A Song for Simeon
by
T. S. Eliot
(About the Poet, the Poem & Summary)
About the poet
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 –1965) was a
poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. He is
Considered one of the 20th century's major poets, and a central figure in
English-language Modernist poetry.
He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in
a prominent Boston Brahmin family. He moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25
and went on to settle, work and marry there. He became a British citizen in
1927 at the age of 39.
Eliot first received attention for his
poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in 1915, and then for some
of the best-known poems in the English language, including "The Waste
Land" (1922), "The Hollow Men" (1925), "Ash Wednesday"
(1930), and Four Quartets (1943). He was also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in
the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). He was awarded the Nobel
Prize in Literature in 1948, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to
present-day poetry".
The Eliots were a Boston Brahmin family
of England and New England. Eliot's father, Henry Ware Eliot was a successful
businessman, president and treasurer of the Hydraulic-Press Brick Company in St
Louis. His mother, Charlotte Champe Stearns, wrote poetry and was a social
worker.
Eliot attended Smith Academy, the boys’
college and began to write poetry when he was 14 under the influence of Edward
Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. His first published
poem, "A Fable For Feasters", was written as a school exercise and
was published in the Smith Academy Record in February 1905.
A Song
for Simeon
(The Poem)
Lord,
the Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and
The
winter sun creeps by the snow hills;
The
stubborn season has made stand.
My
life is light, waiting for the death wind,
Like
a feather on the back of my hand.
Dust
in sunlight and memory in corners
Wait
for the wind that chills towards the dead land.
Grant
us thy peace.
I
have walked many years in this city,
Kept
faith and fast, provided for the poor,
Have
taken and given honour and ease.
There
went never any rejected from my door.
Who
shall remember my house, where shall live my children’s children
When
the time of sorrow is come?
They
will take to the goat’s path, and the fox’s home,
Fleeing
from the foreign faces and the foreign swords.
Before
the time of cords and scourges and lamentation
Grant
us thy peace.
Before
the stations of the mountain of desolation,
Before
the certain hour of maternal sorrow,
Now
at this birth season of decease,
Let
the Infant, the still unspeaking and unspoken Word,
Grant
Israel’s consolation
To
one who has eighty years and no to-morrow.
According
to thy word,
They
shall praise Thee and suffer in every generation
With
glory and derision,
Light
upon light, mounting the saints’ stair.
Not
for me the martyrdom, the ecstasy of thought and prayer,
Not
for me the ultimate vision.
Grant
me thy peace.
(And
a sword shall pierce thy heart,
Thine
also).
I
am tired with my own life and the lives of those after me,
I
am dying in my own death and the deaths of those after me.
Let
thy servant depart,
Having
seen thy salvation.
Summary
This poem talks about the story of
Simeon, a biblical character. He was a fair and devout man and hoped the redemption
from Israel. The Holy Spirit was with him, he was a good man and he never felt
away from God. Simeon did not want to die until he met Christ. Finally, he met
Christ and by recognising Him, he felt, that his waiting for Christ, was a good
decision, and that God is reliable.
T.S Eliot felt himself identified with
this story of Modernism. Everyone has fear of dying and knows what will happen
when they die. They know, that they cannot control death.
Who shall remember my house, where shall
live my children’s children
When the time of
sorrow is come?
The poem has free verse form and no
metaphors. It has no hidden meaning, there are no symbols except this one:
And a sword shall
pierce thy heart, Thine also
The sword, in the biblical context,
means the message of God.
Although modernism was not influenced
by religion, because of the doubts that surrounded the society, Eliot gave us a
testimony of his way of thinking and how religion was lived by the people who
believe in his time. Religion is a part of our culture and Literature impact in
religion and vice versa.
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