Analysis of The Goat-Paths by James Stephens

The Goat-Paths by James Stephens

The crooked paths go every way
Upon the hill - they wind about
Through the heather in and out
Of the quiet sunniness.
And there the goats, day after day,
Stray in sunny quietness,
Cropping here and cropping there,
As they pause and turn and pass,
Now a bit of heather spray,
Now a mouthful of the grass.

In the deeper sunniness,
In the place where nothing stirs,
Quietly in quietness,
In the quiet of the furze,
For a time they come and lie
Staring on the roving sky.

If you approach they run away,
They leap and stare, away they bound,
With a sudden angry sound,
To the sunny quietude;
Crouching down where nothing stirs
In the silence of the furze,
Couching down again to brood
In the sunny solitude.

If I were as wise as they
I would stray apart and brood,
I would beat a hidden way
Through he quiet heather spray
To a sunny solitude;
And should you come I'd run away,
I would make an angry sound,
I would stare and turn and bound
To the deeper quietude,
To the place where nothing stirs
In the silence of the furze.

In that airy quietness
I would think as long as they;
Through the quiet sunniness
I would stray away to brood
By a hidden beaten way
In a sunny solitude.

I would think until I found
Something I can never find,
Something lying on the ground,
In the bottom of my mind.

Summary

There is a sinuous way that leads to the hill. It ends at the wasteland covered with shrubs. The sun shines brilliantly and there's absolute quietness. The goats follow the meandering path, crop hither and tither, pause occasionally and resume their silent feeding. When it is noon, the scorching sunrays ache them. They sit in the shade of the spiky shrubs, where nothing disturbs their contemplation on the moving sky. If any one runs into them they become alert and run away. They stare at the intruder angrily, noisily cry and restart their quest for a better, exclusively silent area to brood peacefully. When they finally find a place of sunny solitude(loneliness having sunrays and bright sunlight), they settle down and savour the space which provides them with the ultimate sense of peace and harmony with nature and surroundings.

The poet considers the goats to be wise because they have established perfect harmony with nature and their eco system. They do not stress and live a carefree live because of having no evils thoughts, ill will against their fellow organisms who co exist with them and not having any greed, jealousy, avarice, material love, selfishness etc. The poet thus wants to be as wise as the goats since they lead a better and more meaningful lives then humans who create a mess by abusing their powers. The poet wants to make a route to his inner self, to the sunny solitude. He wishes to become a goat so that he could behave the way the goats do, like run away from anybody coming toward him, make angry noises, stare, escape to deeper sheds, brood and enjoy the nature and life.

From the goats, the poet returns to his own natural process of life and the world. He would enjoy the airy quietude, try to discover things he never discovered, like the true meaning of life and peace. 

⭐If we read between the lines, we can see that the poet is juxtaposing the lives of goats and those of humans, which is presented by the descriptions of the daily goat activities and the poet's yearning to live a life of a goat instead of a human.
⭐Please comment and share to encourage me!
⭐Subscribe for notifications of posts from this blog.