With students of Carmel Margaret, are you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving…? It was one of my first days in the eleventh class of Carmel Public School in Kerala, the last school of my teaching career. One girl, whose name was not Margaret, was in the class looking extremely melancholy. I had noticed her for a few days. I didn’t know how to put the matter over to her. I had already told the students that a smiling face was a rule in the English class. Since Margaret didn’t comply, I chose to drag Hopkins in. I replaced the name of Margaret with the girl’s actual name, however, when I quoted the lines. Margaret is a little girl in the Hopkins poem. Looking at autumn’s falling leaves, Margaret is saddened by the fact of life’s inevitable degeneration. The leaves have to turn yellow and eventually fall. And decay. The poet tells her that she has no choice but accept certain inevitabilities of life. Sorrow is our legacy, Margaret , I said to Margaret’s alter ego in my class. Let
True! Sometimes silence cuts deeper. Very well written.
ReplyDeleteThank you Purba.
DeleteI endorse this view.
DeleteThis is a brilliant piece of literature, I must say. So little in size and so deep in meaning. Hats off to you Sir for penning it.
ReplyDeleteI'm obliged, Jitender.
Deletebeautiful lines
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it.
DeleteNice... Yet life is all about taking small risks atleast...
ReplyDeleteBig risks too. How else can relationships be maintained?
DeleteTouching lines & true words.
ReplyDeleteHappy Diwali :)
Diwali greetings to you too.
Deletenot bad
ReplyDelete😀😀😀
Delete