Introduction to the Poem:
The poem entitled Routine Day Sonnet describes routine day in the life of the speaker. It has considerable psychological value. A man may appear to be leading an ordinary, normal life, but his conjugal life may be miserable. This poem shows the anguish of a discontented wife and the agony of the husband. The poem begins in a normal manner but takes a sudden dramatic turn which is caused by the abnormal and uproarous behaviour of the speaker's wife. This poem presents the poet's pessimistic attitude.
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| Routine Day Sonnet, Summary and Critical Appreciation |
Summary of the Poem:
The speaker had the same routine at his office. He spent a common day with daily activities at his office. He had nothing unusual to do at his office. From morning to evening he remained busy in his office activities. He got some spare time for taking his lunch. During his office time at two o’clock, he often saw a red lorry which passed by the office window. He also saw a sailor whose chest was tattooed or carved with pictures in indelible colour. In the evening he had a walk with his daughter and saw a hybrid papaya tree. His daughter was fond of listening the stories and she could not go in the world of dream until she listened the story from the speaker. It was speaker's daily routine to tell a bed - time story to send her to sleep. After accomplishing his day routine, he was also so much tired that he went to sleep and got the experience of night dream.
The speaker spent his common routine of his life. He was completely engaged with his routine activities. Nothing unusual happened in his life. He lived a confined life. He passed his whole day in accomplishing his office duties. In the evening he got the pleasureful company of his daughter. In order to remove the tiredness of the day, he had a walk with his daughter to send her to sleep. After accomplishing her daily duties, he was badly tired and went to sleep. When he lay in the bed, he got sound sleep and was lost in dreams. Once when he was sleeping soundly, he saw a dream in which he saw that the Eskimos who were living in the Arctic regions, were travelling by a bullock cart instead of the usual dog - cart. This vision of his dream brought him somewhat surprise. But the next moment, during his sound sleep, he heard a terrifying cry of his wife and he woke up from his sound sleep. It seemed as if she had fallen into the crater of a volcanic mountain situated in hell and her sudden fall horrified her and this was why she made a loud scream. In other words, her heart seemed to be a crater of volcano from which the fiery lava of her anger and hatred was continuously erupting. He heard his wife saying that due to his impurity and immorality, she hated him very much. She called him an intolerably lustful man.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Introduction:
The poem entitled Routine Day Sonnet is a most interesting poem which confirms our impression about Ramanujan's being a pessimistic poet. The poem describes an ordinary routine day in the life of the speaker. It reveals the suppressed anguish of a discontented wife. The poet shows his utter unhappiness and discontentment of his present life. He has been crushed under the routine activities. He has been deprived of all the pleasures of life. He also expresses his discontentment for his conjugal life.
Thought - Content:
The routine day for the speaker means nothing unusual at the office, followed by a walk in the evening with his daughter, and a bed - time story to send her to sleep. Then in the course of his sleep at night the speaker sees a dream about the Eskimos living in the Arctic regions and travelling by a bullock - cart instead of the usual dog - cart by which they travel. This is something of a surprise. But the real surprise comes in the lines which follow. The speaker is awakened by his wife's scream as if she had fallen into the crater of a volcanic mountain situated in hell. He hears his wife saying that she hates him because he is a filthy rat and sex - crazy or an intolerably lustful man.
Irony in the Poem:
In the poem, the speaker speaks of a perfectly ordinary day at the office, of a walk before dark with his daughter, then dinner, coffee, a bed - time story for the daughter and so on. But a surprise awaits the reader, and the surprise is described in an ironic manner. In the midst of a dream at night, the speaker is awakened by his wife's cry which makes him think that she is screaming from a crater in hell:
“She hates me, I hate her.”
His wife thinks him to be a filthy rat and a lustful fellow, as lustful as a satyr which is a monstrous creature, half - human and half - goat.
Familial Relation:
Familial relation takes an unusual twist in the poem. Darkness enters the family realm when the wife ‘cries her heart out’:
“But I wake with a start
to hear my wife cry her heart
out as if from a crater
in hell: she hates, I hate her,
I'm filthy rat and satyr.”
As opposed to the warm and cordial relations here it is the story of hatred that the poet tries to tell us.
Imagery in the Poem:
Ramanujan's images are precise, accurate, real and highly suggestive. His imagery creates vivid visual effects. He prefers the concrete, the picturesque and the precise as against the general, the vague and the abstract. As in the case of most other poems by Ramanujan, the imaginary in this one is to be noted: A red lorry passing the office - window of the persona at two o’clock; a sailor with his chest tattooed; a walk before dark with the daughter to mark another cross on the papaya tree, and so on . The imagery is perfectly realistic and vivid too.
Form, Style and Language:
Although the poem has been called a sonnet, it is by no means a sonnet except in so far as it consists of fourteen lines. The poem does not have any recognizable pattern of a sonnet. The stanzas are of unequal length and the rhyming, though certainly there, is not of the kind we are previously acquainted with. The style of the poem is conspicuous for precision, clarity, lucidity.
