what is the purpose of the journey of the old man to Falmouth in the poem The Old Man Travelling
Answers
Explanation:
First of all, as I mentioned before, one of the main ideas of the poem is that men are born alone and we remain alone during our lifetime. This idea, connected to the romantic conception of the man, being himself in contact with nature, is patently obvious in the first four verses of the poem, where the poet is using the image of “little birds” and above all, the explanation of the traveller’s expression, the way he walks and even the fact that he is not moving with pain, but absorbed in his own thoughts.
A second remarkable idea is the one that the poet expresses in the tittle: “Animal Tranquility and Decay”. This is, our condition as human beings allows us to be conscious of the fact that we decay in the same way nature does, but the diffecence is that birds and nature cannot be conscious of it (so, they are just what they are, they cannot feel) and we are conscious of our limitations as human beings. Furthermore, it is not by chance that the protagonist is exactly an old man, one ”by whom all the effort seems forgotten”. The traveller is completely quiet walking and he is completely aware of the fact that he accepts his son dying in a short period of time, in the same way he is going to die as well some day, because our condition as human beings allows us to appreciate the pleasure of being part of the wonderful nature, but also implies that our irremediable final fate is going to be our death.
The old traveller seems to assume perfectly this intrinsic human condition because he answers normally when the poet himself as a narrator asks him about the objective of his travel (in the second stanza). The traveller tells the poet that he is going to “take the last leave of his son because he is dying in a hospital”. He shows a perfect harmony with the nature sourrounding him.
In my opinion, the poem is completely straightforward in meaning, because the poet is able to reflect perfectly this real connection between traveller and nature (first stanza) and the acceptance of his son’s death without pain as a consequence on being part of this nature.
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