UGC NET Solved Paper III ; Subject -- English ;December : 2009 Analysing an unknown poem (Report from the Hospital by Polish poet Wisława Szymborska)

SECTION – I

(  In the newly structured syllabus it is in Paper III, Section IV)

UGC NET Solved  Paper  III ; Subject -- English  ; December :  2009.

This section contains five (5) questions based on the following poem.

Each question should be answered in about thirty (30) words and carries five (5) marks. (5 × 5 = 25 marks)

Wisława Szymborska

We drew lots, who would go and see him.

It was me. I got up from our table.

It was almost time for visiting hours.

He said nothing in reply to my greeting.

I tried to take his hand – he pulled it back

like a hungry dog who wouldn’t give up a bone.

He seemed ashamed of dying.

I don’t know what you say to someone like him.

As in a photomontage, our eyes would not meet.

He didn’t ask me to stay or go.

He didn’t ask about anyone at our table.

Not about you, Bolek. Not about you, Tolek. Not about you, Lolek.

My head began to ache. Who was dying for whom ?

I praised medicine and the three violets in the glass.

I talked about the sun and thought dark thoughts.

How good there’s a staircase to run down.

How good there’s a gate to be opened.

How good you’re all waiting for me at our table.

The smell of a hospital makes me sick.

1. Comment on the form of the poem.

Ans: The proper lyricism in this poem seems to be absent as the poem is in the free verse with no regular rhyming pattern. However, the stanza division can be chalked out as 3+3+3+3+3+3+1 and most importantly the emotional integrity of the poem arrests our mind.
 

(Note: The poem contains a lot of action and if you read it minutely you can locate and rearrange its stanzas in ascending order of performances.

                    

      STANZA I

We drew lots, who would go and see him.

It was me. I got up from our table.

It was almost time for visiting hours.

{Here we find that the speaker and few other fellow are  drawing lots to determine whose turn it is to visit the dying patient.  The speaker being looser rose from the table and intends to visit the patient.}

      STANZA II

He said nothing in reply to my greeting.

I tried to take his hand – he pulled it back

like a hungry dog who wouldn’t give up a bone.

{Now at inside the hospital cabin the dying patient does not respond to the speaker’s greeting. Patient might have been battling for life. }

      STANZA III

He seemed ashamed of dying.

I don’t know what you say to someone like him.

As in a photomontage, our eyes would not meet.

{Here is lack of emotional bridge between the dying patient and the speaker. }

      STANZA IV

He didn’t ask me to stay or go.

He didn’t ask about anyone at our table.

Not about you, Bolek. Not about you, Tolek. Not about you, Lolek.

{The same theme continues}

      STANZA V

My head began to ache. Who was dying for whom ?

I praised medicine and the three violets in the glass.

I talked about the sun and thought dark thoughts.

{Here is a philosophical reflection of the situation where the the patient is phically dying and the speaker is also facing an emotional crisis of life i. e. experiencing death}

      STANZA VI

How good there’s a staircase to run down.

How good there’s a gate to be opened.

How good you’re all waiting for me at our table.

{   Stairs, gate, waited table are symbol of escape from hallucinogenic experiences.}

      STANZA VII

The smell of a hospital makes me sick.

{   The speaker relates his emotional states in simple words that visiting at the hospital makes him sick.})

2. Comment on the connection between line length and the tempo of the poem.

Ans: The quoted poem has the power and the strength of simplicity without insisting on metric structures. Notably, the length of the lines in the poem seems arbitrary. Here is variable line to produce contrast consciously and to produce a rhythm of shorter and longer breath.

3. Select a simile from the poem and analyse it.

Ans: “He pulled it back

like a hungry dog who wouldn’t give up a bone.” bears a beautiful simile in which explicitly the dying man’s wish to live is compared to the hungry dog who is unwilling to give up his bone in point of attachment. The comparison is made explicit by the choice of the word ‘like’.

(Other notable similes are underlined:

We drew lots………………

He said nothing in reply to my greeting.

I tried to take his hand – he pulled it back

like a hungry dog who wouldn’t give up a bone.

He seemed ashamed of dying.

I don’t know what you say to someone like him.

As in a photomontage, our eyes would not meet.)

4. What is the function of the repetition of the words ‘How good’ at the end of the poem?

Ans: Anaphora or Like-Beginnings of ‘How good’ at the beginning of successive sentences exaggerates the speaker’s wish to escape from the monotony of Hospital. It also addresses the speaker’s struggle to meet the reality of situation.

5. Analyze how the poet conveys emotion through simple language.

Ans: Here is the author’s ability to address casual observation of everyday life from philosophical inquisitiveness with the simple use of the language. Here the visitor in the hospital meets a dying man and whiles away some morose moments. His sojourn at the hospital is an emotional cal de sac of dejection and boredom. By the use of the word play the entire episode is beautifully enacted before us.

 ******Note******

Photomontage: the technique of combining a number of photographs or parts of photographs to form a composite picture used especially in art and advertising as in the case of film.

Draw or cast lots: to choose something at random, e.g. a straw or piece of paper, to determine an outcome.

Lets make unseen poem seen: Report from the Hospital by Polish poet Wisława Szymborska

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