AFFINITY - R.S.

Thomas Consider this man in the field beneath, Gaitered with mud, lost in his own breath, Without joy, without sorrow, Without children, without wife, Stumbling insensively from furrow to furrow, A vague somnambulist; but hold your tears, For his name also is written in the Book of Life. Ransack your brainbox, pull out the drawers That rot in your heart's dust, and what have you to give To enrich his spirit or the way he lives? From the standpoint of education or caste or creed Is there anything to show that your essential need Is less than his, who has the world for church, And stands bare-headed in the woodsf wide porch Morning and evening to hear God's choir Scatter their praises? Don't be taken in By stinking garments or an aimless grin; He also is human, and the same small star, That lights you homeward, has inflamed his mind With the old hunger, born of his kind.

Summary of the poem AFFINITY

R. S. Thomas was a religious and he was a regular visitor to welsh farmer Iago and this man would never vent his feeling to R. S. Thomas and this influenced him to write this poem Affinity R. S. Thomas in this poem speaks of the farmers lifestyle or the way the farmer is carrying out his activities with no purpose in his mind. The poet actually addresses this poem to the elite group because they would never look at people under them. So he begins the poem with, consider the man who is in the field beneath.

He also brings to our notice that he is working, stumbling furrow by furrow with no purpose in hand, he says he is not happy or sad, he doesnt have children nor wife to bother about, he is all alone knowing not for what he exists on the earth. The poet tries to create empathy in the reader but all of a sudden he says to hold our tears because he considers this man a human being and not different from anyone. And his name too exists in the book of life. The poet in the next stanza hits the mental state of the reader to ransack or to break upon and make a research whether there is anything that the reader is able to give this man, whether the reader is able to supply anything beneficial from the point of view of education, caste, creed to this farmer or not. Then the poet goes to say that there is nothing essential in ones life to say that s/ he needs it less than the farmer. The poet interrupts again the running thoughts of the reader saying that one must not consider him (farmer) lower than himself because he is a human being and his name exists in the book of life and he too is guided by the same light.