The poem “Enterprise” treats the journey as a metaphor for life.

It describes the human

situation and predicament in which human beings find themselves placed by the nature of
their existence on this earth. The first stage of the journey described in the poem is symbolic
of the stage of boyhood and early youth, when a man is not conscious of his predicament of
the frustrations and failure, which life brings at every stage, he takes up any enterprise with
much enthusiasm, hope, courage, and determination. He is so full of youthful energy and
noble ideas that all difficulties, all burdens seem insignificant this appears to be the first stage
of pilgrimage which is usually marked by universal enthusiasm and mob-foolhardiness.

In the second stage of the journey, a number of obstacles are symbolized by the blazing
‘sun’, but he moves on taking their obstacles as a challenge. The “sun” is symbolic of the
hostility of nature to human idealism and heroic aspirations. He keenly observes the mundane
activities going around him and the behavior of living creatures like ‘goats’ and ‘serpents’
that is both good and evil. He takes down notes of the witnessed items - significant and
insignificant, holy and mundane, human as well as non -inhuman. The reference to ‘serpents’
refers ironically, how mentally ill-equipped man is before he embarks on the journey of life.
He is caught unaware by the practicalities of life. He passes through three cities, where a sage
has taught but does not care to find out what he had taught and what his message was. This
shows that at this stage, man indulges in pursuits which fritter away his energy and he is
bound to miss the deeper meaning of life. In the next stage of life , man forms his own views
and convictions. At times he has such strong views that he becomes intolerant towards the
views and needs of others. As a consequence, differences arise between him and his friend
and associates and he loses his friend, whom he considers as the ‘best of all our batch’ then
the differences of opinion over a serious problem symbolised by a ‘desert patch’ in the poem,
crop up among these intellectuals. Each individual has his own point of view about solving
the problem. However, instead of sitting over a table and discussing their differences and
point of view to find a solution by consensus, each asserts his own point of view. The
cooperative spirit of these intellectuals is thus weakened by the ego of each, the most gifted
among them seems to be the most egoistic; and he parts company with the others. It seems
that the one who deserted them was a theorist and left the feared sinking ship of the
expedition. Due to his parting ways with the group, the shadow of the discord fell on their
enterprise and continued to grow further. The group of people encounters more difficulties.
Further, in life, moves ahead and loses still more ‘twice attacked’ may symbolize, the
warnings he got, once in the early youth, when he paid no heed to the preaching’s of a sage
and second time in his middle age when he was deserted by his close friends and associates.
They are so engrossed in the attack on each other that they lose the way that is they forget
their noble aspirations and purpose which had motivated the enterprise. As the differences
among them become more pronounced, some of them claim their right to follow their own
way and leave the group. Looking at the disorganized lot of members, the saner among the
group feels utter helplessness and prays to God to seek divine help for their enterprise
because of the failure of human efforts. He feels that he has reached the dead end. He feels as
one among the disorganized crowd of aimless wanderers. But at this stage too, he doesn’t
realize his follies and indulges in trivial matters like the materialistic necessities of life, rather
than seeking the true meaning of life. He even ignores the call of his conscience, symbolized
by the ‘thunder’ in the poem. ‘Thunder’ is symbolic of man's inner voice. It is also symbolic
of spiritual regeneration or illumination, which is related to man's longing for the higher
world. When he reached the fag end of life, he finds himself tired and frustrated and without
any sense of fulfillment. He does not know the purpose of his existence on the earth. He feels
that whatever he has achieved in life was ‘neither great nor rare’. He even questions himself
whether his journey of life has been worth the entire struggle and labor he put in. He realizes
that he should have obtained ‘grace’ or redemption by realizing his true self symbolized by
‘home’

Thus the journey that began in delight ended up in wisdom symbolized by the darkened faces
and in their discovery that there was nothing unique about his goals and that he has wasted a
valuable life afflicted by fear in trivial acts, but perhaps that was too late. They realize that
their actions have neither been pioneering nor extraordinarily great. The basic illusion under
which they started their enterprise was that it was unparalleled and that its success would give
them a place in history. But the realization that such an expedition was undertaken by others
too in the past and is bound to be repeated in the future, gives them a sense of disillusionment
.Thus, the poem is a veritable study in group psychology, which portrays that it is not
possible for people to remain in cooperative spirit. Besides other obstacles, the ego of various
members of the group who thinks of themselves more important than their enterprise has led
to the failure of their enterprise.
WORD COUNT: 940
WORK CITED:-
1. Iyengar, K.R. Srinivasa . Indian Literature Since Independence. New
Delhi:Sahitya Akademi,1973
2. Singh, K.K .Indian English Poetry After Independence. Jaipur :Book
Enclave,2006
3. www.enotes.com, 28th May 2019,Sunday 3:45 pm