BREATHES THERE THE MAN
“BREATHES
there the man with soul so dead
Who never to
himself hath said,
This is my
own, my native land!
Whose heart
hath ne’er within him burned,
At home his
footsteps he hath turned
From
wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there
breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no
minstrel raptures swell;
High though
his titles, proud his name,
Boundless
his wealth as wish can claim,
Despite
those titles, power and pelf,
The wretch,
concentred all in self,
Living,
shall forfeit fair renown,
And doubly dying,
shall go down
To the vile
dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored,
unsung.”
This intensely patriotic poem was
written by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), a renowned Scottish novelist, poet and
journalist. Scott was more interested in historical fiction than in poetry. As
a novelist, his reputation is everlasting. He gave historical novel a popular
form of romantic fiction. According
literary judges, he dramatized history, made it live before us. There had been
many historical romancers more accurate than he in the externals of his tale but
none was so true to the inmost spirit of the age he was depicting. His delight
and relish for the past was warmed by a genuine love for Nature. He loved not merely the institutions of his country,
but his country’s soil; loved it as a child loves, for its associations.
In the poem cited above, Sir Walter Scott is
extremely harsh to such great men as hold many titles, possess unlimited power
and boundless wealth but are self-centred and have no patriotic spirit for
their motherland. Such men are just a
handful of vile dust and will be confined to their graves just as dust after their
death. They will remain unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.
Written more than two centuries ago, this poem
is still one of the most quoted poems on patriotism due to its thematic
significance and verbal felicity.
22nd
JUNE 2020 G.
R. KANWAL
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