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 15th
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.
Comments