Rajagopal Parthasarthy's "Homecoming"

The poem is Section 12 of the poem "Homecoming" from Rough Passage.The poem celebrates the eminence and relevance of The Poet. The poet talks of himself in the most objective manner when he asserts:"I see him now sitting at his desk".

He claims that he made the mistake of opting for the wrong gods from the start.; he had gone for the wrong kind of inspiration. His course of action was erroneous right from the beginning . It began with his experiments with the English language It started when he set off to England for his English education. Another major obstacle to his career was his having got married. He states that he should have paid heed to the classical poets that it was better to bury a woman than marry her

Now ,as he has failed in his area of interest, namely, poetry; he teaches. Parthasarthy seems to echo George Bernard Shaw who said: "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches." He teaches probably as he had learnt from experience that poetry cannot provide him with a source of livelihood. He now tries to prove his mettle by reviewing verse written by others. In other words, circumstances had made him a critic .This label of being a critic had endowed him with invitations to conferences. It had taken him quite a time to realize that he had no talent, and wondered how words flowed so easily. He substantiates this by claiming;"One can be articulate about nothing." Articulate as an adjective signifies "spoken so as to be intelligible", and also means "expressed in articles or in separate items or particulars." The poet means to say that a person can endeavour to sound intelligible about anything or nothing. And one can compartmentalize certain subjects so as to sound like a scholar. Perhaps in this regard, the role of a critic suited him better.

He continues his self -interrogation: Was it that his gods had left him. Was he left with no source of inspiration? Again, at this juncture, we understand what the poet meant by saying that he followed the wrong Gods from the start. He had the wrong sources of stimulation. By "Pedaling his bicycles glasses", the poet implies the progress of his vision. Just as a bicycler peddles to move forward; the poet "peddles" to move his vision forward.

As we go through the poem, one can discern a distinction between the "I" and the "He". The "I" stands for the current role of the speaker in the present tense-that of a critic. The "He" shows the speaker in a mode of transition: from the poet to the critic.

The answer to the question:"What's it like to be a poet?" is answered by the speaker in uncertain terms. He first goes on to reprimand himself as a critic. In an act of vituperation, Parthasarthy terms the critic as "the son of a bitch" who "fattens himself on the flesh of dead poets". To be more precise, the critic is a parasite who depends directly on the Poet. Therefore, the critic who takes himself to be "His Eminence" has no significance, but for the poet. In castigating terms, the critic is likened to a fly that feeds on the dung-heap of old texts and obscure commentaries. "His eyes peal off": reality presents itself with indubitable clarity. Where would the so-called critic be, if it were not for poets that splashed about in the Hellespont or burned about in the Java Sea? This is a direct allusion the classical poets and the modern poets. The poem thus drives home the significance Parthasarathy imparted to the Poet.