The Tiger and The Deer by Sri Aurobindo (The Poem & Summary)

 

The Tiger and The Deer

by Sri Aurobindo

(The Poem & Summary)

Sri Aurobindo was the poet of the modern age or the age of interrogation and anxiety. The characteristic qualities of the age are:

·      Anxiety and interrogation

·      Art for life’s sake

·      Growing interests in the poor and the working classes

·      Impact of socio-economic conditions on literature

·      Stream of consciousness

·      Impact of two world wars and

·      The impact of radio and cinema.

The general characteristics of modern poetry are:

·      Tradition and experiment

·      Imagism

·      Symbolism and

·      The Pound-Eliot tradition

The modern poet includes:

·      The transitional poet

·      The war poets

·      Georgian poets

·      Oxford poets

·      Poet of imagism and symbolism and

·      The poets of new romanticism

Sri Aurobindo was known as a saint of Pondicherry. He was born in Calcutta on 15^th August 1872. He had his education in England and was a professor, politician, freedom fighter, revolutionary poet, editor, philosopher, mystic and a yogi. He passed the Indian civil service examination at the age of 21 and has been the principal of Baroda College, Bengal National College etc. He also had been the editor of English daily Vande Mataram. He was the master of ‘blank verse’.

The Tiger and The Deer

(The Poem)

Brilliant, crouching, slouching, what crept through the green heart of the forest,

Gleaming eyes and mighty chest and soft soundless paws of grandeur and murder?

The wind slipped through the leaves as if afraid lest its voice and the noise of its steps perturb the pitiless Splendour,

Hardly daring to breathe. But the great beast crouched and crept, and crept and crouched a last time, noiseless, fatal,

Till suddenly death leaped on the beautiful wild deer as it drank

Unsuspecting from the great pool in the forest's coolness and shadow,

And it fell and, torn, died remembering its mate left sole in the deep woodland, -

Destroyed, the mild harmless beauty by the strong cruel beauty in Nature.

But a day may yet come when the tiger crouches and leaps no more in the dangerous heart of the forest,

As the mammoth shakes no more the plains of Asia;

Still then shall the beautiful wild deer drink from the coolness of great pools in the leaves’ shadow.

The mighty perish in their might;

The slain survive the slayer.

Summary

Sri Aurobindo, in his poem The Tiger and The Deer, compares the present with the future. The poet is not at all disturbed with the present situation of the world, but he is hopeful for the future when there will be no fear of anything.

According to the poet, in the present world, there are two classes of people, one is oppressed and the other is the oppressor. Tiger symbolizes the oppressor and Deer the oppressed one. According to the poet the tiger brilliantly creeps through the dark forest. He is after a wild and beautiful deer. Its glowing eyes fill a kind of terror in the hearts of every creature. It stoops, bends, creeps, crouches and slouches after the deer. With his strong chest, he moves on his soft and soundless paws. The wind is also afraid to disturb him, that’s why the wind slips through the leaves and is afraid of making noise. The tiger suddenly leaps on a beautiful wild deer. The deer falls down and is torn into pieces by the tiger. The deer is torn away, while it was drinking water from the pool. It fell down remembering its mate, which is left all alone in the forest and died. Thus, one beauty is killed by another beauty.

In the second part of the poem, the poet gives a note of hope. The poet hopes, that a day will come, when no tiger shall crouch and attack in the dangerous heart of the forest. According to him there will be no oppressor in the future of his country. He then gives an example of Mammoth – “as the mammoth shakes no more the plains of Asia”. Similarly, all the oppressors will be wiped out. Then the beautiful wild deer will not fear in the dark shadows of the forest. In the last two lines of the poem, the poet gives a message to its readers saying that,

“the mighty parish in their might,

the slain survive the slayer”.

The poet gives a beautiful imagery of tiger’s movement behind its prey. He has also personified The Wind which is afraid of the tiger and does not produce any noise. The poet has given a graphic description of the chasing and the slaying. A contrast between the two creations of God has been given by the poet, one of them is cruel and the other is humble. The word ‘Splendor’ for the tiger is appropriate and suggestive. He has not used any regular rhyming or rhythmic pattern.