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melo04sblog · 1 year

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In this peom, called “Pilgrims” by Joseph Brodsky, there are many mixed emotions reflected in the poet’s use of words. The poem opens with words such as :

“Past temples and taverns, Past classy graveyards, Past Street market’s jabber, “

These words opposite concepts, like temples where people worship and taverns where people drink and have fun and forget about spirituality. In addition, the phrase “classy graveyards “ certainly means the utter silence, death, whereas street market’s jabber represents an energetic environment full of life and lively chatter. Having mentioned all these at the beginning of the poem, Brodsky aims to awe and confuse the reader as to the extent of a Pilgrim’s journey. These Pilgrims seem to be in bad shape physically, as expressed in :

“They’re heavily injured and hunchbacked, They’re hungry and almost naked “

These lines make it clear that Pilgrims suffer throughout their journey, but it’s the suffering that makes everything worthwhile, for them, as shown in the following lines:

“ their eyes are full of sunset, their hearts are full of daybreak.”

It means despite their lack of earthly possessions, they find their joy in their journey.

From my point of view, this poem is quite striking since it has a lot of conflicting concepts, which make the reader think in depth. The part that I found the most touching is the part which alludes to the suffering of the Pilgrims and the fact that they are still full of happiness and hope despite, or more correctly, thanks to this suffering. The suffering makes the journey precious. Another part that is shocking is :

“ which means it will make no sense to believe in yourself or lord. “

The peom, which is full of contradictions at the beginning, turns out to be a contradiction in itself at this stage, which makes it even more interesting. Up until this point, I was hopeful, thinking about the holy journey of the Pilgrims and comparing my challenges in life to theirs and being fascinated by their belief. However, having read the above-mentioned part, my belief was shaken to its core. It is now reduced to just an “illusion”, which kind of confusing, but in an interesting way.

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