Explain the title of the poem “I think continually of those who are truly great”.

 The first line of the poem, “I think continually of those who were Truly Great”, gives us the clue that the poet is talking about the truly great personalities from the past and how continually thinking about them suggests that the past is always connected to the present and therefore all those truly great individuals are connected to us across time. As the poem. progresses, we realize how they have close correspondence with perennial Nature which, in tum, confers eternity on them. Time cannot erase their memory. Like Nature that is eternally Present in sunshine, spring blossoms, snowy mountains and lush green meadows, these truly great heroes are omnipresent and make us identify the connection between Nature and grandeur of Man and their perennity.

“This poem, broadly, is an attempt to describe what makes a person “truly” great. The poem was written in the 1930's during wartime, this no doubt influenced the poet. However, soldiers are not the only people he is referring to. He is essentially referring to anyone who selflessly fights for what they believe in/ The “Truly Great” can be poets, soldiers, selfless and passionate artists. What defines them is their actions, deeds, words, artistic and aesthetic creations that inspire generations that come after them. They have made a difference to the world and hence our thoughts in grateful acknowledgement of what they have bequeathed to the present generation.

The “truly great” are remembered for their ceaseless toil from the womb to the tomb - from birth to death. Like the sun that shines all through day and night, as it orbits from East to West, and back from West to East, these great celebrity heroes shone all through their living hours. Spender equates hours with suns, as all their hours are resplendent like the shining sun and like the sun, these great personalities also lived active hours. The poet says to the reader that these truly great people dwelt in a constant light where the hours are likened to the suns. The sun is the main source of energy on earth. It is brilliant and a source of great inspiration, therefore Spender could be saying that their every hour was a source of great inspiration and full of achievement. Spender goes on to state that these great people had their aspirations, and their aspirations could be seen by the words that they spoke to the people”. Their visionary ideas to transform the world are compared to blooming blossoms that lend colour and beauty to Nature. Sun, light, fire and blossoms are loaded with symbolism and they relate to eternity and energy. inspiration and achievement.

The poem is replete with symbols as we move into the second stanza, But the symbols cannot be treated as having one-to one correspondence that is easy of comprehension. At times, one wonders if Spender’s long-drawn similies are a trifle laboured and stretched! What is to be noted is they once again reflect the connection between the

work of Nature and the work doné by the truly great heroes of the past. The idea is to show that however hard the task is there-is-always an essential happiness in doing hard work and achieving the fruits of one’s toil. Just as there is satisfaction and joy in drawing the blood from springs, these individuals conducted all their great acts and hard work with true happiness.

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