Text of the
Poem
A white pigeon comes down a stairway
one step a time.
Leaning against a stone wall,
an old beggar rearranges his crutches.
Scruffy children (one wipes his nose on his sleeve)
play marbles in a shrinking patch of a sunlight.
Quite a bit seems to have changed
in these thirty years.
Tourists stay longer and have more to spend.
Cinema posters are more provocative than ever.
Coke has replaced ice-sherbet
And gas-lamps now are seldom seen.
Beyond this street are other streets
a forest of anonymous houses
too many broken windows.
Mothers with sagging breasts go on cooking
the same meagre dinners.
If happiness existed, they were widowed long ago.
Summary
Throughout history, we have seen Pakistan going through a lot of
hurdles and sacrifices to stand where it is today. We have seen the struggle of
our leaders against the British Empire and Hindus. Many writers and poets have
written books revolving around this topic. Even though we are now a free
country, we are still slaves to the influence of colonizers that they have left
on us. They left an impact on our lifestyles, our appearance, and even our
appetite. The poem “A Street Revisited”, written by Daud Kamal where discusses
the problematic changes in our society's post-colonialism.
Born in 1935, Daud Kamal was a part of the struggle that was going
on at that time. Therefore, his work echoes all the ongoing hitches in society.
Most of his work is written in the English language as he was inspired by
modernist English poets i.e. T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and W.B. Yeats. Being a
child born in the times of the scuffles of the war for independence, he was
traumatized by all these experiences, the reason behind his strong imagism in
his poetry. His poetry is merely based on observation and the situations
occurring around him, making his work coherent. As Daud Kamal’s work was
inspired by European imagists, we can see an element of nature, artistic
approach, and compassion for society.
The poem “A Street Revisited” is based on three stanzas, all of which comprise six lines. The poem is a comparison between the past and the present. The poem opens with a pigeon coming down a stairway, step by step, and an old man standing against a stone line. Besides that, there are scruffy children playing marbles. Now all of this scenario creates an image of a shabby street where poor people live. The children wipe their runny noses with their sleeves indicating that they lack basic teachings of etiquettes and hygiene. The ironic first line where a bird is coming down the stairs struggling with each step as if its ability to fly has been taken away from it.
Moving on to the next stanza, the poet reveals that he revisited this place after thirty areas. He witnesses many sociocultural modifications in the aftermaths of colonialism. In a long period of thirty years, this place has not changed dramatically, only a few alterations took place. The tourists are seen visiting more and spend more money than before. Moreover, cinema is becoming more appealing than ever before.
Then the coke has replaced
ice-sharbat, a traditional beverage, and gas lamps are also modernized.
Although these changes might appear to be minute it is reflecting on a huge
drawback. This emphasizes the impact of colonization on the people and their
lifestyles. The author is quite bitter about all these things even though they
are small possessions. All these things have taken away the beauty of cultural
elements and the simplicity of people.
In the last stanza, the poet is quite gloomy about the situation of
these streets and the kind of lives people are spending here. He talks about
the tons of houses here, most of them dilapidated in a manner that their
windows are broken, underlining the bleakness of these streets. Then he also
talks about the condition of women which did not improve and they still are a
part of a patriarchal society. The element of feminism can be seen in these
lines as the poet draws attention to their humdrum routine. He ends the poem by declaring that he cannot see happiness here by all means like it has extinct
somehow.
In this poem, the poet highlights the differences and similarities
between the past and the present. He sees the impact of colonization on the
people and how it changed the values of things for people. However, some things
are still the same, for instance, the patriarchal society and the lack of
raising children properly.
