Hi, This video gives an understanding of the poem There was a country by Yasmine Gooneratne.
#therewasacountry
#therewasacountrybyyasmingooneratne
#therewasacountrybyyasminegooneratnesummary
#newliteraturesinenglish
“There was a Country” by Yasmine Gooneratne
Author
Sri Lankan by birth, British by education, and Australian by choice
Born 1935
Now settled in Australia
Novelist and poet
The prescribed poem is taken from the collection “6000 FT Death”
What s it?
The poem is a comparison between her good old country and bitter harsh new country
The former was creative and imaginative whereas the latter is non-creative
Major themes of the poem :
5 themes
Postcolonial Nostalgia - a reflection of the past called “Asian grief “
Diasporic immigration experiences
Postcolonailism= Colonial effects of her country
The poem is also about creativity= compare with Neruda’s “The Word” and Thought Fox by Ted Hughs
Searching for the roots.
Summary
Title: Country stands for the Orient
the patriotic poem that explains the qualities of Oriental poetry with an aesthetic and heritage sense.
24 lines poem
She compares Orient and her new country for generating new ideas.
Her argument: An ideal environment is essential for creativity.
Summary: She says in her country poem “lay close to the surface” and every shower showers the “glittering edge” of poetic ideas. But now she is in a land where poems lie “deeper than opals and oil” and with her tools of “love, anger and pity” she could not unearth the poetic genius. ANy emotion can bring forth poetry in the orient. She kicked a stone and saw beneath it gleaming stones of ideas shining. IN her country the sorrow could bring forth poetry. Here in her new country “grief would strike her dep”. She concludes the poem by saying that instead of digging hard to find the poetic ideas in her new country she would allow her “creation to sleep” than digging deep to get ideas to find diamonds for the poet's crown”
21 авг 2024
