7

Time and Time Again

Or listen to the clocktowers

of any old well-managed city

beating their gongs round the clock, each slightly

off the others’ time, deeper or lighter

in its bronze, beating out a different

sequence each half-hour, out of the accidents

of alloy, a maker’s shaking hand

in Switzerland, or the mutual distances

commemorating a donor’s whim,

the perennial feuds and seasonal alliance

of Hindu, Christian, and Muslim—

cut off sometimes by a change of wind,

a change of mind, or a siren

between the pieces of a backstreet quarrel.

One day you look up and see one of them

eyeless, silent, a zigzag sky showing

through the knocked-out clockwork, after a riot,

a peace-march time bomb, or a precise act

Of nature in a night of lightnings.

Responding to the Poem

 1. What did you think the poem was about when you read the first few lines?

2. From which line does the import of the title strike the reader?

3. What makes for the differences between the timekeeping of the various clocks? What is the implicit comparison?

4. Why is the act of nature described as ‘precise’?

5. Which of the following reflects the poet’s attitude towards communal disharmony

6. Is the poet’s attitude a representation of how the average Indian feels both towards human violence and nature’s fury?

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