THE MOOD OF THE PERSONA IN “THE GOOD MORROW"
Two people in love with each other can create a world of their own in which nothing else that is outside it matters. Mood is about one’s mental/emotional disposition towards an object or a given situation. In the poem, mood conveys the excitement and certainty about the lovers’ new found love.
The persona’s mood is one of excitement: “I wonder by my troth, what thou and I/Did, till we lov’d? This excitement is based on his realization that they had been acting childishly at first, or they had been merely sleeping for countless years. The rhetorical questions confirm the initial mood of excitement. The mood changes from excitement to certainty. He is sure that this new love is not subject to fear or distractions of the external world. The room they occupy is all the world to them. He and his loved one are in a perfectly harmonious relationship: “Where can we find two better hemispheres without a sharp north and a declining west? There is the feeling of great Confidence. The relationship is transparent and compatible and their new love is not subject to death; it’s immortal. “If our two loves be one, or thou and I/love so alike that none do slacken, none can die”. Thus excitement, certainty, assurance and confidence define the persona’s mood.
THE THEME OF REGRET IN “THE JOURNEY OF THE MAGI"
The Poem deals with the search for spiritual fulfilment in the course of life’s journey. Three men are the magi who decide to embark on a journey for spiritual fulfilment. The three men face challenges in their search for the birth place. Their encounter with the birth confuses the Object of their mission. The travellers had ugly experiences in the course of the journey. It was along and tedious journey at worst time of the year “A cold ,.. worst time... sharp, deep winter”. The travellers' camels become Sore footed’ along the way. They meet with hostile, unfriendly cities where prices of items are exorbitant. They meet gamblers, women and others drinking liquor. Their ‘night fires” go cut. They see a ‘white horse and the temperate valley’. They continued amidst difficulties until they achieved their goal. The Magi now wish for another life.
There are Instances of Regret in the poem, the unfriendly weather and time of the journey are causes for regret. The experience of the Magi with gamblers, bad women and alcoholics makes them regret embarking on the journey and moore importantly, the loud “voices singing in our ears, saying/that this was all folly” heightened their regret. They wish that they hadn’t embarked on the journey in the first place. There are glimpses of hope, for example “The white horse” and “the temperate weather” they encounter later.
The Magi fulfill their objective, “finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory”. “There was a birth certainly ” They assess the birth “I have seen births and deaths...this birth was hard and bitter agony for us”. They return in doubt and regret. “We returned to our places, these kingdoms ‘but no longer at east here, in the old dispensation. The determination of the Magi to arrive at their destination is worthy of emulation. Fulfilment of one’s desires far outweighs the challenges. Man will, no matter the regrettable experiences in life, continue for the quest for self-fulfilment.
