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Enterprise by Nissim Ezekiel
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25.5 ENTERPRISE

Th e second poem of Nissim Ezekiel which we will take up for a dztailed analysis is
call ld Enterprise . It appears in the volume The Unfinished Man containing just 10
poems written in 1959 and appearing in 1960.

Fnterprise
It sta rted as a pilgrimage
Exalting minds and making all
The bu rdens light. The second stage
~ x ~ l o r e d ut
r did not test the call.
Th e Sun beat down to match our rage.
We stood it very well, I thought,
Observed and put down copious notes
On things the peasants sold and bought,
Th e way of serpents and of goats,
Thr ee cities where a sage had taught.
But when t he differences arose
O n how to cross a desert patch,
We lost a friend whose stylish prose
Was quite the best of all our batch.
A shadow falls on us and grows.
Ano the r phase was reached when we
Were twice attacked , and lost our way.
A section claimed its liberty
T o leave the group. I tried to pray.
Ou r leader said he smelt th e sea.
We noticed nothing as we went,
A straggling crowd of little hope,
Ignoring what the thunder m eant,
Deprived of common needs like soap.
Some were broke n, so me merely b ent.
When, finally, we reached the place,
.We hardly knew why we were the re.
Th e trip had darkene d every face,
Ou r deed s were neither great nor rare.
Home is where we have to gather grace.
A

Glossary
enterprise: something new difficult and important that one does or tries to do.
pilgrimage: a journey someone makes to a holy place for a religious reason.
exalting: raising to a higher position by an intense feeling of joy a nd happiness.
eiplorgd: tentatively assess.
rage: intense angerlfrenzy
copious: detailedlin large npmbers
sage: wise knowledgeable man
liberty: freedom
straggling: wandering away from the path when they ar e walking alongwith a group.

25.5.1 Interpretation
The poem Enterprise is one of the serious poems of Ezekiel and is moulded ou t of
the fallouts of frustration in a barbaric city.