Stylistics analysis of poem Eid by Aurangzaib Almigir Hashmi

1. EID by Alamghir Aurangzeb Hashmi
A stylistics analysis by “Maria Raja Tahir”
Perhaps eid is more than the vermicelli thing
I was spooned to believe.
In the mosque this morning
I promised God to bend my knees
another four times.
My fellow knee­benders raised offertory,
to cushion the prayer­keeper,
so expiate the neglect he suffered
on the wooden bench.
Outside, the beggars buttonholded us,
Eid could not anchor in their corduroy cheeks.
How can these spindling shapes
be blotted out from the face of the morning?
I had left behind my blotting paper
the last day at school.
The master said in holiday there was no danger
of staining. I was convinced.
But question hovered like flies
over my plate as we began to eat. My
father said, watch taht!
I held the shining spoon to my mouth,
looking for my face in it.
REFERENCE:
Hashmi who lived a good deal abroad, gradutaed from GC lahore and went to
abroad. He started publishing poetry in very young age. HAshmi published his
first collection of poems entitled "The Oath and Amin" in 1976. Hashmi's favourite
themes seems to be the impact of unusal event, a personality, death, intense and
emotions on the mind. generally in order to score a point through the discrepancy
between appearance and reality.
as hashmi said:
"my work is one of the celebration, analysis and integration
looking out for possibly and seeking joy that comes from the discovery of the
common natural and the human elements".
His was a remarkable new voice since the 1970s; each of his successive books
attested to an expanding world of cultural discernment and harmony, which he
created in poems of peerless beauty.

2. CONTEXT/ THEMETIC ANALYSIS:
poem seem to conceive itself with diverse cultural contexts, it is primarily to show
the poet ­ sensualist no less than iconoclast. Poet shows us a picture; a picture
representing event of happiness. poet says that eid event is not just about eating
sweets(a tradition throughout my childhood) but also to promise in the front of
God for good deeds. and this promise done practically as my fellows raised
offertory for the prayer keeper of mosque. who suffered alot on a wooden bench
for apologies to God for the sins on the behalf of all of us. at the same time poet
shows us the worst side the picture, outside the mosque the scene is different.
beggers and needy people compelled us to stop. their stained faces captured our
attention although event is same for all atmosphere, but happiness of event is not
refelecting from their spindle shape faces. poet mentioned an event of past in
which he got some staine of ink on his face and clothes his teacher told him not to
worry about it because blotting paper helped to became stainless and clean. while
searching faces of beggers i woundered, is there any blotting paper for their faces
to? any thing which wipes their sorrows of life? any thing make them happy and
clean?
But these questions hovered on my head like flies on sweets. poet's father wants
to be focused poet watch his face into spoon and it shows mirror of reality to poet.
mirror of reality which shows that nobody bothered about the harsh realities of
life,people stop for a moment took a deep sigh and do nothing for it and next
moment leave the place quietly.
ANALYSIS:
CONTENT:
poet describes an event of eid and the celebration of this event as the same time
he divert our attention from the worse side of picture; condition of needy people
on this event of happiness.
FORM:
poem shows irregular pattern of lines, words, sentences, commas,
fullstops,rhythm and rhyme, so this poem is "free verse" poem.
STYLE: it is a narrative poem.
VOICE: first person narration is used(poet's personal experience e.g "I")
MOOD: poem represents event or atmosphere of an event of happiness; eid.
LEXICAL ANALYSIS: usually norm is that each line must start with a capital letter
but case is different in the poem.

3. VOCABULARY: choice of vocabulary is very simple and reflecting cultural
words(eid'mosque) and emotive(effect directly on emotions) also.
NOUN: common nouns dealing with both concrete and abstract ideas.
VERB: verb used are stative directly reflects the state of mind.
ROLE: purpose of all these thing is to capture readers attention or make poem a
unique piece of work. poet captures readers attention by unusuall pattern and
choice of words to giving more stress in poem and creating fluency in ideas or
text (pauses, fullstops intrept the fluency of text)
GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS:
norm of sentence structure is (S V O c) but poem have pattern ( adj subject,
verb, object, compliment)
as far as sentence complexibilty is concerned coordinative conjuctions(but) and
adverbial clauses are used.
PHONOLOGICAL: poem shows irregular pattern of rhyme and rhythm not
creating any musical effect or any allitration or assonance.
SEMANTIC ANALYSIS? FIGURES OF SPEECH:
contrast: two opposite terms are used to contrast a single idea
• e.g perhaps eid is more....
i was spooned to beleive
• allegory: this poem is a type of allegory(double meaning) it can be
interepted at two levels, primary and secondary.
simile: simile is also used in poem , poet relates question with flies e.g But
question hovered like flies
• poem also reflects a term antipophora also called soliloquy in which poet
ask a question to himself and then answer it himself.
Thank you for your consideration