3.

LIKE AN OLD PROUD KING IN PARABLE

AJMSmith
3.1 Warmer

I s it possible for a person to feel lonely even when he/ she is in a

group?

Is it necessary to spend t1me on one's own?

How does our imagination help us when we feel lonely?

3.2 Meet the Author A. J. M. SMITH (1902 1980)

Arthur James Marshall Smith is a Canadian poet, anthologist, and

critic was a leader in the revival of Canadian poetry of the 1920s) As
an undergraduate at McGill University in Montreal, Smith founded
and edited the McGill Fortnightly Review (1925-27), the first literary
magazine dedicated to freeing Canadian literature from artificial
forms and narrow provincialism. (He encouraged other young
Canadian writers to become cosmopolitan in their outlook and to set
1

high literary standards.)

Ina series ofanthologies beginning with The Book of Canadian Poetry
(1943), Smith approached Canadian literature in a scholarly manner
that set the tone for modern Canadian criticism. Later anthologies
with F.R.
include 7he Blasted Pine (1957; rev. ed. 1967), edited
and The
Scott, a collection of Canadian satiric and invective verse;
French (1960). In
Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English and
i s own poetry, collected in volumes such as
News of the Phoenix
Poems: New and Collectea
1943), Collected Poems (1962), and and metaphysical
967), Smith displayed careful craftsmanship
of the Canadian
Complexity and created powerful representations
landscape (e.g., "The Lonely Land," 1936).
collected in
significant body of criticism,
a l s o produced a and
View of Canadian Letters (1973) and On Poetry
Wards a
styles-lyrical,
Po in range of
(1977), and poetry, written
a
OELS
 Mosaics
28
seldom deserts the
metaphysical, and parodic. His v e r s e
satirical, dominant voice. It has been
urbane tone which is its
controlled,
the Phoenix (1943), A Sort of Ecstasy (1954).
published in News of and
with each new volume subsuming
and The Classic Shade (1978),
earlier collection
polishing poems from
Proud King in Parable espouses a
The poem "Like an Old
of Tennyson
from traditional colonial influences
breaking away
Canadian in
a vocabulary that is
and Wordsworth to seek a style,
and expression. Smith achieves this by eschewing lyrical
essence and sharp
of nature and introducing terse
and excessive descriptions
images in the description of the Canadian landscape

3.3 The Poem at a Glance

state of Canadian poetry.

It begins
The poem is an allegory on the
freedom from his
with the story of an angry, bitter King who, seeks
royal lifestyfe, to establish a fiew kingdom. a palace where
decadent
that his heart wishes to sing,
he chooses to live alone and sing songs
wishes for that freedom.
albeit in captivity. The poet, through the poem
to be able to sing his own
difficult lonely song. Using the parable, the
advocates a breaking away from British poetic tradition, which
poet
then would give him the freedom to be their Canadian self in every
sense. Smith's focus in
the poem is on the landscape but in a very
in creating a sharp distinction
spiritual sense. The geography helps
Canada's "northern stone".
between England's "counties green" and
The landscape then becomes a mental space where the stone, the cold,
the loneliness and the difficulties inspire poetry truly representative
influences.
ofCanada without carrying echoes of colonial
3.4 The Text

A bitter king in anger to be gone

From fawning courtier and doting queen
Flung hollow sceptre and gilt crown away,
And breaking bound of all his counties green
He made a meadow in the northerm stone
And breathed a palace of inviolable air
To cage a heart that carolled like a swan,
And slept alone, immaculate and gay
Like an Old Proud King in Parable
29
With only his pYide for a paramour..

O who is that bitter king? It is not I.

Let me, I beseech thee, Father, die

From this fât royal life, and lie
As naked as a bridegroom by his bride,
And let that girl be the cold goddess Pride.

And I will sing tothe barren rock

Your difficult, lonely music, heart,
Like an old proud king in a parable.

Read to Understand

- to court favour by a cringing or flattering manner

Fawning
Sceptre -
a staff borne as royal or imperial authorit
Inviolable secure

Carolled to sing a song of joy

Immaculate - having no flaw or error

Paramour - a lover

Parable - a story with a moral

3.5 Read to Interpret

The poem is to be read in the context of Early Canadian History.
one of
The early settlers' first encounter with the land of Canada was
at the vastness, its extreme climate
and unfamiliar flora and
Shock,
fauna. The earliest poetic outpouring from Canada was a response
to the recognition that there was a need to create and accumülate
literature that reflected the idea of Canada as a nation. The poems
are an attempt to establish some sense of ownership
or belonging to
romantic tone in
land that has made them feel alien. Hence, the
an a sense of exploration
and
ne
early poetry. The idea of conveying
vCLC
dangerous odds became
uventure, fight
a for survival surmounting
the theme of the early
poems.