Decomposition

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Decomposition

• Zulfikar Ghose
• 1935-
• Pakistan

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Decomposition
When you look at a photograph to see if it is a
good photograph you look at the COMPOSITION of
the photograph. Composition it is a feature of
visual art, it refers to the arrangement of all
the elements into a visually pleasing pattern or
form. Decomposition refers to the destruction
of these elements. This was once a good photo
with good composition but something decomposed
it, made it into a terrible photo. This is what
the poem is about The destruction of something
that seems to be good.
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I have a picture I took in Bombay of a beggar
asleep on the pavement
I poet This poem was inspired by a picture taken
by the poet. The picture was of a beggar, asleep
on the pavement of Bombay. Bombay also known as
Mumbai.
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grey-haired, wearing shorts and a dirty
shirt, his shadow thrown aside like a blanket.
In these lines you find a description of the
beggar. Simile his shadow is compared with a
blanket. His shadow looks like a blanket that is
thrown next to his body.
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His arms and legs could be cracks in the
stone, routes for the ants journey, the flies
descents,
Metaphor his arms and legs could be cracks in
the stone. His arms and legs looks like the
cracks in the stone, so thin are they. Metaphor
his arms and legs could be routes for the ants
journey. The mans arms and legs look like roads
used by ants. He may even have ants walking on
his arms. Metaphor his arms and legs could be
the flies descents his arms and legs look like
the place where flies live and land.
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Brain-washed by the sun into exhaustion he lies
veined into stone, a fossil man.
Metaphor brain-washed by the sun Brain-washed
you believe something that is not true. The
beggar can not be tired for he has only been
sitting in the street. The sun is so hot that the
beggar is brain-washed into believing that he is
tired (exhausted). Metaphor veined into stone
the arms and legs of the beggar are compared with
the veins under your skin. It seems as if his
arms and legs became the veins of the
pavement. Metaphor fossil man the beggar seems
to be part of the stone. He looks like a fossil.
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Behind him there is a crowd passingly bemused by
a pavement trickster and quite indifferent to
this very common sight of an old man asleep on
the pavement
Behind the beggar the crowd is entertained by
people performing tricks. They are only bemused
(entertained) while they pass them. indifferent
show no care or interest. The crowd shows no
interest in the beggar. They are used to the
sight of beggars sleeping on the street.
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pavement trickster ambiguous (has more than one
meaning) It could refer to people performing
tricks on the pavement. The beggar could be a
pavement trickster in that you dont know if it
is a person lying there or if it is something
that is part of the pavement. The appearance of
the beggar tricks you into seeing other things.
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I thought it then a good composition and glibly
called it The Man in the Street
The poet thought it was a good photo. He gave it
the title of The man in the Street as if it is
a work of art. glibly shallow, lack of though,
superficial, thoughtless attitude. The poet gave
the picture a name without thinking what the
picture was about and without thinking what he
was doing. Then the word then implies the poet
now feels differently from when he gave the photo
a title.
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remarking how typical it was of India that the
man in the street lived there.
He has an uncaring attitude towards the beggar.
He thinks it is Indias problem and not he. He
thinks it is part of Indias character to have
people sleeping in the street and he should
accept it.
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His head in the posture of one weeping into a
pillow chides me now for my
He has taken time to study the photo. He looked
at the posture of the beggar the body position
of the beggar. It seems to him as if the beggar
is crying. The beggar looks like a person who is
crying into his pillow. This position chides
him. chide reproaches him, tells him off. The
position of the body accuses him of behaving
inappropriately.
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presumption at attempting to compose art of his
hunger and solitude
The position of the body accuses him of behaving
inappropriately. He behaved inappropriately
because he tried to turn somebodys suffering
into art. presumption rudenes or
arrogance. solitude loneliness.
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Irony

• The whole poem is ironic. He tried to fix his
  mistake of turning suffering into art with a
  photo by writing a poem about it. Now he has done
  it twice. The poem is also a piece of art.

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decomposition pun (two meanings)

• The photo is artistically not good anymore or the
  beggar is literally decomposing on the pavement.