Question

Elaborate on 'The Old Prison' as a metaphor for human suffering

Answer 1

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The author has used the metaphor of prison being a flute for the mouth of wind.The images of ice cold breeze are upgraded by the analogy of the prison being "a flute for the breeze's mouth"- implying that the breeze shook through the structures making pitiful and alarming sounds.

Answer 2

Answer:

Explanation:The poem "The Old Prison" is about the convict-built jail at Trial Bay, near Kempsey. In 1816, the ship Trial wrecked near the eponymous bay due to a mutiny among the convicts aboard it for the bounty on board the ship. In 1879, work began on the

construction of a gaol for the purposes of using prison labour in the Bay.The jail was abandoned in 1903, Later, over 500 German prisoners of World War I were held there but the building was closed again in 1922. Time and the ravages of war have taken their toll and today the jail is in ruins. On a visit to the site, the poet is affected by the sight of the disintegrated building. She contemplates the sadness of the prisoners who were once housed there. The remains of the building seem to foreground the desolation and despondency felt by the prisoners during their isolated melancholic existence far from their homelands. The havoc wreaked upon the prison walls by the merciless weather, and concerted efforts of the wind and the ocean makes the poet think that what befell the jail was the culmination of the rancour and malice that the greed of the mutineers and the grief of the forlorn war prisoners brought. This theme is sustained by the use of strong imagery.

The rows of the cells are without roof and the wind clatters through the cell making sad and errie sounds which comes as a cold winter in Arctic from the waves of the sea from South. In a stark environment the suffering caused by human conflicts by the errie atmosphere of the ruined prison. The waves of sea wash away the dirt from shells baring it's inside leaving behind nothing - an emptiness without any trace of life. Like a skeleton in a closet that has many stories to tell, the bone sings bitter songs -tales of people who were once there and of events that took place. As air blows through the hollow cells it produces powerful sounds that echo wind passing through a flute. The wind and the sea said that inmates are being described in a nest but not one consisting of warmth and security. Their nest is broken and blown away. The prisoners unlike the seabirds or other humans had none to call their own, no one to build relationship with or to nourish. The hollow prison through which wind moves freely echoes even now, the sad cry of the prisoners bereft of company. Wright's repetition of the flute motif ensures the wind evokes the solitary wail of prisoners. Nature is no longer the intimates' friend -it is something to be painfully endured during the term of incarceration. So in this way Wright describes the old prison as a metaphor for human suffering.