Assignment:
IPL Topic: Critical Analysis of the Poem “ The last visit By Taufiq Rafat”.
Submitted By: Maryam Naeem.
Class: M.A English NUML 2022
The poem “ The Last visit” is written by a well-accomplished Pakistani, “ Taufiq Rafat”. He is considered the best just like his contemporaries Daud Kamal, Kaleem Omar, and Alamgir Hashmi.
The poem “ The last visit” is free verse. It has no metrical structure. The poem lacks a rhyming scheme.
The setting of the poem is the narrator’s house. The element of subjectivity is found in the poem as he used the first-person pronoun “I” throughout the whole poem. The autobiographical element is prominent in this poem because he is depicting a kind of atmosphere or a kind of culture in which he is living. The poem as a whole is the depiction of the beauty of eastern culture at its best.
The title of the poem “The Last visit” is very significant because the whole poem revolves around this. The poet narrated the story of how his father visited his ancestral village for the very last time. Taufiq Rafat reflects the culture, traditions, and values of Eastern societies.
The poem starts in a very casual way and then the father of the narrator asks him to pack his belongings as they are going somewhere but he did not mention destiny. Use this technique to create suspense which urges the reader to read the whole poem.
He shows his culture by using the name of cultural dresses “Sherwani” and “ Turban”.
Sherwani is the sort of long gown and turban is a sort of covering cap that men wear to be men of dignity and honour.
He again shows the cultural norms and tells the reader about the generosity, the eastern people have for their guests and how much importance is given to apologies by Muslims or Eastern societies.
“We had tea, and fifteen minutes of apologies”
There are different themes used in the poem. The most important is culture and family. The eastern people are closely attached to their cultural values. Eastern people values their families and relations. The poem talks about the same thing and says that his father also seeks the forgiveness of relatives on his last visit to his ancestral village because he wants to die in peace. This is something that is still prominent in our society and old people asked for forgiveness from their surrounding people and it is considered a good deed.
Like other poets “ Taufiq Rafat” also uses different literary devices to enhance the beauty of his writing. As he is an imagist poet. He depicted the whole poem in such a marvelous way that a reader can visualize all the happening in the poem.
Poet used “alliteration” in the second stanza of the poem. Alliteration is a repetition of a consonant word in the same line or a sentence
“ The relatives who still lived in
In the house in which he was born
Were surprised, and peeved.”
Here, the alliteration of “W” in who, which, and where is found. The poem's tone is a little gloomy as the title “ The last visit” itself signifies that the narrator is talking about something related to goodbye.
In the last lines of the poem, when the narrator is telling that when he and his father is leaving his uncle’s house. They all were upset and shows in the line.
“ Uncle Feroz could not say a word, he simply wept and wept.
He descended the five or six steps from his house.”