Sunday Reading Task: Lockdown - A poem by UK's poet laureate Simon Armitage

 This blog post is a response of Sunday reading task, given by Dilip Barad Sir.To know more about this Task CLICK HERE

"Lockdown" is very popular poem written by English poet or Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. The poem addressed the corona-virus and the pandemic situation. It moved the outbreak of bubonic plague in Eyam, in the 17th century.Here is the poem:

First half of the poem:

And I couldn’t escape the waking dream of infected fleas

in the warp and weft of soggy cloth

by the tailor’s hearth

in ye olde Eyam.

Then couldn’t un-see

the Boundary Stone,

that cock-eyed dice with its six dark holes,

thimbles brimming with vinegar wine

purging the plagued coins.

Which brought to mind the sorry story

of Emmott Syddall and Rowland Torre,

star-crossed lovers on either side

of the quarantine line

whose wordless courtship spanned the river

till she came no longer.

This part of the poem, Armitage took references from Eyam's boundary stone which contained six dark holes. Villagers put their money in the hols and then fill with vinegar wine as a hope that it's become cleans.He also put the sorry story of Emmott Syddall and Rowland Torre. These two lovers not able to meet because of plagued. 

Second half of the poem:

But slept again,

and dreamt this time

of the exiled yaksha sending word

to his lost wife on a passing cloud,

a cloud that followed an earthly map

of camel trails and cattle tracks,

streams like necklaces,

fan-tailed peacocks, painted elephants,

embroidered bedspreads

of meadows and hedges,

bamboo forests and snow-hatted peaks,

waterfalls, creeks,

the hieroglyphs of wide-winged cranes

and the glistening lotus flower after rain,

the air

hypnotically see-through, rare,

the journey a ponderous one at times, long and slow

but necessarily so.

In this second half of the poem, poet try to sleep again and now he saw a dream of Kalidasa's Meghatudta which in, Yaksha send the message through the passing cloud to his wife. Armitage used here Kalidasa's one of the great imaginary work. When cloud passed he saw several beauty of nature or culture also. He saw camel tracks and cattle track, peacocks, painted elephants, meadows and hedges, bamboo forest,snow-hatted peaks,waterfalls, creeks and many more.

This messenger shows perhaps every human being's deep desire to see the world during pandemic. Armitage used it to show that till now we have our own country or never-ending beauty.Here poet also described to East from West. In the last two lines, long and slow but necessarily so. He mentioned that the time of pandemic will be better again in the future. It's process is slow and long period of time but at the result we all meet together very soon and healthy manner. 

 

Here I have tried to express my agitation trough this poem:

I'm the curious soul nowadays.

To know the world from the world!

I'm the nervous soul nowadays.

To know the situation to be controlled.

Can I create the another Ram Setu?

Can I bring the stones from ancient Ram Setu?

I'm the happiest soul with deep desire,

I'm very narrower with huge fire.

Can I bring the fire of Lanka's?

Can I throw the stones in Shore?

If I throw the stones,

How can I bring them again?

Bcz I need them now as the blessings

as the medicine of Corona's.

May I have the God's blessings like monkeys?  

                                                  -Divya Sheta.

Sources: 

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