple to understand. Peoples easily understood the meaning of the poem. He has began his writing career in 1895 at the age of fourteen. His poems often had an inspirational and optimistic view  of everyday life.

About poem:-

        It was first published in The Detriot free press around 1916.In this poem the speaker is asking the readers if they have done anything to improve the life of another human being or not . The poem is address to the reader. Here poet use personal pronoun 'you' to refer the reader and also use 'him' to refer the stranger or known person to whom the reader meet.It is a 4 stanza poem having four lines each.First two and last two lines are rhymed with each other of each stanza. Each stanza contains at least 2 , sometimes 3 questions which probe at once treatment of others.

Paraphrase of poem

First Stanza:-

        In the first stanza poet ask three questions to The reader. He asks reader if anyone remember you when you pass him / her way due to your deeds. Is there anyone who can remember you  to whom you spoke today ?. At the end of working day, is there anyone who can utter or speak kind word to you?. First two questions are the emphasis on unprompted kindness of you. And the last question is about the result of your action that someone calls you.

Second stanza:-

    In the second stanza poet asks if the reader greeted his friends cheerfully or you behaved rudely with them just saying a quick "Hello' and finally you disappeared into the crowd . Did you act selfish and uncaring with them?. He also asks if there was anyone who was thankful you for your help.

Third stanza:-

        In the third stanza poet ask about the readers action poet says that everyone to whom you crossed them they will need different kinds of help. He ask if he had helped anyone fellow during the daytime. Was there anyone whose heart rejoiced due to your action and looked forward courageously?. If you did all these things, it would be sufficient to have " Earned your tomorrow".

Fourth Stanza:-

        In the last stanza poet ask the reader how you spent your day. If you wasted your day without helping others , without creating pleasure in their heart, without increasing hopes into them, without creating smile on their face, you wouldn't have the rights to earn your tomorrow. On the other hand if it was well spent , there will be trial of kindness marking once path through the day. The last two lines tells the reader if you are unsure how is your day was spent, just close your eyes in slumber and think about what God would have to say you. If you spent the day well , definitely tomorrow is assured, and if you don't spent well, tomorrow might not come.

Message to the reader :-

        Here the poet Edgar guest delivers a message through this poem, the message is that if you wasted your day without doing good things for others, without creating smiles on others face, you would not earn your tomorrow. If you spent well your day, definitely tomorrow is assured for you.

Poem 2.5 Father Returning Home

About the poet:

       Dilip Purushottam Chitre (1938-2009) who was celebrated bilingual poet and translator with a remarkable work in Marathi and English language. He was also a painter, filmmaker and magazine columnist. he received the prestigious sahitya akademi award for his poetry as well as his well-known translation work 'Says Tuka' popular abhangas by Sant Tukaram.

About the Poem:

Present poem is taken from the 'Travelling in a Cage'.It is an autobiographical poem which describes the portrait of Suburban commuter who travels daily on daily basis from home to his workplace.it describes loneliness of a person who is a breadwinner of the family he was neglected ,uncared and not given any importance in his own family.

   THEME  :  

                      It is an autobiographical poem.Poet expressed his  feelings towards his father at and old age.it is an account of an old man who worked continuously for his family to complete their needs. But his family members did not share their joys and sorrows with this hard working person.No one is there to take care of him, to converse with him or to understand him.In short we can say that it is  an account of any old man who does the hard work for his family but leads a tiresome ,lonely and dull life.

POETIC STYLE :

                    The poem consists of two stanzas of 12 lines each. It is written in free verse with no particular meter or rhyme scheme followed. The language is easy and simple but full of symbolic expressions and poetic devices like simile , alliteration, transferred epithet, onomatopoeia etc. It is in first person narrative  poem where the poet-speaker narrates his father's life.Poet has used imagery and various descriptive words.

 Paraphrase of the poem :

Ist Stanza:-

      The poem opens with description of his father's return journey towards home from office by train. The father is travelling in a late evening train after finishing his work for the day like other thousands of other commuters. ‘Late evening train’ may indicate he has no personal method of transportation and hour of his journey is late.Father stands among commuters in yellow light of a local compartment. Silent commuters means no will,energy to carry conversations.  Yellow light indicates tiredness of father.Father is not interested to watch  the views outside the train again and again.(unseeing eyes).

The poet tells about the pathetic condition of his father ,as he travels during rainy season.His clothes become damp and dirty.His black raincoat becomes stained with mud and eyesight has become poor.The bag he was carrying was stuffed with books and he was struggling to handle it.The poet’s father gets down from the train. Here Dilip Chitre has used  simile in comparing his father to a  word in a long sentence.He says that his father gets down just "like a word dropped from a long sentence".The father crosses the railway line and runs towards his house,through muddy lanes.His chappals become sticky with mud.

IInd Stanza:-

    Second stanza describes the isolation state of his father in his own home.The poet tell us that his father drinks 'weak tea' and eats 'stale chapati' .This creates an unpleasant atmosphere.Nobody cares for him even at home. He goes into the toilet to think deeply and to seperate himself from mam made world.Toilet is a symbol of his small world.He is terribly shaken when he comes outvof the toilet and trembles (shakes) while washing his hands at the basin. Shaking and trembling of his body indicates his old age and his over thinking about his loneliness. Grey hairs stand for the old age. His children do not interact with him. They do not share their happiness and sorrows with him. Father listens to the radio.Then he goes to sleep.In his sleep,he dreams about his ancestores (  grandparents ,great grandparents & so on )and grandchildren. He thinks about nomads( tribes)entering a subcontinent through a narrow pass. This indicates how society has changed since the ancient times.

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