Fishermen mourned by his wife
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September 19, 2022
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Sri Lankan poetry has a local background with a national flavor and beauty. In this respect the internationally recognized poet Patrick Fernando, stand high. He was a Roman Catholic born in Kaluthara. He lived during the pre-independent and post-colonial period. According to Yasmine Gooneratne "he stands alone as Ceylon's single modern poet of stature".
His poems resemble classical poetry but he uses a definite style of his own to express the ideas and feelings of local coloring. Metaphorical use of language and imagery are the main characteristics of his poetry. One of his thematic aspects of poetry is the magic love in youth and its complex transformation in mature life. ("Adam and Eve", "Folly and Wisdom"). In the later poem he expounded the theme that marriage is a choice by the lovers and not by the parents. During that period, among the middle class it was a problem between love marriages and arranged marriages. This theme is seen in this poem also.
His poetry is full of narrative and dialog and has a story with a retrospective elements. It portrays a highly cultured social order with a fusing of Western modernized society having a religious
value. His own experiences are shown in his poems. According to Kamala de Abrew, "Patrick Fernando, of all Sri Lankan poets in English, displays a cons oems involve ummate mastery of quit cofomrptileixe is plve careful and meticulous, concern with formal structuring. One could say that h lot and action; were it not such matters as versification, rhythm, alliteration, assonance, p fact there is such a fine consonance of form and matter that the form does not draw attention to itself . As with all fine poets, mastery of form creates not and utterance which is simply different from the ordinary, but is more dramatic, precise and emotionally powerful than the ordinary.
"When gulls returned new plumed and wild. When in our wind torn flamboyant' New buds broke, I was with child" .
Realism plays a big role in thispoem where he indulges in poetic description of real life somewhere in the coast line of this country. All our cultural aspects that existed for generation have been depicted very vividly here.
Fernando's works show his classical education with his very sophisticated language. His poems are carefully wrought artistic creations. He is analysing experience but his constant subject is feeling, very often he is concerned with the psychological reaction of his protagonist, sometime similar to Metaphysicals. His greatest strength is that however forceful his images, however vivid the emotions he evokes, however subtle the concepts he forces us to consider, he conveys throughout an abiding sense of moderation, making us share his feelings".
Glossary
Embittered-made hitter, sad; continence — self — control; chaste — pure; detection finding out; discreet — careful; flamboyant — tree with very red flowers; wan — pale; temptation — strong attraction; assuage — lessen suffering; dismemberment — cutting off (of limbs); despoils —plunders.
Commentary
This poem is an elegy — a poem expressing sorrow over the death of a person or death in general. Patrick Fernando uses the narrative style and recapitulates in very striking technique the past as a flash back — the parents proposed marriage, initial emotional difference the husband, natural fears of a rustic uneducated woman bride, and the conceiving of a child. The last changes their-attitude to each other and a strong love is the developed between them. The man went to sea for his living and met with his untimely death. It is only in last stanza that he come to the present. From is given a special significance in this poem. Fernando's well-structured poetry is somewhat akin to classical English poetry. But he has his own distinguishing characteristics.
Versification is very carefully done. We note an inner structure with in the form of the poem which is of special interest. The rhyming pattern of the first stanza changes gradually into a formlessness in the last stanza. Thus indirectly pointing out to the emotional breakdown of the wife. He adopts a highly dramatic and powerfully emotional narration in describing the first wedding night and the conceiving of the child child". _ "When gulls returned, buds broke, I was with child".
The woman's immaturity vividly pictures at the beginning, but the last three lines depict her real character, as a matured person who can look at things of the world in a practical manner. The last sentence brings out without doubt, the woman's maturity achieved through experience and shows that life has to go on now, after the burial of the dead. She cannot yet analyses her feelings she is too close to the event - the shocking untimely death of her breadwinner like a shell and the rain pours down and life has to be lived even though her man is no more.
The poem is written rather as a reverie than as a dramatization of a sad event. Title too has its significance. It is the wife's mourning and not any other's which is quite different. The thoughts that pass through the mind of this woman are given us in language not of hers but of the poet's. The poem skillfully brings out the fear and anxiety that attend and "arranged" marriage especially in the rural areas. The slow but steadily growth of love between them, the baby that comes to her with the beginning of the season of rain and fecundity and the final sorrow of death at sea, details of the loneliness at sea spent by the fisherman, the heaven that is home — all these contribute to make this an interesting poem.
The fifth stanza gives a vivid picture of the man who was young "not quite thirty", inexperienced and "eager to come to one like a sea gull flying home", not cynical or worried about the death at sea. The poem is a mourning of the death of a fisherman by his wife, not a mere lameatation but with feelings having a deeper meaning. In the second verse, the wife says there is no need to tell lies now that the husband is dead and she goes on to recollect the events that had taken place before the present event — the funeral. She goes on in flashback that the marriage was arranged by the parents and the man was a stranger, without any emotional feelings of connections. The wedding night is described dramatically and with deepest emotion, creating vivid pictures. We are made to feel the mixed feelings of dread of a young rural wife soon after her wedding. Her confusion, uncertainties and fears are brought before us as if she is talking to us.
Then in the third stanza nature is brought to play its greatest role in the drama of this couple's married life. Three months of storm at sea thunder cracking from the sky and the rain pouring down, gulls returning after the rain in their feathered purity, and the flamboyant tree bursting into bloom — all these contribute to the breaking of the most vital of news "I knew I was with child". This is given using almost the style of a metaphysical poem, when the fisherman was free to stay at home due to the monsoon, reminding us of the saying in the Mahiyangana area that pregnancies are increased during the drumstick (Murunga) season. That the conception is not the result of an arranged plan is brought out in a subtle manner. The poet brings in the elements here for several reasons. The man was at home so much — 3 months because of rain, which though brings distress and dismay to fisherman, is symbolic of growth and fertility to man, best and vegetation. We can draw a parallel between man and nature.
In the fourth stanza, when she says shyly about the news of the child, the man seemed guilty not desiring to take the responsibility. He nodded at the grown and went to sea. Soon, mutual love developed strongly, dearer than God or any temptation. This takes us to the first stanza to have a look at the man again. The announcement of the conception, seems to surprise the reader. The
man feels guilty, that he had done something wrong. Yet he took it up and went to sea to earn his living. Here the poet keeps us in suspense. The last two lines give the - answer their mutual love binding them till death. In a striking contrast, we note the clumsy young stranger turning out to be familiar as own limb.
The fifth is really the lamentation as the unexpected loss, physical as well as spiritual. The real cause for her grief is given in the last three lines. Here the poet expresses for us her deepest feelings. There is regret, for life not lived at the full and yet a degree of content for these. In the last verse, nature comes back top lay its role again, the storm blowing away the leaves from the flamboyant, thunder cracking the sky like a shell bring the utter confusion but she stands firm as a matured person. After the flash back we are brought to the present here again — the burial before the rain. "Someone practical has gone to bring the hearse". This may be understood symbolically as the maturity of the wife having gone through the hard life. The theme is sociological and has a local coloring. The poet brings out certain positive aspects of our society with deep understanding. He illustrates how arranged marriages develop from the situation from stranger to that deep and lasting love going beyond sex. The form suits the theme perfectly. The pre verse helps to produce the tone of the personal utterances as through the wife is speaking her deep sincerity and truth. The poet has succeeded in dramatizing the woman's sorrow and deep sense of loss.
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