UNIT 20 WALT WHITMAN

Contents
20.0 Objectives
20.1 Introduction
20.2 Whitman
20.3 'Passuge to India'
20.3.1 Outline of the poem
20.3.2 Interpretation
20.3.3 Poetic Devices in 'Passage to India'
20.4 '0 Captain! My Captain!'
20.4.1 Outline of the poem
20.4.2 Interpretation
20.4.3 Poetic Devices in the poem
20.5 Summing Up
20.6 Answers to Self-check Exercise

20.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading the unit, you should be able t o analyse critically the following poem of
Whitman :
'Passage to India' and
'0 Captain! My Captain!'

20.1 INTRODUCTION
In the previous Unit, we discussed two poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson. We shall
discuss in this Unit two poems by another American poet called Walt Whitman who wb a
contemporary of Emerson. We shall, in the following sections, study and analyse the
poems "Passage to India" and "0Captain! My Captain!" by Whitman.

20.2 WHITMAN (1819-1892)

AS journaiist, Whitman worked on various newspapers such as 'The Long Islander',
'The New York Aurora' and 'The Brooklyn Evening Star'.' In 1855 he published the
first edition of his magnum opus, Leaves of Grass. Being a prolific writer, he
produced many poems till his death ip 1892.
On reading the first edition of the Leaves of Grnss written by Whitman, I'horeau-his
contemporary writer and a friend of Emerson-commented that the book was
'wonderfully like the Orientals'. Emerson found in it 'a mixture of the Bhagavad Gita
of the Hindus and the New York Herald. Sir ~ d w i nArnold and Roma in Rolland
perceived the Indian parallels in Whitman. Swami Vivekananda read and re-read the
'Song of Myself and concluded that Whitman was a great Sanyasin. Rabindranath
Tagore declared "no American has caught the oriental spirit so well as Whitman."
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, in his Eastern Religions and Western Thought, wrote :
"Whitman turns to the East in his anxiety to escape from the complexities of
civilisation arid the bewilderment of a baffled intellectualism'?
U

20.3 'PASSAGE TO INDIA'

(1)
Singing my days
Singing the great achievements of the present
Singing the strong light works of engineers
Our modern wonders, (the antique pondous seven
out vied) 5
In the old world, the east, the Suez Canal
The New by its mighty railroad spann'd
The seas inlaid with eloquent genile wires;
Yet first to sound, and ever sound, the cry with
thee 0 soul, 10
The Past!. the past! the past!
The Past-the dark unfathom'd retrospect!
The teeming gulf-the sleepers and the shadows!
The past-the infinite greatness of the part!
For what is the present after all but a growth
out of the past?
(As a projectile form'd, impell'd, passing
a certain line, still keeps on,
So the present, utterly form'd, impell'd by the past.)

Passage 0 Soul to India!

Eclaircise the myths Asiatic, the primitive fabler,
Not you alone proud truth of the world
Nor you alone Ye facts of modern icience,
But myths and fables of old, Asia's, Africa's fabler,
The fardarting beams of the spirit, the unloos'd dreams
The deep diving bibles and legends;
The during plots of the poets, the elder religions,
0 You temples faires than lilies pour'd over by the
rising sun,
0 You fables spurning the known, eluding the hold
of the know, mounting to heaven!
You lofty and dazzling towers, pinnacled, red as roses,
burnish'd with gold!
Towers of fables immortal fashion'd from mortal dreams!
You too I welcome and fully the same as the rest!
You too with joy I sing.
- Passage to India!
Lo, soul seest than not God's purpose from the first?
Passage to India!
Lo soul for thee of tableau twain
I see in one the Suez Canal initiated, opn'd,
I see the procession of steamships, the Empress
Engenie's leading the van,
I mark from on deck the strange landscape,
the pure sky, the level sand in the distance,
I pass swiftly the picturesque groups, the work men
gather'd
The gigantic dredging machines,
In one again, different, (yet thine, all thine,
0 soul the same,)
I see over my own continent the pacific railroad
surmounting every burrier,
I see continual trains of cars winding along the
Platte carrying freight and passengers,
I hear the locomotives rushing and roaring and
the shrill steam-whistle,
I hear the echoes rever-berate through the grandest
scenery in the world,
I cross the Larmic plains, I note the rocks in
grotesque shapes, the butter,
I see the plentiful larkspur and wild onions,
the burrer, colourless, sage-deserts,
I see in glimpses afar or towering immediately
above me the great mountains, I see the
Wind river and the wahsatch mountain,
I see the Monument mountain and the Eagle's Nest,
I pass the promontory, I ascend the Nevadas,
I scan the Nobel Elk mountain and wind around its base
I see the Humboldt range, I tread the valley and
cross the river,
I see the clear waters of lake Tahoe, I see forests
of majestic pines,
Or crossing the great desert, the alkaline plains,
I behold enchanting mirages of waters and meadows.
Marking through these and after all, in duplicate
slender lines,
Bridging the three or four thousand miles of land travel,
Tying the Eastern to the Western Sea,
The road between Europe and Asia.

Passage to India!
Struggle of many a captain, tales of many a sailor dead,
Over my mood stealing and spreading they come,
Like clouds and cloudlets in the unreach'd sky.
Along all history, downstheslopes,
As a rivulet running, sinking now, and now again
to the surface rising,
A ceaseless thought, a varied train-lo, soul, thee,
thy sight, they rise,
The plans, the voyages again, the expeditions :
Again Vasco de Gama sails forth,
Again the knowledge gain'd, the mariiler's compass,
Lands found and nations born, thou born America,
For purpose vast, man's long probation fill'd
Thou rondureof the world at last accomplish'd.

0 vast Rondure, swimming in space.

Cover'd all over with visible power and beauty,
 Alternate light and day and the teeming spiritual darkness,
Unspeakable high processions of A n and moon and countless stars
above,
Below the manifold grass and waters, animals, mountains, trees,
----
WIY - 7 7

With inscrutable purpose, some hidden prophetic intention, I

Now first it seems my thought begins to span thee. i

Down from the gardens of Asia descending radiating,
,
Adam and Eve appear, then their myriad progeny after them,
Wandering, yearning, curious, with restless explorations, 90
With questionings, baffled, formless, feverish, with never-happy L
hearts,
With that sad incesant refrain, Whereforeunsatisfied saul? and Whither
0 mocking life?
Ah who shall soothe these feverish children?
Who justify these restless explorations?
Y
Who speak the secret of impassive earth?
Who bind it to us? what is this separate Nature so unnatural?
What is this earth to our affections? (unloving earth, without a throb -,
to answer ours,
Cold earth, the place of graves.)
Yet soul be sure the first intent remains and shall be carried out,
Perhaps even now the time has arrived. 100
After the seas areall cross'd, (as they seem already cross'd,) '.
After the great captains and engineers have accomplish'd their work,
After the noble inventors, after the scientists, the chemist, the
geologist, ethnologist,
Finally shall come the poet worthi that name,
The true son of God shall come singing his songs.
Then not your deeds only 0 voyagers, 0 scientists and inventors,
shall be justified,
All these hearts as of fretted children shall be sooth'd,
All affection shall be fully responded to, the secret shall be told, --
All these separations and gaps shall be taken up and hook'd and
link'd together,
The whole earth, this cold, impassive, voiceless earth, shall be
completely justified, 110
Trinitas divine shall be gloriously accomplish8dand compacted by
the true son of God, the poet,
(He shall indeed pass the straits and conquer the mountains,
He shall double the Cape of Good Hope to some purpose,)
Nature and Man shall be disjoin'd and diffused no more,
The true son of God shall absolutely fuse them.
, '
(6)
Year at whose wide-flung door I sing!
Year of the purpose accomplish'd!
Year of the marriage of continents, climates and oceans!
(No mere doge of Venice now wedding the Adriatic,)
I see 0 year in you the vast tetraqueous globe given and giving all, 120
Europe to Asia, Africa join'd, and they to the New World,
The lands, geographies, dancing before you, holding a festival
I garland, I

As brides and bridegrooms hand in hand.

Passage to India!
Cooling airs fro'- Caucasus far, soothing cradle of man;
- ? .%..
,
The river Euphrates-Rowing, the past lit up again,
- 6.
'
. .
Lo soul, the retrospect brought forward,
The streams of the Indus and the Ganges and their many affluents,
(I my shores of America walking to-day behold, resuming all,)
The tale of Alexander on his warlike marches suddenly dying,
On one side China and on the other side Persia and Arabia,
To the south the great seas and the bay of Bengal,
The flowing literatures, tremendous epics, religions, castes,
Old occult Brahma interminably far back, the tender and junior
Buddha,
Central and southern empires and all their belongings, pQssessors,
The wars of Tamerlane, the reign of Aurungzebe,
The traders, rulers, explorers, Moslems, Venetians, Byzantium, the
Arabs, Portuguese,
The first travelers famous yet, Marco Polo, Batouta the Moor,
Doubts to be solv'd, the map incognita, blanks to be fill'd, 140
The foot of man unstay'd the hands never at rest,
Thyself 0 soul that will not brook a challenge.
The mediaeval navigators rise before me,
The world of 1492, with its awaken'd enterprise,
Something swelling in humanity now like the sap of the earth in
spring,
The shnset splendor of chivalry declining.
And who art thou sad shade?
Gigantic, visionary, thyself a visionary,
With majestic limbs and pious beaming eyes,
Spreading around with every look of thine a golden world,
Enhuing it with gorgeous hues.
As the chief histrion,
Down to the footlights walks in some great seena,
Dominating the rest I see the Admiral himself,
(History type of courage, action, faith,)
Behold him sail from ~ a l oleading
s his little fleet,
His voyage behold, his return, his great fame,
His misfortunes, calumniators, behold him a prisoner, chain'd.
Behold his dejection, poverty, death.

(Curious in time I stand, noting the efforts of heroes,

Is the deferment long? bitter the slander, poverty, death?
Lies the seed unreck'd for centuries in the ground? lo, to God's
due occasion,
Uprising in the night, it sprouts, blooms,
And fills the earth with use and beauty.)

Passage indeed 0 soul to primal thought,

Not lands and seas alone, thy own clear freshness,
The young maturity of brood and bloom,
To realms of budding bibles.
0 soul, repressless, I with thee and thou with me,
Thy circumnavigation of the world begin,
Of man, the.voyage of his mind's return,
To reason's early paradise,
Back, back to wisdom's birth, to innocent intuitions,
Again with fair creation.
X) we can wait no longer,
We too take ship 0 soul,
Joyous we too launch out on trackless acts,
Fearless for unknown shores on waves of ecstasy to sail,
Amid the wafting winds, (thou pressing me to thee, I thee to me,
0 soul,)
 Caroling free, singing our song of God,
Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration.
With laugh and many a kiss,
(Let others deprecate, let others weep for sin, remorse, humiliation,)
0 soul thou pleasest me, I thee.
Ah more than any priest 0 soul we too believe in God,
But with the mystery of.God we dare not dally.
0 soul thou pleasest me, I thee,
Sailing these seas or on the hills, or waking in the night,
Thoughts, silent thoughts, of Time and Space and Death, like waters
flowing,
Bear me indeed as through the regions infinite,
Whose air I breathe, whose ripples hear, lave me all over,
Bathe me 0 God in thee, mounting to thee,
and my soul to range of thee.
0 Thou transcendent,
Nameless, the fibre and the breath,
Light of the light, shedding forth universes, thou centre of them,
Thou mightier centre of the true, the good, the loving,
Thou moral, spiritual fountain-affection's source-thou res'ervoir,
(0pensive soul of me-0 thirst unsatisfied-waitest not there?
Waitest not haply for us somewhere there the Comrade perfect?)
Thou pulse-thou motive of the stars, suns, systems,
That, circling, move in order, safe, harmonious,
Athwart the shapeless vastnesses of space,
How should I think, how breathe a single breath, how speak, if, out
2 of myself,
I could not launch, to those, superior universes?

Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of God,

At Nature and its wonders, Time and Space and Death,
But that, I, turning, call to thee 0soul, thou actual Me,
And lo, thou gently masterest the orbs,
Thou matest Time, smilest conterit at Death,
And fillest, swellest full the vastnesses of Space.
Greater than stars or suns, P
Bounding 0 soul thou journeyest forth;
What love than thine and ours could wider amplify?
What aspirations, wishes, outvie thine and ours 0 soul?
What dreams of the ideal? what plans of purity, perfection, strength?
What cheerful willingness for others' sake to give up all?
For others' sake to suffer all?
Reckoning ahead 0 soul, when thou, the time achiev'd,
The seas alllcrossld, weather'd, the capes, the voyage done.
Surrounded, copest, frontest God, yieldest, the aim attain'd*
As fill'd with friendship, love complete, the Elder Braotherfound,
The Younger melts in foundness in his arms. t

Passage to more than India!

Are thy wings plumed indeed for such far flights?
I 0 soul, voyagest thou indeed on voyages like those?
Disportest thou on waters such as those?
Soundest below .the Sanscrit and the Vedas? .
Then have thy bent unleash'd.
I Passage to you, your shores, ye agsd fierce enigmas!
Passake to you, t o mastership of you, ye strangling problems! .

i You, strew'd with the wrecks of skeletons, that, living iever reach'd
you.
 - --
a
Passage to more tb& India!
0 secret of the earth and sky!
Of you 0 waters of the seal 0 winding creeks and rivers! '
Of you 0 woods and fields! of you strong'mountains of my land!
Of you 0 prairies! of you gray rocks!
0 morning red! 0 clouds! 0 rain and snows!
0 day and night, passage to you!
O sun and moon and all you stars! Sirius and Jupiter!
Passage to you!
Passage, immediate passage! the blood bums in my veins!
Away 0 soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
Cut the hawser-haul out-shake out every sail!
Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
Have we not grovel'd here long enough, eating and drin3ng like
mere brutes?
Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?
Sail forth-steer for the deep waters only,
. Reckless 0 soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me,
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to -go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
0 my bravesoul!
0 farther farther sail!
0 daring joy, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
0 farther, farther, farther sail!

Glossrry
1) Empress Eugenie : Empress of France, Wife of Napokan 111. She was aboard
the ship leading the procession at the formal opening of the Suez Canal.
2) Christopher Columbus :Discoverer of America.
L
3) -Vasco da Gama :Portuguese navigator; the first uropean to sail to India.
4) Trinitas :Whitman's approximate Spanish for 'the Holy Trinity'.'
5) The Doge :Chief magistrate of the city-state of Venice (697-1797) symbolized
the union of Venice and the sea by annually casting a gold ring into the Adriatic.
6) Cau casus :Area in Russia between the Black and Caspian seas.
7) Euphrats :River flowing from Turkey to the Persian Gulf.
8) Tamer-lane :Mongol conqueror
9) Marco Polo :Venetian traveller to India.
10) Admiral :Cblumbus
11) Batonta tbe Moor :Explorer of Africa and Asia.
a
12) Palos :Sparish seafort from which Columhus sailed.
'.
20.3.1 Outline of the Poem
Walt Whitman's poem, 'Passage to India', which was first published in 1868,has nine
sections. Sections 1 to 3 deal with a journey +rough space and the exploration of the
physical environment by explorers. Sections 4 to 6 deal with a journey through time.
Also, the growth of man's culture to explored in these sections. Sections 7 to 8 deal
with the exploration of the divine, and the merger of the human soul with tke over-
soul. Insection 9, the,poet appeals to his soul,to sail out and achieve the spiritual
union for which the rounding of the globe has been just a preparation.
Three signifmint events of 1869 and 1870 inspired Whitman to wiite 'Passage to
India'. The first wasthe completion of a railroad across North America from 'East to
West; the second was the laying of the trans-Atlantic cable; and the third was the
opening of the Suez Canal. These spectacular achievements of science and technology-
brought the countries of the world-closer. Deep reflections on these achievements
form the background to the poem.
I
1 20.3.2 Interpretation -
In the previous section, we have referred to three achievements of science and
technology: a)tbe completion of a railroad across North America from East,toWest;
b) the laying of the trans-Atlantic cable; and c) the opening of the Sudz Canal. After
reflecting a lot over the events, Whitman came to the conclusion that the historic
sequence of events had a spiritual meaning. He wanted to harmonize the past with.the
present and he was keen on proving that the past was a part of the present. As a
mystic-poet, he thought that he must give a new faith to inspire the future
generations. He wrote as follows :
"The past-the dark unfathomed retrospect!
The seeming gulf-the sleepers and the shadows!
The past-the infinite greatness of the past!
I
For what is the present after all but a growth out
* of the past".

, But, to get into the past i.e. the history of mankind, qne should know the contribution
of-Asia in general and of India in particular. So, the poet wanted his fellowmen to
understand 'myths and fables of old, Asia's Africa's fables'. He asked the captains, the
voyagers, the explorers, the engineers and the architects to appreciate the beauty of
the 'temples fairer than lillies' and admire the 'lofty and dazzling towers, pinnacled,
red as roses, burnished with gold'. For, it would serve God's purpose :
"The earth to be spann'd, connected by network,
The races, neighbours, to marry and be given in marriage,
The Oceans to be cross'd, the distant brought near,
The lands to be welded together".
Of course, this quest for knowledge would bring forth many struggles and a few
, casualties. But, there would be a lot of achievements too,hands would be born;
nations would come into existence. (Thus America was born.) At this juncture, the
poet wondered as follows :
"Ah who shall sooth these feverish children?
Who justify these restless explorations?
Who speak the secret of impassion earth?
" Who bind it to us? What is this separate Nature so
unnatural?"
According t o Whitman, the poet's role would begin in this context. The poet would
+ sing the divine songs about the deeds of the Voyagers and the scientists. Also, the poet
would play a vital role in the following activities :
"All tiese hearts as of fretted children shall be sooth'd,
All affection shall be fully responded to, the secrets
shall be told,
L f
All these separations and gaps shall be taken up and
book'd and link'd together,
The whole earth, this cold, impassive, voiceless earth,
shall be completely justified,
Trinitas divine shall be gloriously accomplish'd
and compacted".
Finally, the poet would fuse Nature and Man together and the spiritual union would
be achieved. The poet (in Whitman) would not stop even a t this point. He would tell
his soul about the 'Passage to more than India'. Further, he would say :
"0 my brave soul! I -
0 farther, farther sail!
0 daring joy, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
0 farther, farther, farther sail!
I I'
assag age' to India" is, indeed, a passage to more than India. The poem tells about the
poet's faith in the 'oneness of all'; his pride in the achievements of mankind in the field
of science and technology; his conception of the role of a poet; and, finally, the union
of the human soul with the universal soul.
I

Further, the poem symbolises, first, the physical exploration carried out by the
navigators and explorers through railroad-and seas. Secondly, it symbolises
mankind's exploration of its past. Thirdly, it symbolises the intellectual exploration to
unite the past, the present, and the future. Fourthly, the poem also symbo1ises)man's
spiritual exploration which will lead to a fusion of the human soul with the Universal
\
Soul.

20.3.3 Poetic Devices in 'Passage to India'

1) Whitman, perhaps, was the first poet to exploit t o the full the possibilities of free
verse. There is a rare compatibility between his form and his themes : the long,
unrestrained line in its free flow captures in its very form the spirit of democracy
and freedom. For instance :
"Singing my days,
Singing the great achievements of the present,
Singing the strong light works of engineers,
Our modern wonders, (the antique ponderous Seven .
outvised)
ln the Old World the east the Suez Canal,
The New by its mighty railroad spann'd,
The seas inlaid with eloquent gentle wires".
(By the way, do you know what 'free verse' is? 'Free Verse' (or in the French term vers
libre) has a more controlled rhythm than ordinary prose, but it lacks the regular stress
pattern.)

2) Whitman's unit of rhythm is the phrase instead of the foot and his unit of
thought is the line instead of the sentence. Keeping in view this point, you should.
examine the following lines :
"Passage to India!
Lo, soul, seest than not God's purpose from the first?
The earth to be spann'd, connected by network,
The races, neighbours, to marry and be given in marriage,
The oceans to be cross'd, the distant brought near,
The lands to be welded together".

3) One of the salient features of Whitman's poetry is 'the catalogue'. For instance :
"The far-darting beams of the spirit, the unloos'd dreams,
The deep diving bibles and legends,
The daring plots of the poets, the elder religions;"

4) 'Repetition' is another feature of the poetry of the Sage of Mauhattan. Take a '

look at the following lines :

"Ah who shall sooth these feverish children?
Who justify these restless explorations?
Who speak the secret of impassive earth?
Who bind it to us?"

- - as
5) 'Alliteration' is another literary device used by Whitman. The examples are
follows :
budding bibles, singing his songs. Alliteration, as you know, is the repetition of
speech sounds in a sequence of nearby words.
6) Do you know what 'Consonance' is? It is the repetition of a sequence of
consonants, but with a change in the intervening stressed vowels. For example :
deep diving.
7) Another literary device used by Whitman is 'assonance' which is the repetition of
identical or similar vowel sounds-especially ig stressed syllables-in a sequence
of nearby words. For instance : brood and bloom.
8) If you have studied 'Passage to India'closely, 30u would also, like us, feel that
Whitman's style can be called functional. It was admirably adapted to describe
the immigrant and emigrant American on the move, the still unshaped land-
- of a new continent, the energy and the romance of pioneering and the dreams of a
nation sure of an illimitable future.
 - - - - - -

9) The brilliance of Whitman's hnes sometimes arises from his use of concrete, vivid
imagery, at other times from a piling up of simple details, and at other times from
a use of telling metaphor. Keeping in view this point, you should take a look at
the following lines :
"The old, most populous, wealthiest of earth's lands,
The stre& of the Indus and the Ganges and their
many affluents,
(......................................................................)
he tale of Alexander on his-warlike marches suddenly
dying,

......................................................................
The flowing literatures, tremendous epics, religion,castes,
Old occult Brahma interiminably for back, the tender
and junior Buddha."

Self-check Exercise 1
Answer the following questions :
1) Write! a note on 'Passage to India'. (200 words)

2) Write a brief note on the poetic devices used in 'Passage to India! (100 words)
 20.4 0 CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!
0 Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has feather'd every rock, the prize we sought
is war,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and
daring;
But 0 heart! heart! heart!
1 0 the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my eaptain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
0 Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up-for you the flag is flung-fpr you the
bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths-for you the
shores a crowding,
For you they call, the swaying man, their eager faces
turning:
Here captain! dear father!
The arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead. t

L
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale $nd still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no p u l s ~nor will,
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyaged used, and ,
done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with.
object won;
Exult 0 shores, and ring 0 bells!
But I with mournful tread.
Walk the deck my captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

20.4.1 Outline of the Poem

The p.oet's grief isexpressed through the use of symbol and metaphor, The United
States is compared to a ship whose captain is Abraham Lincoln. The civil war fought
under Lincoln's leadership is called a da~gerousvoyage. As the captain is brave and
'
skilful, he brings the ship home after the successful completion of the voyage. The
peopte are naturally happy and they want to honour their captain. But, they cannot
do so for their captain is assassinated at the very moment of victory. The people
eagerly wait on the shore for their captain, but, unfortunately, he is dead. Finally,
the poet is left alone on the deck of the ship where his captain lies fallen and dead.

"0Captain! My Captain!" is one of the well known poems of Whitman. It is an elegy

on the death of Abraham Lincoln, who was the President of the USA from 1860 to ,
1865. Being kind and ,gentle, he could.not bear the sight of the wretched and
subhuman existence of the negro-slaves of the southern states of his country and
thereby, he wanted t o abolish slavery. The Southern States at this juncture decided to
1 break away from the Northern States. Abraham Lincoln as the President'of the
country did not approve of the decision of the Southern States and decided to fight a
ciiil war in the interest of his country. He fought the war bravely and skilfdly and
- 1
*.\
,1 %
saved hi$ country from disintegration. But hardly a year/ later, Lincoln was I

1 I*. assassinated by an actor, John Wilkes Booth, in a theatre. Consequently, the entire
, ,.+
hul'i :
nation plunged into mourniQ. Walt Whitman, who was an ardent admirer of
I
*. ~ i n d o ~fell
n , that the death of hisleader was a personal loss. This ,accounts for the
poignancy of the poet's grief in the elegy. Moreover in the death of Lincoln Whitman
@.
.Mt%& ,i.l - . A
 -.
Sndght on a B~&IIC d v n m Chapter 2
Laila reminisces over all the past events. Saleem had gone to live in Pakistan. Kemal had
opted to live on in India after marrying Perin Wadia, a Parsi. Lai4 looks back and
remembers how the feudal system had been abolished constitutionally - how Aunt Saira
had ranted and raved against the government and made things even more difficult for
Kemal. -
This chapter is significant because Laila unconditionally declares that e;en though Aunt
Saira refused to accept the fact that her world had gone for ever, the inevitable had
happened. The old order had finally given way to the new - "She had clothed herself in
remembered assurances of power and privilege just as the story-bookEmperor had donned
his non-existent clothes, but there was no one to make her see d e nakedness of her
illusions. Traditional courtesies had restrained everyone. She only knew that power and
privilege still existed, that position still counted; except that others, whom she had once
patronised, possessed them". (Part IV Ch.2)
In this chapter the final death knell of the feudal aristocracy is sounded, as their existence
had been abolished constitutionally.

Chapter 3
Laila recalls how she had argued with Uncle Hamid about marrying Ameer. She had
finally been married off to him at the same time as Saleem's marriage. Laila also
passingly refers to Ameer's death.

Chapter 4
--
Laila goes from room to room each with its own memories and ghosts. She recalls the
argument between Saleem and Kemal over political ideologies. Saleem opts for Pakistan
and Kemal decides to remain in India.
The theme of Partition which runs thrygh the whole novel is recapitulated by Laila in her
reminiscences.

Chapter 5
Laila remembers how blocks of flats had mushroomed in place of the gracious old-
fashioned palaces, and she recalls the effervescent Nand1 who bore an illegitimate son.
The beginning paragraph of this chapter conjures images of gloom and decay which had
set in the house-again symbolic of a similar decay which had overtaken all their lives.

Chapter 6
Laila remembers Sita from whom sbe was estranged, but who had renewed ties by coming
to console Laila after Ameer's death.
Again, the beginning lines talk of the images of decay.

Chapter 7
Laila recalls how Saleem had visited India after two years of Panition and had become a
detached stranger. Zahra had climbed the ladder of her husband's success in Pakistan.
Laila remembers how she had fought with Zahra who had turned against India and had
accused Laila of not facing reality. Laila's unprejudiced views regarding the Hindu vs.
Muslim question are brought out.

Chapter 8
Zainab, a family cousin had opted for Pakistan. LaiL recalls her other friends like Romana
and Joan. She thh.ls,s of Aunt Abida who had died. She recalls the bitter words she had_
exchanged with her over the deeision to marry Ameer. And e t had been the last time
they had met. Aunt Abida had died before Laila could reach her house in time.
Chapter 9 . Rooding l
k Novel

Finally Laila remembem Ameer and all the happy moments they had shared. These had
soon ended when Ameer had enlisted in the anny and was sent to the Middle East. Laila
had bought a small cottage in the hills and had moved tbere with her daughter Shahla
Laila's life was shattered after Ameer's deatb and her only ray of hope was Shahla and
Nandi and Awl's letters which he wrote from paison. Laila also remembers Zahid wbo
had died in the M t i o n riots.
And at @tt when Laila is overcome by this flood of memories she is surprised by the
sudden appeamce of Asad and realizes that her l i e had come full circle. She turns to the ,
waiting Asad and in reply to his question about what she had been W i g in the empty
--
house says "I bave been waiting for you, Asad. I am ready to leave now".

Exerdse 4
In about 10 sentences describe Laila's visit to her old anmsld home.

28.7 LET US SUM UP

In the preceeding pages we have given you the story of Suntight on a Broken Column .
You get to h o w that
the novel is the story of Laila the narrator heroine
the novel is divided into four parts
the novel covers about 20 years in the life of Laila in the two decadesbefore and after
independence
the novel is cast in the autobiographical form
in the twenty years that witness Laila changing from an orphan girl of 15 to the
widowed mother of a girl of that age, India too moves from colonialism to
independence
the old feudal order loses its privileges and poise
the old world habits and attitudes give place to frustrations of the post independence
era.
Therefore the novel is not only the story of Laila but also a valuable document of the
social and political happenings of that time.
~ L t o ~ a ~ r C d u n r
28.8 ANSWERS TO EXERCISES

Exercise 1 Hints
Baba Jan's illness and death.
Introduction of some of the major characters.
Nahdi's episode
I Beginning of the riots preceeding Independence.
Zahra and Abida' s wedding.
Exercise 2 Refer to Part I1 Ch. 9 of the novel Sunlight on a Broken Column.
Exercise 3 Hints
Kemal and Sdeem return home.
The party season begins and Laila meets all her old school friends.
=la's blooming romance with Ameer and the uneasy atmosphere
prevailing at home is not only because of their affair, but also
because of the clash between the different political ideologies that
everyone believes in.
The old house which has fallen into a state of disrepair symbolises
the decay which has set in the lives of all the people in the post
independence era.
 found the symbol for the suffering and death of a number of soldiers he had himself
witpessed. For this reason, his expression of grief has a universal appeal.

, 20.4.3 Poetic Devices in the Poem

1) '0 Captain! My Captain!' is not a formless poem. In fact, it is Whitman's best
poem in rhyme and near regular metre. It is a poem in three stanzas of eigh lines
I each, each stanza having a regular rhyme-pattern.
' 2) We have already said that '0 Captain! My Captain!' is an elegy. What is an elegy?
An elegy is a formal and sustained poem of lament for the death of a particular
person. The present poem, is a lament for the death of Abraham Lincoln.
3) ' ~ k t a ~ h oisr 'used by Whitman in this poem. The USA is the ship and its captain
is the president, Abraham Lincoln. The war waged against the Southern States
was the voyage undertaken by the captain. ,

Self-Check Exercise 2
Answer the-following questions.
1) Write a brief n6te on the outline of '0Captain!'. My Captain! (100 words)

.......................................................................

i
2) Write a brief note on the poetic devices used in '0 Captain! My captain!'..(lOO
I
I words)

3) "Again Vasco de Gama sails forth .. -

Again the knowledge gain'd the mariner's compass,
Lands found and nations born; thou b ~ r nAmerica"
n
I Explain the above lines. (1OVwords)
!

' 20.5 SUMMING UP

I

Walt Whitman was another American poet who was profoundly influegced by Indian
thought. The paem, 'Passage to India' contains passages describing India's greatness : &
 and its glorious contribution t o world thought; of course, 'Passage to India' is a
passage to more than India.
'0Captain! My Captain!'is an elegy written by Whitman t o commemorate the
sacrifice mady by Abraham Lincoln.
Both poems reflectthe es~entialfeature.^ of Whitman's poetry.

20.6 ANSWERS TO SELF-CHECK EXERCISES

1.
Self-check Exercise 1
1 ) Read Sections 17.2, 17.3 and 17.4 thoroughly and then answer the question.
2) Read the poem again and refer Section 17.5
Self-check Exercise 2
1) Refer Section 17.7
2) Read the poem thoroughly and refer Section 17.9
3) Discuss the content in which these lines are present.