Plead Mercy Poem by Anne Ranasinghe - Summary & Analysis

Plead Mercy Poem by Anne Ranasinghe - Summary

The poem Plead Mercy by Anne Ranasinghe deals with a very common subject matter which is cruelty to animals. The poet raises her voice against cruelty to animals by narrating an incident where a bull is yoked to a bullock cart and the bull is brutally beaten despite its inability to move further.

The poet and her daughter come across the bullock cart on their way and notice the pain the bull undergoes. This incident is brought into discussion and is analyzed in two different points of view which makes the poem special.

The mother and the daughter pass a bullock cart which is being pulled hard by a bull. They can see that the bull is pulling it hard and taking a great effort to go uphill. He shivers with the effort and his bones could be seen through the tightly stretched skin. The carter whips the bull without mercy and the suffering of the bull shocks the little girl. She asks her mother whether the bull thinks that life is worth living.

As an adult confronting such a question who is required to give a sensible answer, the poetess says that life is always better than death. However, the poetess herself has doubts in her own answer. The little girl also reminds of the horrible things people do to mankind as well. She refers to a situation of a revolution and says that she would kill herself if she had to confront a situation like that.

The mother and the daughter finally see that the innocent animal falls on the road unable to move any further. The speaker pleads God’s mercy for the innocent animal. She also remarks with agony that her daughter is only too young to notice the cruelty present in the world.

Plead Mercy Poem - Analysis

Plead Mercy is a first person narrative poem. It depicts the pathetic plight of a bullock yoked to a heavily loaded cart straining up a hill. The narrator gives a detailed description of the bullock and his plight.

The first stanza starts with the first person plural pronoun “We” whereas the second stanza starts with the first person singular pronoun “I”. Accordingly, the poem provides the point of view of two people on one incident in an effective way.

Alliteration used in the poem - Plead Mercy

The sight of the bullock shocks the narrator and her daughter since the cart is heavily loaded, the journey is extremely difficult since it is an uphill and above all he was constantly beaten with a sharp thorny stick.

The repetition of the consonant “t” in “Protrude and the taut skin quivers” is an effective alliteration which creates an emotive effect on the reader regarding the torture the bullock is undergoing.

Personification in the poem - Plead Mercy

Use of the pronoun “he” to refer to the bullock is important in the poem since we usually refer to animals with the pronoun “it”. The poetess refers to the bullock as if it is equal to a human being.

Visual Imagery in the Poem - Plead Mercy

The poet creates a vivid visual imagery of the bullock through her description which has a good choice of words. The idea of saliva pouring out from his mouth shows that the bullock is exhausted. The reader can imagine how the helpless animal tries hard to pull the cart but his skinny body does not carry sufficient strength for it. The whipping of the carter makes it even harder for the bullock.

Choice of words in the poem - Plead Mercy

The agony of the innocent animal is effectively suggested by saying that there is no expression on his face. The pain is so much that it is beyond expression.

Animals are dumb that they cannot express their pain using language whereas, we; the so-called powerful beings on earth, should not victimize the weak.

The poet brings the eyes of the bullock to the attention of the reader which is also very effective in communicating the brutality and meanness in human actions against the helpless animals.

The question posed by the teenager shows how shocked she is and the confusion she is in. At the same time, the poet asks the same question from the reader. The poet wants the reader to take this question seriously into consideration.

The word “frowns” shows that the girl is neither naive nor could be easily convinced of things without having acceptable grounds.

The Theme of the poem - Plead Mercy

The poet discusses the theme of cruelty to animals and the concept of Life and Death in the poem. When we dig deeper, the poem also discusses man's cruelty to his own kind. The poet uses the character of the girl to successfully enter into different aspects of a much broader discussion.

For a girl of thirteen, she is sensible enough to question the brutality present in the world. She raises her voice for the sake of the feeble. She compares the situation of the bullock with the sufferings of people at times of revolution. She is aware about the world around her and confident enough to question the injustices.

The poet needs to convince the reader that even the young children could see the cruelty going on around them whereas adults pay a blind eye. By telling that she herself doubts the answer she gave, the poetess wants the reader to question the validity of her answer.

It is a common belief or a norm that life is always better than death. No society or religion would ever accept taking one’s own life as just. However, the poetess questions the reader whether it is applicable in circumstances where brutality exists beyond comprehension.

The poetess shows that her answer; “..life is always better than death” has grounds by mentioning that her daughter is just thirteen. She provides ample justifications for her absurd answer in comparison to the incident referred to. She does not want to inculcate pessimistic views on life in the mind of the teenager.

The poetess highlights that the teenager is able to see the pain in the eyes of the bullock whereas the carter is unable. She indirectly criticizes the absurdity of human behaviour.

The poetess very effectively uses three different characters in her narration representing three different types of people.

Similarly, the poetess needs to highlight the fact that the children with their tender hearts find it difficult to accept the cruelty in the world as normal and live a happy life. She calls for the attention of the reader to this bitter truth. In fact the poetess pleads mercy on the bullock as well as for all the living beings. Most importantly she pleads mercy on behalf of little kids like her daughter who are exposed to a brutal world.

Metaphorical Meaning of Plead Mercy Poem by Anne Ranasinghe

If you look at the poem with closer reference to the society in which Anne Ranasinghe lived during the time of writing this poem, it suggests a metaphorical meaning to it.

Since the poem was written in 1975, during a time of social unrest in Sri Lanka, the incident described in the poem can be referred to the pathetic plight of the country during the 1971 revolt.

Underneath the literal meaning of the poem, the poetess represents the controlling party or those who exercised power over the common people as the carter in this poem. Common people are represented by the poor bullock. The daughter of thirteen may represent the uprising voice of the youth of that time.

However, by mentioning the age of the girl, the poetess shows how worried she is about the future of the younger generation under such circumstances prevailing in the adult world.

The Epigraph of Plead Mercy Poem by Anne Ranasinghe - (Sabbe Satta Bhavantu Sukhi Tattha)

The epigraph of the poem is directly relevant to its theme. The poetess pleads mercy for all living beings and quotes one of the Buddhist prayers “Sabbe Satta Bhavantu Sukhi Tattha '' which means “ May all living beings be joyful and free from sorrow and pain”. This Pali scripture is a common wish of any Buddhist and is also considered a core value behind a Buddhist society.

The poetess, Anne Ranasinghe who is German by birth and had experienced revolution and its brutality and as a victim of it, brings out the need for each and every human being to uphold the core value of Buddhist Philosophy lying behind this quote and promote compassion towards all beings so that the world will be a better place for our children.

Further, since the poet had written this poem in the 1970s, we can see that her thoughts had also been influenced by the civil unrest and social conflicts that had taken place during this time.

The poetess who has had her share of experience of the Sri Lankan Buddhist culture, may have noticed that it is a frequently uttered wish among the majority of Sri Lankans. By adding this scripture as an epigraph, one can also feel that the poetess also finds it ironic that such brutality to animals exists in the Sri Lankan society which is strongly driven by such buddhist values. She questions whether people practice the principles behind what they believe in and wish for. She therefore insists that ill-treatment to any living being should not go unnoticed in a society which believes in compassion towards every being.

Anne Ranasinghe - The Poet of the Poem “Plead Mercy”

Anne Ranasinghe is a German by birth who got married to a Sri Lankan Professor and later contributed to Sri Lankan Poetry as a Sri Lankan English Language poet. She was born in 1925 and died in 2016 at the age of 91 in Colombo Sri Lanka. Having won several notable awards including “State Literary Award 1994” she is considered one of the leading poets of Sri Lanka. Her famous poem, Plead Mercy was written in 1975.