Before You Came, Faiz Ahmed Faiz: Summary & Analysis

"Before You Came" by Faiz Ahmed Faiz is a poignant and introspective poem that reflects on the transformative power of love. Through vivid and evocative imagery, the poem explores the changes that love brings to the world and the speaker's perception of reality. The poem delves into the contrast between the time before the beloved's arrival and the profound impact of their presence.

"Before You Came"

Before you came,
things were as they should be:
the sky was the dead-end of sight,
the road was just a road, wine merely wine.
Now everything is like my heart,
a color at the edge of blood:
the grey of your absence, the color of poison, of thorns,
the gold when we meet, the season ablaze,
the yellow of autumn, the red of flowers, of flames,
and the black when you cover the earth
with the coal of dead fires.
And the sky, the road, the glass of wine?
The sky is a shirt wet with tears,
the road a vein about to break,
and the glass of wine a mirror in which
the sky, the road, the world keep changing.
Don’t leave now that you’re here—
Stay. So the world may become like itself again:
so the sky may be the sky,
the road a road,
and the glass of wine not a mirror, just a glass of wine.

Summary

"Before You Came" is a contemplative poem that explores the transformative nature of love. The poem contrasts the time before the arrival of the beloved with the profound changes that love brings to the world and the speaker's perception of reality. The speaker describes how everything has taken on new colors and meanings in the presence of the beloved, emphasizing the contrast between absence and presence, pain and joy, and darkness and light.

Critical Analysis

The poem employs vivid and rich imagery to convey the emotional landscape of the speaker. The imagery of colors such as grey, gold, yellow, red, and black serves to symbolize different emotional states and experiences associated with love.

The contrast between before and after the beloved's arrival is evident through the imagery of "the grey of your absence" versus "the gold when we meet" and "the yellow of autumn" versus "the red of flowers, of flames." This contrast highlights the transformative power of love, which changes the mundane into something extraordinary.

The poem uses metaphor to depict the world's changing nature, as exemplified in the lines "And the sky, the road, the glass of wine? / The sky is a shirt wet with tears, / the road a vein about to break." These metaphors reflect the emotional intensity and fragility of the speaker's feelings in the presence of the beloved.

Themes

• Transformative Power of Love: The central theme of the poem is the transformative effect of love on the world and the speaker's perception of reality. Love changes ordinary experiences into deeply emotional ones.
• Contrast: The poem contrasts the time before the beloved's arrival with the time after, using colors and emotions to depict the shift from absence to presence, darkness to light, and pain to joy.
• Perception and Reality: The poem explores how love can alter one's perception of reality, turning mundane experiences into profound and emotionally charged moments.

Attitudes/Feelings

• Longing and Absence: The poem conveys the speaker's sense of longing and absence before the beloved's arrival, symbolized by the colors grey, poison, and thorns.
• Presence and Joy: The poem captures the joy and vibrancy that the beloved's presence brings, symbolized by colors such as gold, red, and flames.
• Transformation: The poem reflects the speaker's belief in the transformative power of love, which changes the world and perception from one state to another.

Literary Devices

• Imagery: The poem uses vivid imagery of colors, emotions, and sensations to convey the speaker's feelings and the changes brought about by love.
• Metaphor: Metaphors, such as "The sky is a shirt wet with tears" and "the glass of wine a mirror," create symbolic connections between the speaker's emotions and the external world.
• Contrast: The poem employs contrast to emphasize the shift from one emotional state to another, before and after the beloved's arrival.

Discussion Question

How does "Before You Came" by Faiz Ahmed Faiz use vivid imagery and contrast to convey the transformative power of love on the speaker's perception of the world? How do colors and emotions symbolize different emotional states in the poem?