Text
Great Pan is not dead;
Summary and Analysis
The poet Sujata Bhatt
was born around the middle of the 20th century in India and immigrated to the
USA with her family around 1968. The poet talks about the influence of other
cultures through colonization and how it affects the local language and thought.
However, it is quite ironic that the poet herself is writing this poem in
English the language of the colonizers. Moreover, she was an immigrant by
choice to another country and culture.
Read also, What’s Your Perception of A Successful Life?
The poem is written as
free verse without a rhyming scheme. The first half of the
poem seems to talk about the similarity of some cultures and pagan religious
beliefs. She begins the poem by talking about the ancient Greek god pan who was
a pastoral god from Arcadia and thinks he lives in the nature gods of India.
This also seems to imply that the Indians accepted other cultures and religions
and incorporated them into their cultural and religious beliefs.The poem ‘A Different
History’ gives a diferent viewpoint of history. The colonization of the
African and Asian countries after the 17th century was a new form of conquest
and their final victory was won only after the language and culture of the
conquerors were adopted by the vanquished. She talks about
revering the written word and venerating all books as holy. She believes that the ancient Hindu goddess Sarasvati, responsible for knowledge and art, lives in books. Even the paper that the books are made of must not be defiled
as it is made from the wood of trees that she considers sacred as part of her
religious beliefs.
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The second part of the
poem deals with the oppressors and the oppressed and the loss of language and
culture. The style of beginning the second part is rhetorical as she asks the
question ‘Which language has not been the oppressor’s tongue? She seems to
imply that every culture and language has been the oppressor or the oppressed
at some point in the history of the world.
Summary and Analysis
The poet Sujata Bhatt was born around the middle of the 20th century in India and immigrated to the USA with her family around 1968. The poet talks about the influence of other cultures through colonization and how it affects the local language and thought. However, it is quite ironic that the poet herself is writing this poem in English the language of the colonizers. Moreover, she was an immigrant by choice to another country and culture.
Read also, What’s Your Perception of A Successful Life?
The poem is written as free verse without a rhyming scheme. The first half of the poem seems to talk about the similarity of some cultures and pagan religious beliefs. She begins the poem by talking about the ancient Greek god pan who was a pastoral god from Arcadia and thinks he lives in the nature gods of India. This also seems to imply that the Indians accepted other cultures and religions and incorporated them into their cultural and religious beliefs.The poem ‘A Different History’ gives a diferent viewpoint of history. The colonization of the African and Asian countries after the 17th century was a new form of conquest and their final victory was won only after the language and culture of the conquerors were adopted by the vanquished. She talks about revering the written word and venerating all books as holy. She believes that the ancient Hindu goddess Sarasvati, responsible for knowledge and art, lives in books. Even the paper that the books are made of must not be defiled as it is made from the wood of trees that she considers sacred as part of her religious beliefs.
Read also, Apps and Websites That Will Help You Ace Your Studies
The second part of the poem deals with the oppressors and the oppressed and the loss of language and culture. The style of beginning the second part is rhetorical as she asks the question ‘Which language has not been the oppressor’s tongue? She seems to imply that every culture and language has been the oppressor or the oppressed at some point in the history of the world.
The victors apply cruel tactics against the vanquished to kill their spirit of freedom through injustice and unfairness. The image of a scythe has been used here to show the cruelty used against the oppressed so that they would accept the terms and conditions of the conquerors. A change in culture and language becomes inevitable after this. Consequently, the new generations of the oppressed accept them as a way to climb higher in social order and to success.
