THE JOURNEY OF LIFE

THE JOURNEY OF LIFE

Here is a very short poem on the journey of life written by the English poetess Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894).

  The title of the poem is: UP-HILL. It reads as follows:

“DOES THE ROAD wind up-hill all the way?

Yes, to the very end.

Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?

From morn to night, my friend.

But is there for the night a resting-place?

A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.

May not the darkness hide it from my face?

You cannot miss that inn.

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?

Those who have gone before.

Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?

They will not keep you waiting at the door.

Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?

Of labour you shall find the sum.

Will there be beds for me and all who seek?

Yea, beds for all who come. “

The questioner in the poem is an ordinary human being who has some intriguing questions to ask about the road of life from beginning to end. The one who takes up those questions and answers them very simply and subtly is a great mystic. He is a religious master who knows everything about the beginning and the end of the road of life.  

  The fact that the road is up-hill to the very end shows that life is not a bed of roses. It is full of hardships right from birth till death.  One has to walk up the hill from the starting point till the last foothold the destination.  However, when the arduous journey is over, there are pleasant compensations: a roof when slow dark hours begin, reunion with everyone who has reached there before him and a fulsome reward for all the hard labour he has done.

Christina Rossetti is a religious poet. She expresses her personal experiences in a very simple and lovely language. Her total poetry celebrates superiority of divine love over human passions. ‘Up-Hill’ is one of her best poems. It has a profound expression of mystical knowledge expressed with enviable simplicity and sincerity. Its unusual conversational style strongly distinguishes it from other poems written in typical forms.  

17^th JUNE 2020                                   G. R. KANWAL