Summary of the Poem The Inner Part/Optional English-Class 12

The Inner Part

- Louis Simpson

The poem ‘The Inner Part’ composed by the poet Louis Simpson talks about the spiritual decay of American life. It presents the real picture of the American dead civilization after winning a war. After the war, they assumed themselves to be the leading, powerful and important citizens. They started changing most of their things. They began to dress up formally, and American wives stooped scratching in public places. They also stopped using the informal word ‘Gosh’. They also pretended that they were queens or princess, so they acted accordingly. Americans thought to be superior the superior citizens of the world. Though they developed themselves socially, economically, scientifically and technologically, they left their spiritual ideals like love, kindness, affection, cordiality, co-operation, etc. towards humanity. They lived mechanical and materialistic lives only. Their lives was good and worth seeing from outside only, but their inner part was decayed. The poet here compares American sons with V-8 engine and daughters with the tip of the fly rod, which symbolizes their inclination and sensitivity towards material stuffs. Their feelings of humanity remained in words only, and gradually they lost American ideals. They had become like inanimate objects. Here in the poem, the poet presents a priest who examines the entrails of a bird, but he finds the heart not in its own place. He also examines a seed, but he finds a bad odour emitting from there. This shows that future life of American is also vile and decayed.