Excerpt from “Hope” by Abdul Wahab:
I
had had a strong desire to be alive!
A
gust of energy in the form of help
Entered
in me as if it was dragging me
With
a help of a rope of hope
To
the shore of life, I jerked in joy
I
found myself alive and awake
I
gave a big thank and a tight hug
To
the rope of hope.
Excerpt
from Archilochus:
Now
understand this: let Neobule
be
claimed by another man.
Alas,
she is over ripe…
the
bloom has withered from her maidenhood,
and
the charm which formerly she possessed;
surfeited,
she has not
The
excerpt from Hope by Abdul Wahab has a positive message of perseverance. At the
point of giving up, the author finds a way that allows him to get out of the
slump that he is in. Hope gave him the
strength to pull himself out of feeling weak and helpless. When the author says
“with a help of a rope of hope to the shore of life, I jerked in joy”, he
compares the way he feels to the feeling of drowning in a body of water. The
feeling of hope essentially “drags” him out of the darkness (feeling weak) and
into the light (joy) just as a rope can save you from drowning in a body of
water. Hope saved him and allowed him to live the life that he wants instead of
continuing life sad and miserable.
In
the excerpt from Archilochus, Archilochus finally lets go of Neobule. He no
longer is in love with her and describes her as being too old. The prime time
of her life has already passed as Neobule has aged and is no longer as
beautiful as she once was. By saying such things about Neobule, Archilochus
hints at the fact that he is looking for someone younger, more beautiful to
spend his life with. He no longer desires her and has decided to move on with
his life, leaving her behind.
Both
excerpts are similar in the fact that they are leaving something behind that
drags them down and moving forward with their lives. The message given off in
each excerpt, however, is different. The excerpt from Hope is more positive in
talking about perseverance and pushing through the tough times whereas the
excerpt from Archilochus is more negative in the sense that he decides to move
on only after saying terrible things out of spite about Neobule. Also, in the
excerpt of Hope, the author is leaving a part of himself while in the
Archilochus excerpt, Archilochus is leaving another person and moving on with
his life. In both, they are leaving their past behind. The difference between the two is that one
Archilochus involves moving on with his love life whereas the excerpt from Hope
involves a change within himself.
Good, I felt like you were starting to do I nice close reading of the rope metaphor in the first poem. Now, what can be said in comparison beyond the straightforward positive/negative in each? I'd turn to the multiplicity of each metaphor - in Wahab we find a "gust of energy" as well as a "rope" - are these the same things? How do they fit into the general conceit of drowning? Further, what holds the different metaphors ("over ripe" and "bloom ... withered") Archilochus uses together, and what do they say about youth?
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