fable poetry analysis

“Fable” Analysis

It’s a poem named “Fable”. It’s a sad story was made by Janos Pilinszky. It talks about a lonely wolf who fell in love with the first house he saw. After he entered the house, he was eager for the warmth of this house. Unwilling to leave, he stayed from night to the morning until he was beaten to death. It refers to some particular thoughts or feelings, and describes them in symbolic and metaphorical ways. Below, I want to analyze this poem from two points. One of these is what the poet’s attitude and what feelings he wanted to express. Another one is the significance of the poem for the author.
In this poem, the author expressed his silent anger toward human beings and his feeling for the pathos of the sensual world by the use of simile and metaphor. From the beginning, “a lonely wolf lonelier than the angels” means the wolf is like angels in the sky that are distanced from human beings and feeling lonely with cold surroundings. Why the wolf was lonely? One of possible reasons is that he might have abandoned by his parents. As implied by his loneliness, we can presume he is eager of being loved. In line 5, the author wrote, “He fell in love with the first house he saw.” This means the house itself is not only symbolic of warm and safety, but also of company and love. Besides, we can imagine the author’s disappointment toward humanity, as in line 10, the author wrote,” Apart from God nobody ever found them so beautiful”. This suggests people are so hideous that only God would love them. On the other hand, the author described the wolf as both child-like and a beast which are completely opposite qualities. It implies that the readers assume the wolf is dangerous, but in reality, he is "child-like", so that we can find the phrase “child-like beast” more powerful when linked to the final line as people were capable of beating a child to death. Whereby the ending, the author expressed his silent anger toward human beings and his feeling for the pathos of the sensual world by showing the wolf's pure personality which is love and wonder of the human world but was beaten to death.
This poem is the reflection of the author’s own, which reveals the author’s attitude toward the world is helpless. Consider the author’s background, we can comprehend why he wrote such a poem. Janos Pilinsky was a Hungarian poet. Born in Budapest in 1921, he was conscripted into the army during World War 2, and spent the last year of the war in various prison camps in Germany and Austria. What he suffered during the war and in the camps was something he subsequently struggled with for the rest of his life. The wolf of this poem actually represents himself. Even with innocence and love, he still experienced the cruelty of the war, just like the child-like wolf whom did nothing wrong but was beaten to death in the end. We can feel that the spirit of his poetry aspires to the most naked and helpless of all confrontations. His anger toward the world is the silence of that moment on the suffering, after the cry. So that it reflects his helpless attitude toward the world.

In conclusion, through this poem, we can sense the feeling of sadness the author attempted to express. Meanwhile, we can understand the author’s helpless attitude toward the world after suffering from the war. The poem makes us aware of silent anger, like its name “Fable”, which is a short story teaching us a moral lesson, with warning. ”Fable’’ which is worth revealing line by line to enhance its potential to shock.