Enterprise, from The Unfinished Man (1959), is one of Ezekiel's finest poems. It has a well - marked rhyme scheme and incantory music all its own. It is an allegory of a voyage undertaken by a group of men, their efforts, failures and frustrations. A group of people undertake a voyage, moved by noble aspirations but it ends in failure. According to Srinivasa Iyengar, “In a sense, of course, it's man's destiny to be forever evolving, and hence to be unfinished. There is a movement, a growth; something is gained, but something is lost also perhaps imagination, perhaps hope or self-confidence suffers in consequence. Between the motion and the action falls the shadow, so poems like Enterprise become images of frustration. The pilgrimage becomes a weary trek by the time the goal is reached. It may be described as a miniature Ababasis: fancy - fed, the goal is alluring; but the process of reaching it empties the victory of its glamour and glory.” Such is the human condition, the human predicament, and man must learn to live with it as long as he is a denizen of this earth.
A number of people, including the poet, decide to go on a pilgrimage. They are city - dwellers and the journey they undertake is to some romantic, primitive hinterland. They start with hope, courage and determination, with their minds full of noble ideas and ideals. They are out to make some heroic efforts which, they hope, will lead to some noble achievements. Their minds are exalted; they are not afraid of any dangers and difficulties in their path. All “burdens” seem to be light.
The first stage of the journey is symbolic of the Edenic innocence which man enjoys in his boyhood and early youth, when he is entirely unconscious of the human predicament, of the frustrations and failures which life brings at every stage. But soon this paradisiacal felicity and innocence is lost. In the next stage of the journey, the pilgrims face dangers and difficulties. They continue on their onward journey of exploration, but they do not care to find out if the urge is sufficiently strong in them. There is an untested idealism in them, an idealism untested by the experience of practical day - to - day life. Their “rage”, their passion for some heroic endeavour is as hot as the sun above their heads. It “beats down upon” them “to match our rage”. The objects and forces of nature are out to frustrate the human endeavour.
The group of pilgrims is able to put up very well with the dangers and difficulties in their path for quite some time as they continue their journey. They take notes as they move along the ways of the peasants, serpents and goats. They pass through the three cities where a sage has taught. But they do not care to find out what he taught and what his message was. Their idealism soon degenerates into the trivial and the commonplace. This is the eternal human dilemma. Man cannot remain true to his own real self for any length of time. There are too many distractions and diversions in his way; he loses the steadfastness and singleness of purpose somewhere on the way.
The difficulties and dangers posed by man's environment are not as damaging as those that result from his own insufficiency. Soon there are differences of opinion among the travellers and they begin to quibble over petty matters. They have to cross a “desert patch”, a wasteland, and they cannot agree to the best way of doing so. One of their friends rather proud of his stylish prose - is so angry that he deserts them. The shadow of discord falls over their enterprise, and it continues to grow and haunt them. Bickerings over petty matters, needless quarrels over trifles and hostility to those who hold different opinions all this is deeply ingrained in human nature and man carries the seeds of failures and frustrations within himself. So do these pilgrims who, despite their quarrels, continue their onward journey.
But now they are divided into groups, each group attacking the other. Engrossed in their internecine bickerings, they lose their way; they forget their noble aspirations and ideals that had motivated their enterprise in the first place. They lose sight of their goal and purpose; their idealism is gone. They are overwhelmed by fear and frustration; many of them do not have the courage to face the realities of life. Some of them try to pray and seek divine assistance; they seek relief in escape and withdrawal. Just then, their leader “smelt the sea” means that they have reached a dead end and must return home. Their pilgrimage must end.
Still they persist, although their enterprise has lost all significance. They have lost their idealism, their heroic aspirations; they notice nothing as they move along. They are no longer a group of devoted idealists but a straggling crowd of a few defeated, tired and helpless survivors who continue to trudge along. They are symbolic of man's pilgrimage on this earth. They are dirty and shabby, for they have been deprived of such common basic needs as soap; they are broken in spirit and bent down physically. Such is the end of all human enterprise.
The pilgrims are so numb and exhausted that they do not hear the thunder, which is symbolic (as in T.S. Eliot's Waste Land) of spiritual regeneration and fertility. The extreme helpless of man at the end of his journey is stressed here. The urge and the enthusiasm for inner meaning and quest soon wear out: disillusionment is so dark and foreboding that hope of inner illumination or spiritual regeneration is lost. Nothing, not even the thunder among the hills, providing the moral imperatives of datta (give), dayadhvam (be compassionate) and damyata (control yourselves), can shake off human apathy. The disillusionment of the pilgrims is total; they even come to doubt the very worth and significance of their journey. It seems to them to have been meaningless and futile. All their noble aspirations are forgotten; there is sorrow and suffering on every face. They are conscious of the fact that their actions have neither been great nor pathbreaking. Grace must come from within; they were better off at home, i.e., at the beginning of their enterprise. Redemption has to be sought either through the world or one's own mind. “Home” is the reality principle which must be accepted, faced and made the best of. This is the only sane and balanced way of life for man.
Ezekiel said Enterprise was written for “personal, therapeutic purposes “to analyse, examine and explore his own feelings of loss and deprivation. He wanted to find relief from personal tensions and frustrations to an intimate, sympathetic friend. But this analysis has also become a metaphor for, or an allegory of, the human condition in general. It shows Ezekiel's mastery over the lyric form.
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