Read our detailed study guide on the poem The Last Visit by Taufiq Rafat. Our notes cover the poem’s detailed summary and analysis.
Introduction
The poem ‘His Last Visit’ is an eyes catching poem Tafiq Rafat woven into the beauty of eastern culture fabric by fabric. The poet narrated the story how his father visited his ancestral village for the very last time. The poet talks about the beauty of eastern culture; the ways they treat guests and greet them with different ways. The poet talks about the value of relatives and ancestral place because without them life seems incomplete. Man cannot live away from the relatives because he needs people for his life and relatives are always the people to be trusted. The poet highlights the value of family in the eastern culture and the ways they are linked to each other. The poem as a whole is the manifestation of the charm of eastern culture at its best.
The Last Visit by Taufiq Rafat Summary
We were having tea. I remember, my father and I, that morning and talking of nothing in particular, when he said ”We will go now.”
The poet in these lines says that one morning which was a usual morning, he along with with his father were taking breakfast. There was a good conversation going on in between them. In the meanwhile, when the conversation was continued, his father informed him that they will go now. His father did not tell the poet about the destination to go to. But it is very clear that the poet was asked to pack the belonging as they has to go.
It did not occur to me to ask where.
The poet says that he could not ask him about the destination they were to go. This is the beauty of the eastern culture that the children, regardless of age group they belong to, are always obedient to their parents. So the poet said that he could not ask his father about the place they were to go but he obediently obliged to the decision of his father.
He put on his best sherwani and turban and new pumps.
The poet in this lines says that not they preparation for the journey begun. His father wore a special type of eastern cultural dresses. Sherwani and Turban are cultural dresses of eastern culture. Sherwani is a sort of long gown that men belong to the eastern culture wear it on some special occasion or ceremonies and turban is sort of covering cap that men wear to be men of dignity and honor. Along with this special dress, his father selected the best shoes out of his lot and wore it. The preparation shows that they were going to a place of worth.
We left the warmth of the room for the rawness
In this line, he says that they left the comfortable room where all the comfort and luxuries were present. They left those things started their journey towards the remote rawness. The word rawness shows that they were moving to a place which was not as comfortable as the place where they were living in. it also hints that they were going to a village.
I and bluster of the porch, where his ninety years swayed in the wind.
He says that they were leaving the place where his father had spent almost ninety years of his life. The poet says that they were leaving the place where hid father had spent all his life and now they were moving back to the village.
Halfway there. 1 realized
we were off to the ancestral place.
The poet says when they had traveled half of the way towards their destination, the poet realized that they were going towards that ancestral place where his fathers and forefathers were born. They were in fact towards the origin of their birth where their family got started and they then stretched the family to modern cities.
The relatives who still live in
the house in which he was born
were surprised, and peeved.
The poet says that they reached the ancestral place. They arrived at the exact house where his father got birth and spent the golden time of his childhood. The poet says that the house was occupied by the relatives and they were living in that very house. The poet says that their arrival at the ancestral house did not make the relatives happy rather all the relatives got surprised by the sudden arrival. The poet has used the word peeved which clearly shows that all the relatives got irritated and aggravated by their arrival which seemed visible on their faces and expressions.
We had tea
and fifteen minutes of apologies.
The poet says that the tea was served to them and all got gathered as they had come after a very long time. Soon the series apologies got started and they were apologizing to one other for the wrongs they had done one another. Though the real cause of apology is not cleared but this series of apologies continued for almost fifteen minutes.
Then further up the lane to visit
his only surviving contemporary.
The poet says that after the apologies and tea they went ahead towards another room where the only serving contemporary of his father lived. It shows that the father of the poet is in the last stages of his life because all his age-mate were dead. And only on his age-mates was living when he visited the ancestral house.
Uncle Feroz was bed-ridden. He was not
really my uncle, but we had always
called him that. We had tea again.
The only serving age-mate of the father of the poet was Uncle Feroz. He was sick and was bedridden. He was old enough to walk or speak. He was counting his last breathes. The poet says that Uncle Feroz was not their real Uncle but they had always called him Uncle and it created a very strong bond among them. While meeting Uncle Feroz, they were again served tea. It is again shown as the beauty of the eastern culture that guest, whosoever he/she is, will be greeted with tea.
Father talked business, politics and explained
in detail the formula of a tonic.
Uncle Feroz could not say a word,
he simply wept and wept.
The father of the poet got excited to see his friend and age-mate. He talked to him about the recent political dimensions of the country, he talked about all his business and the ways he got settled in the city. His father, while talking to his friend, also talked about the health and all the necessary things were communicated. The poet says that his father was talking about all those things but Uncle Feroz was not in a position to say anything. He was silent listener to the father of the poet. The only response from Uncle Feroz was his tears. He was weeping while listening to the talks of his friend.
We descended
the five or six steps from his house.
The poet says that after meeting Uncle Feroz, they got out of the house and they planned to go back to their house in the city.
As we were leaving, father stopped.
And turned. For five long minutes
he looked up the lane, not moving,
not saying a word, as if he would
drink in every cobble, window,
and door with his difficult breath.
I knew then it was his own way
of saying goodbye to this life.
The poet in these lines says, when they left the house of Uncle Feroz, his father stopped for five minutes. In those minutes, he stood stationary and was looking to the lane, house and all the windows. He was storing all those things in his mind. He was saving the memory all the attached memories associated to the place were reminiscence to his father. The poet says that his father was looking at all these places because it seemed that his father was considering it as a last visit to his ancestral place and it was a sort of goodbye to the place and relatives living in that place.
Themes of the Poem
Culture:
The main theme of the poem is the value of culture in the life of people living the eastern culture. The poem talks about the fact that they eastern people are closely knitted to their cultural values and they cannot be detached from their culture. Their culture is always important for them and they feel jubilant in observing their cultural norms.
Family:
The next theme of this poem is the value of family. The poem sheds light that people of eastern culture have great affiliation with the family. Their bond with the relatives is always strong and they do not afford to annoy their relatives. The poem talks about the same thing and says that the father of the poem seeks forgiveness of the relatives in his last visit to ancestral village as he wants to die in peace.
The Last Visit by Taufiq Rafat Literary Analysis
- The title of the poem shows that the poem talks about the last visit of the main character of the poem.
- The poem is written in free verse.
- The poem has no metrical structure.
- There is no rhyming scheme in the poem.
- The poem talks about the values and norms of eastern culture.
- The poem talks about the life spend in the villages of the Asia.
- The poem mocks the modern ways of life which has detached the modern man from the ancestral values.
- The modern who is considered as hollow man is depicted in this poem he is detached and away from the relatives.
- The poem has shed light on the real values of the family as they are linked to one another.
The poem talks about the beauty of the eastern culture where people who are at the last stages of life always seek forgiveness from the relatives as they consider their forgiveness is very necessary.