THE SONG OF THE WHALE- KIT WRIGHT

       

     

              Kit Wright was born in 1944 in England and is the author of more than twenty-five books, for both adult and children. His books of poetry include “The bear Looked Over the Mountain” (1977), which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award, and Short Afternoons (1989), which won the Hawthornden Prize and was joint winner of the Heinemann Award.

            These are the facts of Whale that they are the largest animals in the world and need to breathe air. They cannot sleep for very long because they have to remember to go to the surface for air as needed. Whale Males are not easy to identify. The only predator that whales have to content with are humans. They are not bothered by any other creatures in the water. However, the changes to their food source, hunting by humans, and even pollution to the waters that they live in can affect their abilities to survive which is why they continue to try to adopt to the environment that they are in. Humans killed at least 2.8 million whales in the 20^th century.

In this poem, Kit Wright depicts the mass killing of whales and the senseless usage of its organs. In the very first line of this poem, “Heaving mountain in the sea,” (1), the poet compares Whale to “Heaving mountain ranges” which is located in the sea. This mountain is heaving for protecting its life from humans. The poet reveals that he regrets this attitude of man. At every point, he worships the whale with words like “great, mountain”....

            In these lines of the second stanza, “Great whale, Crying for your life, / Crying for your kind, I knew” (4-5), the poet mentions the word “Great” which is suitable for the “God” and the “King.” Here though it is great, it cannot save its life and is crying for its generation which is deceased. “Lipstick for our painted faces, / Polish for our shoes ” (8-9), from the above lines he discloses the work which is done by the humans after its death. Man uses its organs to produce “Lipstick” and “Shoe Polish.” From the head till the foot, they want to polish everything. Kit talks about the usage of whale’s organs twice in this poem. Humans only use the dead organs to build their personality. They are thinking that they are giving everlasting life to whales because of using the organs. Lipsticks are made up of Whale’s and Pig’s organs, face creams, and oil are prepared by Shark’s livers, and shoes also made up of animal’s skins. Thus, the humans are wearing and applying on face and body with different kinds of corpses by believing that are making them charming.

            In the next stanza, the poet depicts the Whale as mountain which has the capacity to dive in sea. He discloses that he can experience the voice of whale to summon the birds for help. Whale can listen to the high notes of birds and is listening eagerly their songs. So humans want them to shut their mouth permanently.

Here, the reader feels that the poet symbolically reveals the message which about destruction of the world. If a mountain is diving on land, everything will be no more. Similarly if whale is diving on the Earth, the same will happen. But it never crosses its boundary. So the poet contrasts the humans who never know their boundary where as the whales know.

             In every stanza, the poet reveals that he is the soul mate of Whale, by saying that he can hear its voice. Here, he can listen to its mourning voice. It is lamenting for its kind. But he draws that the people will never let the world to live. If it lives, no profit will come to them because they are very much used to gain profit from one’s death.

            In these lines, “we’ll never let you be. / Instead of life we choose” (23-24), the poet enlightens humans’ money minded mentality that they will choose and make lipsticks, and shoe polishes instead of giving importance to life of creatures.