Every Morning I Awake Summary
In the poem, the speaker presents the magnificence of the god. The speaker prays to god and requests God to have mercy and blessing upon the ordinary inhabitants.
The poem begins with the speaker’s early morning prayers. He states that he seeks blessings from God and also glorifies the loving nature of God towards all the ordinary creatures who are just born to die. The second stanza highlights uncertainty about life. He writes at every sunset he asks the blessings on the town as there is no certainty that one may wake up or not the very next day. He means to say that death always comes near and goes. In the third stanza, he mentions that nobody is completely good or bad who live their lives under the Milk Wood. He also requests politely to see the best side of someone’s life rather than their bad side. In the fourth and the last stanza, he prays to God and asks for his kindness to see another day and to continue their life. He prays to bless all the nights or to keep away from dangers. Then the writer promise to bow to the rising sun or new hopes of life blessed by God. In the last line of the poem, he seeks goodbye for ‘now and convince will come with prayers another day.
Every Morning I Awake Exercise Solution
Understanding the Text
Answer the following questions.
a. When does the speaker pray to the Lord ?
Ans.: The speaker prays to the Lord every morning when he wakes for his blessings to all the humble and needy creatures.
d.What does the speaker pray for?
Ans.: The speaker prays for God and requests him to give his blessings to all the needy creatures that are just born to die.
e.Who are the ‘poor creatures’? Why does the speaker call them ‘poor creatures”?
Ans.: In a general sense, the ‘poor creatures’ refer to all the living creatures in this world. However, to be specific here in the poem, the poet by ‘poor creatures’ refers to ‘human beings’ implicitly.
The ‘poor creatures’ do not have control of their life and destiny on their own. Each and every activity in addition to their life and death is in the hands of God. Because of this reason, the speaker calls them ‘poor creatures’.
d.What does Milk Wood sound like? A type of wood or a place? Why?
Ans.: At the first glance, Milk Wood sounds like the name of a place. However, when we go through this word deeply in the poem, the milk wood’ refers to the place where we live. In fact, our life which is dark and dull in a great sense resembled the wood.
e.Why do the inhabitants of Milk Wood bow to the setting.sun ‘but just for now?
Ans.: Inhabitants of milk wood bow to the setting sun ‘but just for now’ because they are bowing to the sun as a sign of respect and symbol of god and they too want to see the sun rising the next day.
Reference to the context
a. Discuss “Every Morning When I Wake” as a prayer to God.
Ans.: ‘Every Morning When I Wake’ by Dylan Thomas is in fact a prayer to God – a poem that highlights the magnificence of God. The speaker in the poem prays to God every morning as he wakes and asks for blessings to all the struggling poor creatures that are unknown about their end. The speaker in the poem also argues that it is the only God who makes the life of every creature possible to see the next day. Hence, we can state that the poem ‘Every Morning When I Wake’ is truly a prayer to God.
b. Why does the speaker make a prayer to God, but not to a king, a billionaire or a scientist?
Ans.: In this poem, the speaker seems to praise God for giving his blessings to all the poor and
needy creatures. He seems to have a strong belief in God. He does not make a prayer to a king, a billionaire, or a scientist because he believes God is the creator of this beautiful world. A king, billionaire or scientist are just the creation of God like others. They are not different from us and he believes that they don’t possess power like almighty to bless all the creatures residing here. In fact, these people unlike for their powers or discoveries or wealth also, seek blessing from God. The writer knows that these people do not possess the power that God posses. So, the writer only prays to god and has faith in him.
C.How does the poet highlight the magnificence of God?
Ans.: In the poem, the poet seems to have extreme faith and believe in God. He prays the God every morning as he wakes and asks for blessings to all the struggling poor creatures that are unknown about their end. In addition to this, the poet in the poem argues that it is the only God who makes the life of every creature possible to see the next day. God gives blessings to all the creatures and not only this, our whole life including our birth and the death is in the hands o the god. Thus, the poet in the poem highlights the magnificence of God.
d.How does the rhyme scheme of the poem reinforce its message ?
Ans.: The poem ‘Every Morning I Wake’ is a lyrical poem that follows the rhyme scheme ‘aabb ccdd eeff gghh’. This rhyme scheme embeds the melody and sweetness of the poem and it shows that the poem is a true prayer to God written by Thomas. The rhyme scheme makes the poem attractive and as a result, the poem becomes melodious and catchy so that all people can remember and sing the poem as a prayer to God.
Reference beyond the text
a. Does the God exist? Give your opinion.
Ans.: This is the most controversial and debated topic in the world. The answer depends on how you view God. If you’re viewing God as any of the numbers of versions of higher powers belonging to various religions and beliefs, the answer is a very loose “Yes” because that religion and belief exist, so does that version of him, her or it. You can define what and how that higher power exists; otherwise, you couldn’t have your religion.
However, for all the various differences in what and how many there are, there isn’t anything distinct or proven to which one can be shown to exist to a non-believer over another. Yes, there are various differences but unless you’re either a theologian who studies this or indoctrinated into a belief, you likely won’t find much different once you look at multiple different ones. Once your belief is rattled, you might stop believing altogether. That being said, there aren’t many coincidences in life. Things follow patterns and structures, and while those structures and patterns might be different in different places and states of being, once you see them you also begin to see the common threads. Our belief in God might exist as a necessity to explain what we could not know at one time, but what if it’s more than that? What if the pattern is too large, too small, or simply outside of our senses? We’re just in the infancy of human understanding and existence, so we may be part of something bigger.
Thus, it is often concluded – if one does not believe in God, no proof is sufficient enough. If one believes in God, no proof is required. For me yes, I believe in God – I just don’t believe God subscribes to our human notions of who or what it is.
b.In his Epistle to the author of the book, The Three Impostors (1768), Voltaire says, “Even if the God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” Write an essay highlighting the importnace of the God in the society.
Ans.: This statement by Voltaire was so famous that Flaubert included it in his Dictionary of received ideas, and it is still frequently quoted today. In its original form, the statement first appeared in a verse epistle from 1768, addressed to the anonymous author of controversial work, ‘The Three Impostors’. According to Voltaire, this was a very poisonous atheistic text that denied the existence of a divine being. He found that this was an extremely dangerous work since it put into question a notion that was very useful for society: the idea that criminals would be punished in the afterlife. Thus, even when policing was insufficient, there was a strong deterrent against crime.
In this poem, Voltaire develops in a general way the idea that the existence of God (or the belief therein) helps establish social order. He then goes on to boast of his own role in eliminating prejudice and injustice in the eighteenth century. In its final sections, the poem turns to personal satire, as Voltaire attacks some of his favourite enemies.
As such, the text shows many of Voltaire’s complexities, both in his philosophy and in his personality. Although he attacked the abuses of the Catholic Church throughout his life, he also spoke as a defender of religion on many occasions. If he is today often portrayed as a radical opponent of all religious sentiment, this is largely the result of accusations from his opponents and nineteenth-century polemical exchange.