"Hope"
"I would not deny That I could not
Dream or swim But it was in my dream Slipped in a deep of ditch
My hands were tied
Legs were not working I was drowning and drowning
From deep to deeper I felt Suffocated and strangulated, As I would not be alive, I would
Be dead, this gave me a cry! 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."
Archilochus
"O heart, my heart, churning with unmanageable sorrows, rouse yourself and fiercely drive off your foes with a frontal attack, standing hard by them, steadfastly; and neither exult openly if you win, nor, if you are beaten, fling yourself down at home in lamentation.
Instead, rejoice in what is joyful, grieve at troubles, but not too much: be aware what sort of rhythm rules man's life." (Fr. 128)
When scrutinizing these two excerpts of poetry, we see many similarities. "Hope", a much more modern poem when compared to that of Archilochus, describes a man entering deep despair. The reader can determine this by looking at the lines "From deep to deeper I felt suffocated and strangulated." The author is obviously going through tough times with seemingly no chance of escape. However, the author also realizes this deepening hole of misery, and to combat this, he musters up "a gust of energy in the form of help". The author has "a strong desire to be alive," so he uses the "rope of hope" (which the reader can assume that this phrase just means the word "hope") to combat his despair and to find joy in life. The poem begins with the author's fall and then finishes with his rise back into gladness. In the poem fragment by Archilochus, this same type of sorrow and realization of said sorrow can be observed. The first lines are "O heart, my heart, churning with unmanageable sorrows." Archilochus states right off the bat that he is in dark despair. However, he does not describe this anguish in detail like Wahab does. Instead, he focuses on the recovery. He motivates himself to transition from wretchedness to restoration. Archilochus states, "rouse yourself and fiercely drive off your foes." He tells himself to avoid lamentation and to "rejoice in what is joyful." Wahab wanted to live and thus fought for life. Archilochus wants the same thing as he understands the good things in living. Both poets know to "be aware of what sort of rhythm rules man's life." Their poems describe pain that often engulfs each and every person. They also describe how this pain can cause you to "fling yourself down at home in lamentation" and can force you to feel "suffocated." In the end however, these two poems are not actually about sorrow and tribulation. Rather, they describe promise and faith for a better future. Wahab knows that life cannot be lived in pain. That is why he finds hope, so he can find joy. Archilochus would agree. This is why Archilochus tells his heart to fight the hardship and to find peace. A life of suffering or sadness can be fought with a little bit of hope. That is the moral of these two poems.
Good interpretation here - I liked how you were able to draw commonalities between the poems with your use of textual evidence. A question to ponder - how does the central metaphor of each poet give a different conception of life's difficulties? Wahab is drowning, rescued by the rope of hope, while Archilochus commands his heart to press on, as if in battle. What do these suggest about their relative approaches to struggle?
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