WEEK 3

Non- African Poetry

‘The Proud king” derives its inspiration from the Bible. The persona, Jovinian, is a maximum ruler
who equates himself to divinity. He echoes biblical Potentates such as Nebuchadnezzar, Herod and a
host of others. The story in the poem could also take its background from the haggadic tales of Solomon
or from some old Russian legend i.e. the legend of Proud King Aggei.

Content of the Poem

Lines 1 – 21: The first two line present the setting as a ‘far country’ and in “a year long ages
away. The person is a potentate (who is famous and fabulously rich) a despot, he is feared by all
because he could be irrational in his decisions. He was young when he ascended the throne. Although
he is married to a “noble wife”, he does not allow her or anyone for that matter to sit with him on stage.
Anyone that speaks to him without his permission is condemned to death. One early morning in the
month of May, he is awake because he is upset over a number of state matters. He ponders over his
achievements, and the exploits he has done. He feels elated at the realization that nobody dares
question him over his actions.

Lines 22 – 56: Due to the fact of well-armed guards at his command he feels indomitable and
becomes puffed-up and vain in his thoughts until he proclaims himself as God, at least for the period of
his early existence, not thinking of where his dead father, or grandfather were. He proclaims himself
greater than them all. He falls asleep in the midst of his cogitations. The sun is up when he wakes up.
He leaps out of gold bed without remembering his former thoughts, but tell himself that he and his men
will go a-hunting and a – playing in the forest. He is optimistic that the day cannot ‘be worse than
yesterday’ But better it may be” (55).

Lines 57 – 84: He dresses for the hunt and rides forth with peace in his heart. He and his men
lead many hefty dogs over the wet grass between the trees with some beautiful white horses. On the
trail of a big and swift male deer (hart), the king rides afar that morning and because of the strength and
swiftness of his horse, out rides his huntsmen. He gets to a shaded river-side in the fever-pitch of the
sun, dismount, removes his kingly robes and swims his leisurely. After swimming to his heart’s content;
he goes to the bank of the river to don his apparel in readiness for his journey back home. ‘He is both
surprised and angry when he discovers that both his horse and dress are nowhere to be found. He
begins to threaten the (unseen) thief with severe punishment. But no thief is seen.

Lines 85 – 140: He cries dejectedly and stop to think of what to do. He looks up stream and sees
the house of the ranger who is a man loyal to him for having helped the man in times past It should be a
pleasure for the man to whom he has given so much to help in his hour of need. He hastens to the
house, the sun burning his naked skin with a pleasant respite on his mind.

And line 106 – 112: while he is on his way and his people are seeking for him, they meet another
man who is on his regalia riding on his very horse. Thinking that he has come to them at the right time
they receive him happily and they all ride out of the forest to the palace. In the palace the man (angel)

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goes through the royal routine. He is served as the king always is, under the canopy while his dog fawns
around his feet. There also he meets with the city’s elders. The Queen visits him in his room.

Then the narration returns to the king who has reached the ranger’s gates blows on his horn and
the gatekeeper (porter) wakes up and asks him why he is exposing his nakedness. He quotes his vicar
as saying that God has given clothes even to beasts. As the porter turns to leave Jovinian calls him a
foolish man and orders him to open the gates. He discloses his identity. “I am thy Lord and king,
Jovinian” that he should go and tell his master that he is there naked and hungry and that he would
forgive him. But the porter trivializes the matter and laughed it off saying “yea, yea, I am but dreaming in
the night and tells the king “to dream”.

Line 141 – 231: Abandoned by the porter the king in anger hurls himself against the gate and
beats it vehemently with a stone. Then the gate fling open suddenly with the porter holding a staff he
rebukes the king for disturbing the peace. He then orders him inside the gate to go and tell his strange
story to the ranger and tells him of the grave consequences of appearing before the ranger. He is also
warned that should his master sanction him for bringing him in, his (the naked king) back is broad
enough to receive as many lashes as possible as punishment for his trick (“jape”).

The ranger’s house, an architectural masterpiece was built for him by the king. Often, the king
would go there privately. He loves this Lord, who had been a landless young man, “a servant of the
Queen”, before he became a landed gentleman. The ranger who became a gentleman a longtime a go
is busy enjoying his evening, drinking wine. He is a old by a young man who rushes in, that a naked man
who claims that the ranger will recognize him as the king is at the gate insisting on being allowed in by
the porter. He feels that the man looks a little like the king but he is not the king but could be feigning
madness in order to do some mischief. The ranger agrees with him and tells him to bring in the naked
man. The king comments that the ranger should have recognized him as the king but the ranger does
recognize him to his chagrin and disappointment. He challenges the ranger to kill him or cast away his
treachery, so that he (the ranger) can enter into a new dimension of favour with him. The ranger replies
that since the naked man has lost his power of comprehension it is pointless telling him he was never
the king. He prays that God will grant him recovery and not let him die in his plight. He does not wish to
send him away empty handed, so he orders his servant to give him clothes to wear, food and drink. The
enraged king rejects the favour and labels the ranger a traitor, telling him to “Get ye from the hall”), lest
smitten by God’s hand the roof should fall” (Lines 230- - 231).

Lines 231 – 322: The naked king runs out of the ranger’s hall with no particular destination in
mind till, out of tiredness he falls ‘beneath a woody belt”. Jovinian lies by the roadside confused,
wandering if he is dreaming. At nightfall he sees a convoy of men going before a counselor - a Duke
Peter and curses him. A soldier smites him and he finally gets to where the Duke is. Duke Peter asks
him what his offences were for him to have cursed him and Jovinian asks that he orders his men to
come nearer as to see him clearly. But still he is not recognized and is leemed as a liar and he is lucky
that he is not telling the story before the supposedly real king. He advices him to stay away from the
town for him not to be taken tothe judge who will pass severe judgment on him, should his madness
break out in some particular places. He is left speechless and trembling.

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 Lines 323 – 735: Tells of how Jovinian enters his city again in company of a man named
Christopher a Green, in his rough chariot (“wain”) lying down: so that his nakedness would not be
perceived by people and they soon pass through the palace door. Jovinian runs through the gate. In the
first court, no one challenges him but on getting to the second gate, a member of the royal household,
seeing him naked and bespattered with blood asks him where he is going. He comments that Jovinian
must be “Seventy times more mad than mad” or has had a spell cast on him which has made him
audacious. The man does not recognize him and his claims of being the king soon lands him in the
guard-room where he is locked up and “mocked by his own soldiers. In this dejected mood, Jovinian
turns his attention to God and asks him a series of questions.
“Ah, God! Said he, “is this another earth
From that whereon I stood two days ago?
Or else in sleep have I second birth?
Or among mocking shadows do I go,
Unchanged myself of flesh and fell, although
My fair weed I have lost and royal gear?
(Lines 435 – 440)
After this, he brought before the king sitting on his throne who actually does not look like him in
anyway, but who has “a marvelous glory” shining round his head-an angel. Jovinian then accuses the
man of sitting on his throne. But the man said he is Jovinian and asks everyone present to look at his
own face that he is Jovinian and they ascribed him to be so. The man said he would not kill him
“Nathless thou shall not die / But live on as thou mayst, a lowly man / forgetting thou wast once Jovinian”
(525). He is thrusted out of the palace into the town and he just wanders around not knowing what to do
with his life. He soon comes close to a hermit’s house, a priest “whom he had ridden often times to find /
In days when first the scepter he did hold” thinking the man would recognize him but the man did not
recognize him. He now becomes totally broken and comes back to God his maker asking why he has
been severely dealt with and also recognizing his weakness as a mere mortal. Then and only then, did
the priest recognize him and he gives him a night gown to wear to cover his nakedness. Jovinian now
recounts all his pride which had made him so hardhearted and thoughtless as to think himself as God.
He is then given an ass to ride and he leaves the hermit and rides back to town, to his palace and
people begin to recognize him again. His joy is restored. He enters the little hall and beholds the man-an
angel-transformed with wings. The man speaks to him” O king, be not dismayed” (719)
An now thou knowest in how short a space
The God that made, the world an unmake thee”
(722 – 723)
He made the king to realize his limitation in the hand of God when he becomes proud as God
always humbles the proud. The angel then vanished as the Queen wakes up and the king is now
appareled in his kingly riches again with no one over mentioning a word about a naked forlor man. Thirty
years has passed since he – Jovinian had this strange encounter and he now calls on a scribe to write
down his encounter to warn anyone coming after him who might want to become proud. But it is said
that the next king did not take heed of this warnings.
The commentator not being omniscient says he does not know the fate that eventually befell the
king but believes that he ended up learning the hard way. He tries to imagine haw humbling the
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experience must have been. The poem ends with an admonition to kings to cast out upon some heap
their pride and self-elevation to status of divinity, because it is an illusion they bask in, for as long as God
chooses to close his eyes to their following.
Themes in the poem
(i) Power and pride
(ii) Prosperity and folly
(iii) Self Delusion
(iv) Sin and shame
(v) Repentance and Restoration
(vi) Ambition
(vii) God’s ways are incomprehensible
(viii) Divine Intervention brings changes
(ix) Reality of Angels and Hall
(x) The pre-eminence of God’s mercy over His Judgment.
The poem has a rhyme scheme ababbcc.
The poetic devices in the poem include: Motif, Irony, Simile, Metaphor, Oxymoron, Euphemism,
Inversion, Alliteration, Transferred Epithet, Synecdoche, Repetition, Pathos, Hyperbole, Symbolism,
Rhetorical Questions, Metonymy, Antonomasia, Imagery-visual, Auditory, Olfactory, Gustatory and
Tactile and the poem as an allegory. Contrast, Allusion, Dramatic, Monologue.
Assignment: Identify these devices with examples in the poem.