Introduction to the poem Like an Old Proud King in a Parable

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Introduction to the poem

Like an Old Proud King in a Parable

A.J.M. Smith was a Canadian poet, anthologist and critic. He pursued his UG degree at Mc Gill University in Montreal. His anthologies include The Blasted Pine (1957), The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English (1960).

            Smith’s poem Like an Old Proud King in a Parable is one of his famous poems. This poem got published in New Provinces. The poem got published in New Provinces. The poem was originally published in the Mc Gill Fortnightly reviews in 1928. It is a metaphysical poem with highly figurative language.

            In this poem a king renounces his throne to become a poet to sing “difficult lonely music”. The inner meaning conveyed through this poem is the poet is frustrated and despaired to give up romantic qualities in him to modernist principles.  

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 27, 2022 at 10:16 PM

    while reading this poem at the first time, i could recall the the most world famous poem of Tennysons Ulysses in which the king of Ithaka never wanted to go and mingle and rule the savages.

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