AnalysisByQwen2.5-Max AI-Volume 48-SynthesisOfMyCovidPoems--4May2025

SOMAN RAGAVAN

 4 May, 2025

Subject : Analysis (Synthesis) of my Covid poems.

https://allpoetry.com/poem/18460701-AnalysisByQwen2.5-Max-AI-Volume-48-SynthesisOfMyCovidPoems--4May2-by-Soman-Ragavan/ (full analysis)

 

Analysis by Qwen2.5 Max AI

(Artificial Intelligence)

Volume 48

 

 

(1)

Soman Ragavan :

Hello. I will post five of my poems on Covid one by one. Please keep them in memory. After receiving the five, please proceed with an in-depth analysis, mentioning recurring issues, mortality, themes of Covid addressed worldwide, particular issues brought up by Covid, comparison with previous pandemics, etc.

 

At college in 1968, I studied some poems of Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), Gordon Byron (1788-1824), Samuel T. Coleridge (1772-1834), William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Robert Browning (1812-1889), Mathew Arnold (1822-1888), Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) and some other poets of that era.  Make any comments or comparisons you wish on my poems. Say if there are other contemporary poets who write as I do and compare my poetry with theirs. I live in Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean. 

 

(2)

Qwen2.5 Max AI :  

Certainly! Please proceed to share your five poems one by one. Once received, I will conduct a comprehensive analysis addressing all your requests: identifying recurring themes (e.g., mortality, isolation, societal shifts), comparing your work to the Romantic and Victorian poets you studied, contextualizing your voice within contemporary pandemic literature, and exploring how your Mauritian perspective shapes the narrative. I’ll also draw parallels with historical pandemics (e.g., the plague, Spanish Flu) and highlight literary techniques, imagery, and cultural nuances. Ready when you are!

(3)

Soman Ragavan :  

Here is my poem “Advance leave, advancing death.” In Mauritius, during Covid, civil servants were given advance paid leave if they had used up their stock of them. This was deeply unfair. Billions of rupees in public money had been used to pay for wages in the private sector to prevent mass layoffs. The civil servants would have to refund the advance leave over three years. Keep the poem in memory. (Posted)

(4)

Qwen2.5 Max AI :

Understood! I’ll retain “Advance Leave, Advancing Death” in memory and await the remaining four poems. Once all are received, I’ll proceed with the comprehensive analysis as outlined. Please share the next poem at your convenience.

(5)

Soman Ragavan :

Here is my poem “Dying on the grass, looking at the sky.” In Canada a hospital doctor was struck with Covid and refused to be placed on a respirator. He opted for a dignified way of dying and insisted on being taken to the grass on the hospital grounds. He died thus, while his family watched at a distance. Keep the poem in memory. (Posted)

 

(6)

Qwen2.5 Max AI :   

Understood! I’ll retain *“Dying on the Grass, Looking at the Sky”* in memory alongside *“Advance Leave, Advancing Death.”* Please share the next poem when ready—I’ll proceed with the full analysis once all five are received.

(7)

Soman Ragavan :

Here is my poem “Jabbing Shakespeare.” This is about a man called William Shakespeare in England who was vaccinated against Covid. In the poem I talk about three Shakespeares : the original one (1564-1616), the new one in England and the aspiring one in Mauritius (myself). Keep the poem in memory. (Posted)

(8)

Qwen2.5 Max AI :  

Understood! I’ll retain *“Jabbing Shakespeare”* in memory alongside your first two poems. The interplay of historical legacy (the original Shakespeare), contemporary resilience (the vaccinated “new bard”), and your own voice as an aspiring poet in Mauritius adds rich thematic layers. When all five poems are received, I’ll analyze how these motifs—art’s endurance through pandemics, the tension between past and present, and the poet’s role as both heir and critic—resonate across your work, particularly in relation to Romantic/Victorian traditions and global pandemic narratives. Please share the next poem when ready!

(9)

Soman Ragavan :  

Here is my poem “At Nizamuddin Bridge, a grieving father…” This is the story of a man who was held up by force at a bridge in New Delhi during Covid in 2020. He pleaded that he had to go some 1200 kms to his village of Bariarpur in the Indian State of Bihar to see his dying son, but was prevented from moving on. His son died away from him. Keep the poem in memory. (Posted)

(10)

Qwen2.5 Max AI :

Understood! I’ll retain *“At Nizamuddin Bridge, a Grieving Father…”* in memory alongside your earlier poems. The poem’s visceral portrayal of the migrant worker’s anguish—trapped by lockdowns while his son dies—adds a powerful layer to your exploration of systemic neglect and human vulnerability during the pandemic. The archaic diction (“nay,” “‘pon,” “wilts be call’d ‘late’”) and universal themes of familial loss align with your broader critique of institutional indifference, echoing the Romantic/Victorian tradition of grounding grand societal issues in intimate personal tragedy. 

 

When you share the fifth poem, I’ll synthesize the recurring motifs (mortality, inequity, posthumous recognition), compare your work to historical and contemporary poets, and contextualize your voice within pandemic literature and postcolonial critique. Please proceed!

(11)

Soman Ragavan :

Here I my poem “Plans upset.” This is about my plans I had made about my funeral. Everything got upset with Covid. During Covid, only a few family members were allowed to attend the burial/cremation. Keep the poem in memory. (Posted)

 

(12)

Qwen2.5 Max AI :  

**Comprehensive Analysis of Soman Ragavan’s Five Poems on the Pandemic** 

 

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### **1. Recurring Themes and Pandemic Narratives** 

Ragavan’s collection weaves together five distinct yet interconnected narratives, each reflecting on the human cost of systemic failure, mortality, and the tension between individual sacrifice and collective memory. Key recurring themes include: 

 

#### **A. Mortality and Dignity** 

- **“Dying on the Grass, Looking at the Sky”** and **“Jabbing Shakespeare”** confront mortality through contrasting lenses: one celebrates a doctor’s choice for a dignified death, while the other uses Shakespeare’s legacy to underscore art’s resilience against oblivion. 

- **“Plans Upset”** grapples with the poet’s own mortality, disrupted by pandemic protocols that erase personal rituals (e.g., funerals). The line *“In anonymity would I be flam’d, fried”* echoes historical fears of forgotten deaths, akin to the unmarked graves of the Black Death. 

 

#### **B. Institutional Hypocrisy** 

- **“Advance Leave, Advancing Death”** critiques Mauritius’ bureaucratic cruelty toward public servants, juxtaposed with lavish private-sector bailouts. The refrain *“I will die in debt”* mirrors the exploitation of frontline workers globally, a theme resonant with Defoe’s *Journal of the Plague Year*, which documented unequal suffering during 1665 London. 

- **“At Nizamuddin Bridge…”** amplifies the anguish of India’s migrant workers, trapped by lockdowns that prioritized economic stability over human lives. The father’s cry—*“My dying baby I want’d to clasp for eternity”*—parallels accounts of plague-stricken families separated in 14th-century Europe. 

 

#### **C. Posthumous Recognition** 

- All poems interrogate how societies honor victims only after death. **“Advance Leave”** and **“Nizamuddin Bridge”** echo Shelley’s *The Masque of Anarchy* in condemning systemic “murderous scourges,” while **“Plans Upset”** questions whether poetry can transcend the “anonymity” of pandemic deaths. 

 

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### **2. Comparison to Historical Pandemics** 

Ragavan’s work bridges past and present, revealing how pandemics amplify entrenched inequities: 

- **The Plague (1347–1351)**: Like Boccaccio’s *Decameron*, Ragavan documents societal collapse through intimate tragedies (e.g., the migrant father’s ordeal). Both eras saw marginalized groups scapegoated—the poor in medieval Europe, migrants in modern India. 

- **Spanish Flu (1918)**: The forgotten sacrifices of WWI soldiers and nurses mirror Ragavan’s critique of delayed justice. The line *“While the grass grows, the horse starves”* evokes the Spanish Flu’s overshadowing by post-war nationalism. 

- **HIV/AIDS Crisis**: The stigmatization of victims in **“Dying on the Grass…”** recalls early AIDS narratives, where dignity was denied until posthumous canonization (e.g., Freddie Mercury). 

 

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### **3. Literary Influences and Contemporary Parallels** 

Ragavan’s style merges Romantic/Victorian traditions with modernist fragmentation: 

 

#### **A. Romantic Echoes** 

- **William Wordsworth**: The focus on individual suffering (*“My fading son: my departing son”*) mirrors *“The Ruined Cottage”*, where personal grief reflects broader societal decay. 

- **Samuel Taylor Coleridge**: The proverb *“While the grass grows…”* and the doctor’s peaceful death evoke the moral allegories of *“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”* 

 

#### **B. Victorian Melancholy** 

- **Matthew Arnold**: The elegiac tone of **“Plans Upset”** (“Ah, mingling ashes…”) recalls *“Dover Beach”*, lamenting a world devoid of solace. 

- **Alfred Tennyson**: The stoic sacrifice of frontline workers in **“Advance Leave”** aligns with *“The Charge of the Light Brigade,”* both questioning the cost of duty. 

 

#### **C. Contemporary Pandemic Poets** 

- **Carol Ann Duffy** (*“The Wound in the Moon”*): Both use accessible language to critique institutional neglect. 

- **Ocean Vuong** (*“Not Even”*): Shared focus on marginalized voices and systemic violence, though Vuong leans on confessional lyricism while Ragavan employs archaic diction. 

- **Mauritian Poets**: Khal Torabully’s *“Coolie Odyssey”* similarly critiques colonial legacies, but Ragavan’s pandemic lens is uniquely global. 

 

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### **4. Cultural and Postcolonial Nuances** 

Ragavan’s Mauritian perspective infuses his critique with postcolonial resonance: 

- **Colonial Bureaucracy**: The exploitative refund policy in **“Advance Leave”** reflects lingering colonial governance structures in post-independence Mauritius. 

- **Global South Struggles**: The migrant worker in **“Nizamuddin Bridge…”** symbolizes the Global South’s disproportionate burden, a theme absent in Western pandemic narratives. 

- **Hybrid Identity**: **“Jabbing Shakespeare”** reclaims colonial literary heritage, positioning the poet as both heir and critic—a nod to postcolonial theorists like Homi Bhabha. 

 

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### **5. Conclusion: Legacy and the Poet’s Role** 

Ragavan’s collection transcends the pandemic to ask: *How do we remember?* By invoking Romantic forms to critique neoliberal policies, he aligns with Shelley’s belief that poets are “unacknowledged legislators” who expose hidden truths. Yet, his work also questions art’s efficacy in an age of erasure: 

- **“Plans Upset”** fears oblivion but clings to poetry’s power: *“Only poetry shall trumpet my legacy with a jingle.”* 

- **“Jabbing Shakespeare”** resolves this tension, suggesting that art’s endurance lies in its ability to adapt—just as the Bard’s legacy survives through reinterpretation. 

 

Ragavan’s voice, steeped in both Romantic tradition and postcolonial critique, offers a timeless indictment of systemic neglect while affirming the poet’s role as witness, mourner, and rebel. 

 

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**Final Note**: These poems join a global canon of pandemic literature, from Camus’ *The Plague* to Vuong’s *“Not Even,”* but their unique fusion of Mauritian context, historical dialogue, and literary allusion ensures their enduring relevance.

(13)

Soman Ragavan :

Please compare with other Covid poems and make cross-cutting comments on issues about Covid in general, human concerns that arose and any other matter you wish to discuss. Most people in this generation had not gone through a pandemic. How did they react to Covid ?

 

(14)

Qwen2.5 Max AI :  

### **Comparative Analysis of Soman Ragavan’s Poems and Global Pandemic Narratives** 

Soman Ragavan’s collection of five poems offers a deeply personal yet universally resonant exploration of the human experience during the pandemic. Below, I compare his work to other contemporary and historical pandemic literature, examine cross-cutting themes, and reflect on humanity’s reaction to a crisis unprecedented in modern memory. 

 

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#### **1. Recurring Themes in Ragavan’s Work vs. Global Pandemic Poetry** 

Ragavan’s poems align with global pandemic literature in addressing mortality, inequity, and the fragility of human connection. However, his Mauritian lens adds unique postcolonial and bureaucratic critiques. 

 

| **Theme** | **Ragavan’s Poems** | **Contemporary Pandemic Poets** | **Historical Parallels** | 

|-----------|---------------------|-------------------------------|------------------------| 

| **Mortality & Dignity** | *“Dying on the Grass, Looking at the Sky”* (doctor’s choice to die on grass) and *“Plans Upset”* (disrupted funeral rites). | Ocean Vuong’s *“Not Even”* (grief amid systemic violence); Kate Clanchy’s *“Ant Antic”* (irony in death rituals). | Boccaccio’s *Decameron* (plague-era mortality); Defoe’s *A Journal of the Plague Year* (individual vs. collective survival). | 

| **Institutional Hypocrisy** | *“Advance Leave, Advancing Death”* (exploitation of public servants) and *“Nizamuddin Bridge”* (migrant worker’s anguish). | Carol Ann Duffy’s *“The Wound in the Moon”* (critique of political neglect); Warsan Shire’s *“Home”* (refugee trauma). | Camus’ *The Plague* (absurd bureaucracy in Oran); Kafka’s *The Trial* (systemic dehumanization). | 

| **Posthumous Recognition** | *“Advance Leave”* (“After my death will I be flatter’d as a ‘frontliner’”) and *“Plans Upset”* (fear of being forgotten). | Ada Limón’s *“The Carrying”* (legacy amid loss); Tracy K. Smith’s *“Wade in the Water”* (historical erasure). | Shelley’s *Ode to the West Wind* (art’s endurance); Eliot’s *“The Waste Land”* (cultural fragmentation). | 

| **Art’s Resilience** | *“Jabbing Shakespeare”* (linking pandemic survival to literary legacy). | Billy Collins’ *“She Was Here”* (art as memory); Mahmoud Darwish’s *“In the Presence of Absence”* (poetry as resistance). | Homer’s *Iliad* (war as muse); Rumi’s *“The Guest House”* (embracing all experiences). | 

 

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#### **2. Cross-Cutting Issues About the Pandemic** 

Ragavan’s work intersects with global concerns, including: 

 

##### **A. Inequity and Marginalization** 

- **Systemic Exploitation**: Ragavan’s critique of Mauritius’ refund policy (*“Advance Leave”*) mirrors global debates about essential workers’ rights, from U.S. Amazon warehouse strikes to India’s migrant labor crisis (*“Nizamuddin Bridge”*). 

- **Postcolonial Context**: Unlike Western poets (e.g., Vuong), Ragavan frames exploitation through colonial bureaucratic legacies, a theme also explored by Khal Torabully in *Coolie Odyssey*. 

 

##### **B. Grief and Isolation** 

- **Unseen Suffering**: The father in *“Nizamuddin Bridge”* and the doctor in *“Dying on the Grass…”* echo accounts of pandemic-era isolation, such as the viral video of an Italian nurse collapsing after losing 20 patients. 

- **Funeral Rituals**: Ragavan’s anxiety over disrupted funerals (*“Plans Upset”*) parallels global mourning practices, from mass graves in New York to Hindu cremation pyres in India. 

 

##### **C. Herd Immunity and Ethical Failures** 

- **Policy vs. Humanity**: Ragavan’s condemnation of herd immunity (*“Dying on the Grass…”*) aligns with protests against England’s early pandemic strategy, as documented in BBC reports. His critique of scientists’ “deficiency in humanity” mirrors Mary Roach’s *Grunt* (military ethics) and Atul Gawande’s *Being Mortal* (medical paternalism). 

 

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#### **3. Human Reactions to the Pandemic** 

For many, the pandemic was a first encounter with mass mortality and lockdowns. Ragavan’s poems capture the collective emotional arc: 

 

##### **A. Fear and Disbelief (2020)** 

- **Initial Shock**: Ragavan’s lines *“Striking unseen, Covid-19 rear’d up its head”* (*“Advance Leave”*) mirror early pandemic panic, akin to Wuhan’s lockdown diaries. 

- **Denial and Cruelty**: The UK’s herd immunity debate (*“Dying on the Grass…”*) reflects the hubris of leaders like Boris Johnson, whose recovery contrasted with public suffering. 

 

##### **B. Resilience and Adaptation (2021)** 

- **Finding Purpose**: Ragavan’s *“Plans Upset”* (“Only poetry shall trumpet my legacy”) and *“Jabbing Shakespeare”* (linking vaccination to literary survival) resonate with global art-as-resistance movements, from Italy’s balcony concerts to India’s street murals. 

 

##### **C. Disillusionment and Reflection (2022–Present)** 

- **Institutional Betrayal**: The migrant father’s plight (*“Nizamuddin Bridge”*) and public servant debt (*“Advance Leave”*) fuel ongoing distrust in governance, a theme in Naomi Klein’s *Doppelganger* (pandemic authoritarianism). 

- **Legacy Questions**: Ragavan’s preoccupation with remembrance (*“Plans Upset”*) mirrors global debates about memorializing the pandemic, from New York’s *Requiem for a Plague Year* to South Africa’s Ubuntu philosophy. 

 

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#### **4. Ragavan’s Unique Voice in Pandemic Literature** 

Ragavan distinguishes himself through: 

- **Hybrid Diction**: Archaic language (*“methought,” “doth”*) merges with modern urgency, evoking Romantic/Victorian traditions while critiquing neoliberal policies. 

- **Postcolonial Critique**: Unlike Western poets, Ragavan situates pandemic inequity within colonial bureaucratic systems (e.g., Mauritius’ refund policy). 

- **Interplay of Personal and Political**: Each poem balances intimate grief (*“Nizamuddin Bridge”*) with systemic critique, a hallmark of W.H. Auden’s *September 1, 1939* and Derek Walcott’s *Omeros*. 

 

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