STANZA ONE
It was
roses, roses, all the way,
With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:
The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,
The poem
commences with a sense of thrill in the environment. The return of the Patriot
is being widely celebrated by his townspeople. He is hailed with feverish glee and
paths of roses. The house roof was filled with the greeting people and he was
treated like a champion.
The church-spires flamed, such flags they had,
A year ago on this very day.
The narrator recalls
how on this very day of the year he was greeted with a ringing bell and the
“church– spires” gleamed with flags.
STANZA TWO
The air
broke into a mist with bells,
The old walls rocked with the crowd and cries.
The air was filled with a mist with the sound of the
ringing “ bells”. The old building walls swirled with the outcry of the excited
crowd. These lines speak highly of the
Patriot.
Had I
said, Good folk, mere noise repels—
But give me your sun from yonder skies!”
They had answered, And afterward, what else?”
The collective
frenzy encased as a deliberated celebration was so fierce that had the narrator
asked for the sun, the public would have asked him to ask further. This quick
response of the public to his outrageous was very fatal because the crowd ich
does not think twice and do the unthinkable. The words “ Good folk, mere noise
/ repels” shows that the celebration was nothing but a mere noise.
STANZA
THREE
Alack, it
was I who leaped at the sun
To give it my loving friends to keep!
Nought man could do, have I left undone:
These lines highlight
the fact that it was the narrator who “ leaped at the sun” to give it to his “
loving friends”. The use of Alack, in the beginning, portrays the pathos
in which he is recounting his decision. He talks about the sacrifice which he
has given for the betterment of his people. Here, the poet alludes to the Greek
myth of Icarus with waxwing. He was repeatedly instructed by his father
Daedalus not to go near the Sun but despite the repeated advice he one day flew
near the Sun and his wax wings were melted and consequently, he died.
And you
see my harvest, what I reap
This very day, now a year is run.
The harvest he reaps is not merely the out of rejection
by the people but an optimistic celebration at his tragic fall. This complete
cycle of harvesting takes one complete year, from his arrival and then to his
successive fall.
STANZA
FOUR
There’s
nobody on the house-tops now—
Just a palsied few at the windows set;
After all the remembrance
of the past, the scene then comes back to the present state. The patriot finds
himself in a stranded position. The houses which were filled with an outcry of
the crowd now fade away. The house roofs are empty and only those who are sick
were present.
For the
best of the sight is, all allow,
At the Shambles’ Gate—or, better yet,
By the very scaffold’s foot, I trow.
The people now
gathered at the very foot if the Scaffold to get a better view of the execution.
The man who was once highly praised is now in the shackles of the fickle-minded
people.
STANZA
FIVE
I go in
the rain, and, more than needs,
A rope cuts both my wrists behind;
And I think, by the feel, my forehead bleeds,
He goes in the
rain( Browning’s choice of Pathetic fallacy). His hand is hurt by the ropes
with which his wrists are bound. He gets a feeling that his forehead bleeds
too.
For they
fling, whoever has a mind,
Stones at me for my year’s misdeeds.
Despite of this
torture, the sadist mob comes up with a grim suggestion of throwing stones at
this dejected soul who bleeds throughout. They claim that this punishment was
due to his “ year’s misdeeds”.
STANZA
SIX
Thus I
entered, and thus I go!
In triumphs, people have dropped down dead.
Paid by the world, what dost thou owe
The narrator
restates the classic lines as he days “ Thus I entered, and thus I go”. He believes
that he has played his role and is now leaving for a holy abode. The people
have snatched his honour so he seeks the same in God’s company.
Me?”—God
might question; now instead,
‘Tis God shall repay: I am safer so.
The poem ends
on an optimistic note was the narrator, at last, seeks solace in God’s arms.
Even in the verge of his cessation, he hopes for eternity in the divine.
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