THE COMMON ROAD

THE COMMON ROAD

‘The Common Road’ is a great poem written by the American poet Silas H. Perkins (1758-1819). He is known as a people’s poet. The poem under reference reminds me of thousands of Indian immigrants who were shown on televisions screens. They had been uprooted because of the lockdowns as a result of Corona Virus.  Their jobs as daily or monthly wagers had come to end. They had no source of income. The savings had been exhausted. The landlords had thrown them to the winds because they could not pay them rents for the accommodation hired by them. Their employers had sacked them because their establishments had been shut down.

No bus or rail transport was available to them. Most of them had decided to walk, even bare-footed, towards their respective native places in far off states. Most of them had no luggage, but those who had a little bit held it by their hands or placed it on their heads.  

They were hungry, thirsty and tired, treading forward with the members of their families including small children and aged relatives.  

Quite a few of them fell sick and breathed their last on roads.

Why were they ignored and neglected by the people at the helm of the affairs is a big question?

Ultimately, when they had suffered for too many days, it was The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India that took pity on them and directed the State and Central Governments to pay immediate attention to all the problems related to their going back to native places.   

                        ‘The Common Road’ is the testament of a poet who loves the common road and the common people. It is interesting to read it today in the background of millions of helpless migrants all over the world. Remember common people, too, are human beings.

                        The poem reads as follows:

“I WANT TO TRAVEL, the common road

With the great crowd surging by,

Where there’s many a laugh and many a load,

And many a smile and sigh.

I want to be on the common way

With its endless tramping feet,

In the summer bright and winter gray,

In the noonday sun and heat.

In the cool of evening with shadows nigh,

A t dawn, when the sun break clear,

I want the great crowd passing by,

To ken what they see and hear.

I want to be one of the common herd,

Not live in a sheltered way,

Want to be thrilled, want to be stirred

By the great crowd day by day;

To glimpse the restful valleys deep,

To toil up the rugged hill,

To see the brooks which shyly creep,

To have the torrents thrill.

I want to laugh with the common man

Wherever he chance to be,

I want to aid him when I can

Wherever there’s need of me.

I want to lend a helping hand

Over the rough and steep

To a child too young to understand ---

To comfort those who weep,

I want to live and work and plan

With great crowd surging by,

To mingle with the common man,

No better or worse than I. “

 10^th June 2020                                   G. R. KANWAL