To Posterity by Louis MacNeice line by line explanation and critical analysis

 "When books have all seized up like the books in graveyards"

At the outset of the poem speaker anticipates the future of the books and expresses his anxieties and concerns. He invites the readers’ attention into a situation where the books are completely out of work. It has stopped working in the sense; people no longer use it as they find pleasure in something else. Books lack its significance as the poet strikingly brings the imagery of graveyard. Being the land of the dead nothing remarkable happens in the graveyard. Similarly, the books are turned to be the lifeless objects hence it rests in the graveyard.

 

 "And reading and even speaking have been replaced
By other, less difficult, media"

The speaker talks about the contemporary situation (1957) when, the process of reading and even speaking have been replaced by easily accessible and highly sophisticated new media such as Radio and Television.  

 

" we wonder if you
Will find in flowers and fruit the same colour and taste
They held for us for whom they were framed in words"

The fragrance and colours of flowers and the delicious tastes of fruits framed in words which are contained in books have disappeared. There is no wonder in the fact that textual words can certainly evoke our senses and enlighten our visual sensibilities. The new media can never constitute such creative pursuits.

 

"And will your grass be green, your sky blue,"

Poet asks some rhetorical questions, as the main purpose of a rhetorical question is to create a dramatic effect rather than getting any answer. As far as Louise MacNeice is concerned books can effectively as well as creatively convey the real beauty and charm of the nature. Without books the vivid scenes of the nature can’t be properly exhibited.

 

"Or will your birds be always wingless birds?"

Books can provide lots of sparks which ignites the imagination of the readers. Birds without wings can’t fly or even unable to make a single movement similarly without books humans can’t be imaginative. Books should be the intimate companion for all as it can seriously damage the ignorance.

 

Critical analysis

A work of literature in general and poetry in particular reflects the truths of contemporary life or perhaps it can even predict the future course of action. As the title of the poem ‘To Posterity’ itself clears the idea that Louis MacNeice wants to communicate something serious to the future generation regarding the books.

The poem was composed in 1957, the time of digital revolution. Initially, the poet forecasts the agonizing reality associated to the future existence of books. He was more aware of the emerging new media as the digital revolution brought out some remarkable changes in the attitude of the general public. People consider books as an out dated object and eventually switched over to electronic media. The immense popularity of Televisions and Radios rapidly damaged the intimacy between human beings and books.

The speaker expresses his lamentation on this attitude of the generation and asserts the fact that the real beauty and splendour lie in the books not in electronic devices. Books can easily construct a visual sense and it ignites imagination. The vivid beauty of nature and strong feelings of humankind can only effectively communicated through books. Digital media can never be a substitute for this.

Finally, poet admits the fact that posterity will be quit far away from the books and compares them with wingless birds as they are highly mechanical and materials and they don’t have any sort of imaginative sensibility.

 

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