Poems and Poets
3. Ode to Duty
William Wordsworth (1807)
Stern Daughter of the Voice of God !
O Duty! if that name thou love
Who are a Light to guide, a Rod
To check the erring, and reprove;
Thou who art victory and law
When empty terrors overawe;
From vain temptations dost set free;
From strife and from despair; a glorious ministry.
There are who ask not if thine eye
Be on them; who,in love and truth,
Where no misgiving is,rely
Upon the genial sense of youth:
Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot;
Who do thy work, and know it not:
May joy be theirs while life shall last!
And Thou, if they should totter,teach them to stand fast!
Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,
When love is an unerring light,
And joy its own security.
And blessed are they who in the main
This faith, even now, do entertain:
Live in the spirit of this creed;
Yet find that other strength, according to their need.
I, loving freedom, and untried;
No sport of every random gust,
Yet bring to myself a guide,
Too blindly have reposed my trust:
Resolved that nothing ever should press
Upon my present happiness,
I shoved unwelcome tasks away;
But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.
Through no disturbance of my soul,
Or strong compunction in m wrought,
I supplicate for thy controul;
But in the quietness of thought:
Me this uncharted freedom tires;
I feel the weight of chance desires:
My hopes no more must change their name,
I long for a repose which ever is the same.
Yet not the less would I throughout
Still act according to the voice
Of my own wish; and feel past doubt
That my submissiveness was choice:
Not seeking in the school of pride
For 'precepts over dignified,'
Denial and restraint I prize
No farther than they breed a second Will more wise.
Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;
Nor know we anything so fair
As is the smile upon thy face;
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds;
And fragrance in thy footing treads;
Thou dost preserve the Stars from wrong;
And the most ancient Heavens through Thee are fresh and strong.
To humbler functions,awful Power!
I call thee: I myself commend
Unto thy guidance from this hour;
Oh! let my weakness have an end!
Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice;
The confidence of reason give;
And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live!
These 64 lines are perhaps the most tremendous in English poetry expounding a cogent philosophy, completely consistent with our own!
The modern age is one of Rights everywhere- universal rights, human rights, women's rights, minority rights, gay rights, animal rights, children's rights, workers' rights, stake holders' rights, etc. Two hundred years ago, Wordsworth wrote about Duty!
Indian ie Hindu ethos is based on firm notions of duty-we call it Dharma! Even Buddhism and Jainism are based on Dharma! A large part of our religious literature is devoted to an exposition of dharma. The Mahabharata is totally devoted to it. But the course of dharma is not easy to determine,fix or follow. Hence at the end, Vyasa exclaims that with both hands upraised, he calls for people to follow dharma, but no one does. Chaturvedi Badrinath has written a beautiful book on this.
The Bhagavad Gita is an exposition of dharma as applicable to modern times. It begins with Dritarashtra remembering "dharmakshetre"; Bhagavan's discourses are triggered by Arjuna's confusion about dharma -" dharma sammudha chetah:"; it concludes with Bhagavan categorically asking Arjuna to give up all mental preoccupation with questions of dharma but to take refuge in Him firmly. He has thus provided a new orientation to the spiritual quest.
Dharma is performed through karma, but karma results in bondage. But this is the basis of society and cannot be given up. Krishna tells us to perform karma as yajna and convert it into yoga, always taking refuge in Him. This is the essence of all dharma.
Arjuna's question is very significant. He is on the battlefield, in the midst of two mighty armies, itching for battle. He does not ask for victory. He doubts whether his proposed action is righteous; so he asks Krishna " tell me decisively what is good for me" 2.7.
The words he uses are very significant. He says: "Yat shreya; syan nischitam bruhi" .He wants "Shreyas".
This word 'shreyas' has tremendous philosophical significance for us. In Katha Upanishad Yama tells Nachiketas that two different things approach man: the preyas, the pleasant; and shreyas, the good, what elevates,ennobles one.He who chooses the good does good to himself; he who chooses the pleasant misses the purpose of life. Here Arjuna seeks 'shreyas'.
Human life is prompted by desires, and punctuated by anger and frustration due to non fulfilment. ( kama esha:krodha esha:) So life has to be guided by a rule higher than desire. ( shastram pramanam) This is what dharma provides- an unfailing guide under all circumstances. But it is a hard path- Dharma is stern.
Read the poem now attentively. Wordsworth has implied all this. Duty is a light to guide, a rod to check erring ways.It sets us free from temptations, from vain strife and despair. We follow our free will and think of duty only when there is trouble. But Wordsworth wants to choose duty deliberately , and seeks guidance from the stern lawgiver, the Daughter of the Voice of God, though it involves self-sacrifice! He knows it gives victory and law ie a rule for life.
This mention of victory and sacrifice is too important to be glossed over. The Mahabharata is indeed termed "Jaya"- victory! Where there is dharma, there is victory! And the conscientious performance of duty does involve sacrifice-self sacrifice. The giving up of the sense of a separate ego is the ultimate sacrifice. The devotee sacrifices his small self in the Lord. ('Having him, I must have naught beside"- Francis Thompson in The Hound of Heaven) The Jnani loses his separateness in the Universal Consciousness. This is the kind of cosmic Oneness that Wordsworth felt, at least occasionally.
I consider this one of the greatest poems. I can annotate it wholly on the basis of the Gita. But I think I have given enough clues here.It is simply thrilling to think that an English poet living thousands of miles away could catch our spirit so fully, though couched in different terminology! The blue sky bends over all, as Coleridge put it!
3. Ode to Duty
William Wordsworth (1807)
Stern Daughter of the Voice of God !
O Duty! if that name thou love
Who are a Light to guide, a Rod
To check the erring, and reprove;
Thou who art victory and law
When empty terrors overawe;
From vain temptations dost set free;
From strife and from despair; a glorious ministry.
There are who ask not if thine eye
Be on them; who,in love and truth,
Where no misgiving is,rely
Upon the genial sense of youth:
Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot;
Who do thy work, and know it not:
May joy be theirs while life shall last!
And Thou, if they should totter,teach them to stand fast!
Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,
When love is an unerring light,
And joy its own security.
And blessed are they who in the main
This faith, even now, do entertain:
Live in the spirit of this creed;
Yet find that other strength, according to their need.
I, loving freedom, and untried;
No sport of every random gust,
Yet bring to myself a guide,
Too blindly have reposed my trust:
Resolved that nothing ever should press
Upon my present happiness,
I shoved unwelcome tasks away;
But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.
Through no disturbance of my soul,
Or strong compunction in m wrought,
I supplicate for thy controul;
But in the quietness of thought:
Me this uncharted freedom tires;
I feel the weight of chance desires:
My hopes no more must change their name,
I long for a repose which ever is the same.
Yet not the less would I throughout
Still act according to the voice
Of my own wish; and feel past doubt
That my submissiveness was choice:
Not seeking in the school of pride
For 'precepts over dignified,'
Denial and restraint I prize
No farther than they breed a second Will more wise.
Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;
Nor know we anything so fair
As is the smile upon thy face;
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds;
And fragrance in thy footing treads;
Thou dost preserve the Stars from wrong;
And the most ancient Heavens through Thee are fresh and strong.
To humbler functions,awful Power!
I call thee: I myself commend
Unto thy guidance from this hour;
Oh! let my weakness have an end!
Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice;
The confidence of reason give;
And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live!
These 64 lines are perhaps the most tremendous in English poetry expounding a cogent philosophy, completely consistent with our own!
The modern age is one of Rights everywhere- universal rights, human rights, women's rights, minority rights, gay rights, animal rights, children's rights, workers' rights, stake holders' rights, etc. Two hundred years ago, Wordsworth wrote about Duty!
Indian ie Hindu ethos is based on firm notions of duty-we call it Dharma! Even Buddhism and Jainism are based on Dharma! A large part of our religious literature is devoted to an exposition of dharma. The Mahabharata is totally devoted to it. But the course of dharma is not easy to determine,fix or follow. Hence at the end, Vyasa exclaims that with both hands upraised, he calls for people to follow dharma, but no one does. Chaturvedi Badrinath has written a beautiful book on this.
The Bhagavad Gita is an exposition of dharma as applicable to modern times. It begins with Dritarashtra remembering "dharmakshetre"; Bhagavan's discourses are triggered by Arjuna's confusion about dharma -" dharma sammudha chetah:"; it concludes with Bhagavan categorically asking Arjuna to give up all mental preoccupation with questions of dharma but to take refuge in Him firmly. He has thus provided a new orientation to the spiritual quest.
Dharma is performed through karma, but karma results in bondage. But this is the basis of society and cannot be given up. Krishna tells us to perform karma as yajna and convert it into yoga, always taking refuge in Him. This is the essence of all dharma.
Arjuna's question is very significant. He is on the battlefield, in the midst of two mighty armies, itching for battle. He does not ask for victory. He doubts whether his proposed action is righteous; so he asks Krishna " tell me decisively what is good for me" 2.7.
The words he uses are very significant. He says: "Yat shreya; syan nischitam bruhi" .He wants "Shreyas".
This word 'shreyas' has tremendous philosophical significance for us. In Katha Upanishad Yama tells Nachiketas that two different things approach man: the preyas, the pleasant; and shreyas, the good, what elevates,ennobles one.He who chooses the good does good to himself; he who chooses the pleasant misses the purpose of life. Here Arjuna seeks 'shreyas'.
Human life is prompted by desires, and punctuated by anger and frustration due to non fulfilment. ( kama esha:krodha esha:) So life has to be guided by a rule higher than desire. ( shastram pramanam) This is what dharma provides- an unfailing guide under all circumstances. But it is a hard path- Dharma is stern.
Read the poem now attentively. Wordsworth has implied all this. Duty is a light to guide, a rod to check erring ways.It sets us free from temptations, from vain strife and despair. We follow our free will and think of duty only when there is trouble. But Wordsworth wants to choose duty deliberately , and seeks guidance from the stern lawgiver, the Daughter of the Voice of God, though it involves self-sacrifice! He knows it gives victory and law ie a rule for life.
This mention of victory and sacrifice is too important to be glossed over. The Mahabharata is indeed termed "Jaya"- victory! Where there is dharma, there is victory! And the conscientious performance of duty does involve sacrifice-self sacrifice. The giving up of the sense of a separate ego is the ultimate sacrifice. The devotee sacrifices his small self in the Lord. ('Having him, I must have naught beside"- Francis Thompson in The Hound of Heaven) The Jnani loses his separateness in the Universal Consciousness. This is the kind of cosmic Oneness that Wordsworth felt, at least occasionally.
I consider this one of the greatest poems. I can annotate it wholly on the basis of the Gita. But I think I have given enough clues here.It is simply thrilling to think that an English poet living thousands of miles away could catch our spirit so fully, though couched in different terminology! The blue sky bends over all, as Coleridge put it!
These are a great lines Sir!
ReplyDeleteI have never read much of Wordsworth, but this poem will initiate the change.
Here's a few lines by W E Henley:
A people, haggard with defeat,
Asks if there be a God; yet sets its teeth,
Faces calamity, and goes into the fire
Another than it was. And in wild hours
A people, roaring ripe
With victory, rises, menaces, stands renewed,
Sheds its old piddling aims,
Approves its virtue, puts behind itself
The comfortable dream, and goes,
Armoured and militant,
New-pithed, new-souled, new-visioned, up the steeps
To those great altitudes, whereat the weak
Live not. But only the strong
Have leave to strive, and suffer, and achieve.