Friday, October 4, 2019

(POEMS) Chapter -3 The Dolphins - By Carol Ann Duffy (Long Questions)

Q 1:- Show how 'The Dolphins' is a poem of protest against the slow destruction of nature and natural creatures by man.

Ans:- 'The Dolphins' is obviously a poem of protest against human oppression, constriction and confinement of non-human natural animals. In this poem the speaker, a dolphin remembers its previous life of untrammelled freedom in the ocean and the sense of bondage and confinement in the artificial aquarium. The dolphin seems to represent a kind of protest against human exploitation and oppression meted out to natural creatures. Ironically enough the human beings are the main exploiters of the natural habitat of the dolphin. By limiting its freedom of movement within the narrow confines of a small pool they destroy nature as well. An entrapped and enslaved dolphin feels forlorn in its confined space where there is little or no scope for freedom. The poet here not only expresses the agonizing feeling of the dolphin but also the collective voice of those animals which have to suffer the same fate as the dolphin. The present oppression is being poignantly felt by the dolphin in relation to its blessed abode in the sea. The life in the man made pool is artificial and unnatural. The dolphin's cry of anguish comes out:
"World is what you swim in, or dance, it is simple
We are in our element but we are not free."

   Naturally the dolphins are not free at all because of their estrangement. They are in their"element" but enslaved. The narrow pool does not give them joy or freedom which they yearn for. The monotony of existence makes them morbid. In the world of captivity they have no certainty. "Our mind knows we will die here / There is no hope"- these words welling out of the heart of dolphins are in fact an expression of protest against human oppression and exploitation.

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