Before You Came By Faiz Ahamed Faiz : summary and critical analysis

 Before you came,

things were as they should be:
the sky was the dead-end of sight, the road was just a road, wine merely wine.

Now everything is like my heart,
a color at the edge of blood:
the grey of your absence, the color of poison, of thorns,
the gold when we meet, the season ablaze,
the yellow of autumn, the red of flowers, of flames,
and the black when you cover the earth
with the coal of dead fires.


And the sky, the road, the glass of wine?
The sky is a shirt wet with tears,
the road a vein about to break,
and the glass of wine a mirror in which
the sky, the road, the world keep changing.

Don't leave now that you're here— Stay. So the world may become like itself again:
so the sky may be the sky,
the road a road, and the glass of wine not a mirror, just a glass of wine.

The poem begins with the speaker addressing someone who has recently entered to life. He contrastively compares his past and present.

 

The speaker suggests that before this person arrived, everything was in its place, usual and perhaps predictable.

 

The sky, was just a sky  a limit to vision, symbolizes the boundaries of the speaker's perception and experience or nothing unusual with the sky.

 

Similarly, the road and wine were literal and straightforward, lacking any deeper significance or emotional reflection. The simplicity of these images marks  the monotonous nature  of the speaker’s world before the arrival of this person.

 

But the  arrival of this person probably his beloved has transformed the speaker's world. Now the entire world became the most beautiful sight for the speaker.

 

The color of the red blood suggests heightened emotions, passion, and perhaps pain. The edge of blood can signify life, intensity, and the fine line between different emotional states.

 

The absence of the beloved brings about a grey, lifeless feeling or sadness compared to poison and thorns, which convey pain, toxicity, and discomfort. The speaker’s world without this person is filled with suffering and bleakness.

 

In contrast, her presence brings gold, symbolizing value, warmth, and joy. "The season ablaze" suggests a time of intense, vibrant emotion and activity, connected to a metaphorical spring or summer in the speaker's life.

 

 

Autumn's yellow indicates change, maturity, and a certain melancholy beauty. The red of flowers and flames speaks to both the beauty and danger of love and passion, highlighting the intense and sometimes destructive nature of these emotions.

 

and the black when you cover the earth with the coal of dead fires.

 

Through this line speaker expresses the agony of death. Without the presence of his beloved or the relationship suffers, everything turns black, symbolizing darkness, despair, and the remnants of something that once burned brightly but is now dead.

 

The speaker revisits the earlier mundane images, now transformed by their emotional state and experiences. The sky, once a mere endpoint of sight, is now personal and intimate, filled with sorrow.

 

The road was just a path, now resembles a fragile, pulsing vein, indicating vulnerability and the potential for breaking under pressure.

 

and the glass of wine a mirror in which the sky, the road, the world keep changing.

 

The glass of wine, once merely a drink, now reflects the intense pain of the speaker.

 

Finally, the speaker pleads with their beloved to stay, acknowledging the profound impact of her presence. The speaker desires a return to the transformed, emotionally rich world that her presence brings.

 

Wishing for the sky to regain its new emotional significance. Hoping the road retains the beautiful ways for them. Finally the wine is the most enjoyable drink that shall never reflect pain.

 

 

Critical Analysis:

 

"Before You Came" by Faiz Ahmed Faiz explores the profound impact of love on human perception and reality. The poem contrasts the mundane, stable world before the beloved’s arrival with the intense, emotionally charged world after her arrival. Through the imageries of nature poet illustrate how love transforms ordinary objects and experiences into  deep emotional significance.

 

 

The poem is emotionally charges with loss and pain.The imagery of blood, poison, and fire emphasizes the passion and pain of love, while the shifting perceptions of the sky, road, and wine underscore the transformative power of love in the mind of a person

 

 

Ultimately, the poem highlights the duality of love’s impact: it brings both profound joy and intense sorrow, changing the way we see and experience the world. The poet is the greatest symbolist poet in Pakistan as he skillfully implemented the objects of the nature to correlate the profound emotions.