Decomposition Analysis - Literary devices and Poetic devices

Decomposition

By Zulfikar Ghose

I have a picture I took in Bombay
of a beggar asleep on the pavement:
grey-haired, wearing shorts and a dirty shirt,
his shadow thrown aside like a blanket.

His arms and legs could be cracks in the stone,
routes for the ants’ journeys, the flies’ descents,
Brain-washed by the sun into exhaustion,
he lies veined into stone, a fossil man.

Behind him there is a crowd passingly
bemused by a pavement trickster and quite
indifferent to this very common sight
of an old man asleep on the pavement.

I thought it then a good composition
and glibly called it “The Man in the Street,”
remarking how typical it was of
India that the man in the street lived there.

His head in the posture of one weeping
into a pillow chides me now for my
presumption at attempting to compose
art of his hunger and solitude.

Summary of Decomposition

Popularity of “Decomposition”: Written by a Pakistani-American poet, Zulfikar Ghose, the poem “Decomposition” first appeared in 1967 and presented a different idea of poetic or otherwise art. The poem presents the poet’s remorse over his cruel desire to feed his art with the hunger and solitude of the beggar he once saw in Bombay, an Indian city. The poet shows this reality through his remorseful feelings that welled upon in his heart years later when he was ready to write this poem. Herein lies the popularity of the poem.
“Decomposition” As a Representative of Art and Reality: The poet, who happens, to be the speaker of the poem, sees a picture he took with his camera in Bombay, showing a beggar sleeping on the pavement in his dingy clothes. He goes into the details of the beggar, how his arms, legs, and whole body was lying in the open with ants creeping and flies making a buzz on him. He seems to him a fossil man, fit for artistic representation. He even names him “The Man in the Street” but later, when he comes to know about his posture, he feels remorse over his artistic presumption that the beggar was dying of “hunger and solitude” and he thinks about his artistic skills.
Major Themes in “Decomposition”: Introspection over reality, desire for artistic representation of reality, and remorse over heartlessness in the artistic desire are three major thematic strands of “Decomposition.” The title of the poem also suggests that the beggar’s body is decomposing, yet the poet wants that his artistic skill of taking a picture of the beggar sprawled on the pavement should win the hearts and minds of the connoisseurs of the art. The reality is that he has heartlessly taken his picture, ignoring his hunger and solitude, and this introspection of reality turns into remorse for being a heartless man. In fact, he feels that he has wrongly desired to give artistic representation to the beggar without feeling the reality.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Decomposition

Zulfikar Ghose has used various literary devices to enhance the intended impact of his poem. Some of the major literary devices used in this poem are as follows.

Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /e/ in “of a beggar asleep on the pavement” and the sound of /o/ in “he lies veined into stone, a fossil man.”
Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /t/ in “indifferent to this very common sight” and the sound of /s/ in “routes for the ants’ journeys, the flies’ descents.”
Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example;

His head in the posture of one weeping
into a pillow chides me now for my
presumption at attempting to compose
art of his hunger and solitude.

Irony: Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. The poem shows irony in the final lines that Ghose was presuming at “attempting to compose” his hunger and solitude into his artistic rendering.
Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. Zulfikar Ghose used imagery in this poem, such as “Behind him there is a crowd passingly”, “His head in the posture of one weeping” and “art of his hunger and solitude.”
Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between objects that are different in nature. The poet shows the use of metaphors of arms and lambs as if they are of stone.
Simile: It means to use direct comparison to show one thing likening the other to show clarity in meanings, such as “his shadow thrown aside like a blanket.”
Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal meanings. The poem shows symbols such as stone and fossil man to point out the decomposition of the body.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Decomposition

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

Diction: Diction means the type of language. The diction of the poem is formal and poetic.
Free Verse: It means verses sans rhyming or metrical pattern. This poem shows the use of free verse.
Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are four stanzas in this poem, with each comprising four verses.
Tone: It means the voice of the text. The tone of this poem is descriptive as well as remorseful by the end.

Quotes to be Used

The following lines are useful to quote when citing the remorse of an artist for overlooking reality.