Nissim Ezekiel's poems "Philosophy' and 'Background Casually'

 

The poem ‘Philosophy’ by Nissim Ezekiel talks about Philosophy and Poetry. The poet is of the view that Philosophy and science have certain limitations. They fail beyond a certain limit and it is the poetry that takes over these two disciplines. The poem has four stanzas having five lines each. The rhyme scheme of the poem is AABBA.

The poet says that there is a place to which he often goes. He never plans to go but is driven by the flow of his thoughts and imaginations that take him there. The place described is not another city or world but the poet’s own imaginations.

He goes away from all existence i.e. the world and worldly things to a place which is quite clear and without the warmth of human emotions and feelings. The will of the flow of thoughts is uncontrolled i.e. the poet cannot control it but has to go by it. In the last line, the poet talks about mills of God which are never slow. In literary terms, God means the creator. In thoughts, the mind is the creator of productive ideas and hence God here refers to the mind and mills are its production houses.

Thus according to the poet, in this place, the creation of the ideas is never slow. The mind keeps creating new ideas all the time. These ideas cannot be controlled or regulated by the poet.

The landscape of that imaginary place appears to contain each and everything that exists on earth and it dissolves everything to show perfect mud or mixture of everything.

Afterward, a million stars vanish away. And the poet thinks of each historic passion (meaning emotions, here sorrowful) as a blink that the sad eye of time takes. Time here is personified. The poet wants to say that thousand of sorrows and griefs of the past appear before him in a blink.

The poet says that in that place, deep in the thoughts, though there is clarity (as discussed in stanza 1), yet some residues of the meanings still remain behind because there are some myths were are quite dark which flow through the pain towards the final formula of light i.e. final meaning in philosophy.

The lines are quite complicated. The poet simply wants to say that in Philosophy we cannot understand everything. There are limitations and problems. Even in spite of having clarity, we still have some myths in our pains which make the meaning unclear.

This is why he rejects this clarity of sight i.e. quest for the meaning in Philosophy. What cannot be explained, do not explain. The line simply means that if the meaning is not clear, we should not always keep looking into it. Rather give up and don’t try to explain it again.

Having discussed Philosophy and its limitations, he discusses the poetry and its superiority over Philosophy. According to the poet, the mundane language of the senses sings its own interpretations.

Mundane means are common. The line means that the language of senses tells about everything by itself. It doesn’t rely on clarity like Philosophy and rather depends on human feelings.

Common things become common because of human feelings and love for them. They become arguments for themselves and would die if they try to find truth and meanings in themselves.

The Poem 'Background Casually' tells about the struggle of the poet for identity in a country where he as well as his community (Jews) is considered to an alien. The poem has been divided into three sections. The first section deals with the childhood of the poet. The second section throws light on his adult-age and third section deals with the old-age of the poet. In the beginning, Ezekiel uses the third person for himself. According to him, he was born low. 

Being a member of the alien community he could neither eat nor could sleep and thus became quite weak. Due to this feeling, he could not fly a kite. Even the top also failed to spin in his hands. In the next stanza, the poet describes his childhood by using the first person. He was sent to a Roman Catholic School where he, according to him, was like prey before wolves (referring to Hindus and Muslims). 

He was often taunted by the Hindus and Muslims who accused him of the murder of Christ. They compare him to Judas who betrayed Christ. The same year he won Scripture prize depicting that he was quite good in his schooling. He was often beaten by a Muslim boy and hence terror reigned in his mind during that stage. Not only Muslims but Hindu boys also repelled him away with their wrong accent and use of language.

 Being enraged he even thought of becoming violent and used his knife, though he did not mention where, how and why he used the knife. One night he heard prayers that made him believe that he is not morally so good (as he heard of Yoga and Zen). He thought if he could still become a Rabbi (a saint). Being curious he tried to find the answer but the deeper he went the more confused he was. In the second section, Ezekiel talks about his adult-age experiences. His family desired to send him to England for higher studies but being financially poor they could not effort his expenses. 

However one of their friends paid for him and he was able to go to England. There he was alone and considered poverty, poetry, and philosophy of his friends. Time passed and even after two years he was alone. A woman came and tried to motivate him and henceforth he tried to make his life a little bit better. Later he recognized his failure which became an unbearable thought. After spending some years he desired to go back to India. However, he was too poor to do so. Hence he started working on a cargo ship that took French guns and mortar shells to India and China. He was finally able to go back to India on the same ship. After coming back to India Eziekel tried to be happy and feel at home again. However, he was still an alien. His father often told him that all the Hindus are violent. 

Nissim and his family were often humiliated by their neighbors. Hence he prepared to endure the worst. He married and even changed his job. Doing such things he acknowledged that he was a fool. He started writing poetry and knew well that he has ample to write. He explains how low their community was. His ancestors did the job of crushing seeds which were not a good job. 

In the 3rd section, Ezekiel explains his experience as an old person. He says that one of his friends told how he fought in the Boer War. Hearing the stories started fearing from the Indians. He recognized that writing poetry is also not safe and even the words can harm a person. He wrote poems and gave up his sufferings. Now he tried to write wisely without giving free play to his thoughts. 

He expresses his inner and outer suffering that he ultimately failed to defeat. He says that now he has become an integral part of India. The foreigners consider him to be an alien on that land (India). But he decided now he will consider himself as an Indian. He has to stay there though it is a backward place for the other Jews living outside of India. 

In “Background, Casually,” Ezekiel relates his life story and ends the poem on a note about India. He writes about the landscape first: “The Indian landscape sears my eyes. / I have become a part of it / To be observed by foreigners” (181). In these lines, Ezekiel views his environment as an outsider even though he is seen as an insider and local. He continues that he has made a vow to stay in India: “I have made my commitments now. / This is one: to stay where I am, / As others choose to give themselves / In some remote and backwards place. / My backwards place is where I am” (181). Even though Ezekiel has complaints about India and considers it a “backwards” place, he knows that he is seen as an Indian poet, part of the landscape. His decision to stay in India communicates a solidarity with his country that he would only feel from the inside. Although he finds the Indian environment unsatisfactory, he accepts it as his own and decides to work so that it may improve.