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ENTERPRISE BY NISSIM EZEKIEL

 Critical appreciation of the poem

Nissim Ezekiel's poem "Enterprise" described a metaphorical journey toward a specific goal. The travellers on this journey begin in a real physical place, a desert, and argue about how to cross this challenging landscape. One of the members of the group, who wrote the most stylish prose, goes his own way. The rest of the group was left on its own. Some quit the team.

A group of men, including the poet, embarked on a voyage to England, where the poet went with a few friends in a group. They called it a   This pilgrimage was both real and imagined. They were spiritually high. In their way they had many hurdles. The first phase went off well, but the pilgrims found that, at the second stage, the sun scorched them; it tested their courage and fortitude. At a spiritual level, the journey to the Holy Land. They bore this well. They were keen observers. They took plentiful notes and recorded their observations "on the things peasants sold and bought" as well as the behaviours of serpents and goats, as also "three cities where a sage had taught". The allusion to the "three cities" is obscure here.

They then reached a desert, and there arose differences among them on how to cross that patch. One of the pilgrims. who possessed a gift for stylish writing, abandoned the journey midway. They lost their best intellect. This entailed a great loss, and they were shocked. A pall of gloom fell over them.

In another phase of the voyage, the pilgrims were attacked twice and they lost their way. Some of them broke away from the group. The rest of the way they travelled on their own. The poet tried his best to persuade them to remain with the rest of the group. He also "tried to pray" for the success of their enterprise, and the leader informed him that they were near the sea, meaning that they were on the right track. Now they could continue their "pilgrimage".

On their way, this small group of stragglers did not notice anything. They were without hope; they did not pay any heed to what the thunder said. They despaired of the success of their mission. They were poor of their common basic needs like soap. Some of them were totally broken down, while others were bent with their physical and spiritual burden.

Finally the travellers reached their destination; however, it was not quite home. Ezekiel concluded that this type of expedition was not a worthy undertaking; living "at home" with inner satisfaction is the greatest achievement of all. They came to the conclusion that their journey had been neither pioneering nor notable for any reason. They had thought their journey would make a mark in history. The only problem is that others have made this journey before. It was nothing new. The journey of Enterprise is a metaphor for life and our focus on the destination as the only means for our goals. Some critics have noted that Ezekiel's Enterprise is also his attempt to bring together two homes his place of birth and his journey towards a European city.


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