ANCIENT MARINER AND NEW YORK
Metropolis! you always remind me
'Ancient Mariner' sailing on the sea---
Once wailed,'water, water everywhere,
Not a drop to drink!
Here also waves of people over people
But all are a nameless mass of crowd.
Not a single heart to beat for you
Nor an eager ear to hear you,
Nor a thirsty eye looking for you!
Metropolis! yet we all love you.
What aptitude have you to magnet
This vast crowd to keep enchanted ?
It must be something more than the mere
Stakeholders to attract fame, fortune, money
Or dream ; or to change the destiny!
Though the city of light never closes its eyes
Still-- you are alone, a lonely soul,
But you are awesome and adorable.
Stand as divinely indifferent!
You can be affected by neither love nor hate
You move cumbrously beneath the dazzling light .
Metropolis ,what is your I.D?
Are you only care-giver, not parent to any one?
Who of the vast mass come out of your womb?
Who will be there to lit a candle to your tomb?
************************************************
It is one of my favorite poem. I recited it many places .
The poem itself turned to be a 'metaphor' to me at the end-point.
As a newcomer, I often used to think of myself as lonely as an 'Ancient Mariner".in this unfamiliar city of New York with its vastness.
Many a sleepless night looking through my window at
midnight outside the high-rise dark buildings with multiple windows (like eyes )with blinking lights seem to me conveying some speechless message, that touches not only to me but also, both the gross and subtle spirit that metropolis bears.
I asked myself, little bewildered, Who is the ancient mariner?...Me?
Or the Metropolis itself?
***************************************************
Print this post
No comments:
Post a Comment