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"Stages"
by Herman Hesse
As every flower fades and as all youth
Departs, so life at every
stage,
So every virtue, so our grasp of truth,
Blooms in its day and may not last forever.
Since life may summon us at every age
Be ready, heart, for parting, new endeavor,
Be ready bravely and without remorse
To find new light that old ties cannot give.
In all
beginnings dwells a magic force
For guarding us and helping us to live.
Serenely let us
move to distant places
And let no sentiments of home detain us.
The Cosmic Spirit
seeks not to restrain us
But lifts us stage by stage to wider spaces.
If we accept a home
of our own making,
Familiar habit makes for indolence.
We must prepare for parting and leave-taking
Or else remain the slave of permamence.
Even the hour of our death may send
Us speeding on to fresh and newer spaces,
And life may summon us to newer races.
So be it,
heart: bid farewell without end.
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ANALYSIS:
TOPIC:
Hesse takes on a deceptively complex topic here. His
topic, broadly understood, is "change". But this has many aspects. Do we resist this change? What would the cosmic spirit have
us do when change is coming? Is change always good? Or do we need to sacrifice sometimes for it? Is the
change inevitable? And at the end he introduces a new idea. Is death something other than simply another form of change? And
if so, should we fear it?
CONTENT:
Hesse implores his
reader to accept change, to "be ready heart...for new endeavor". It is natural
to resist it, he explains with "We must prepare for parting and leave-taking". But
he reassures us that this change is not a curse, not an attempt to collect us, but rather, that "the Cosmic Spirit seeks
not to restrain us". Hesse is agnostic as to
whether it will be good, only that we "must find new places". But he leaves the
impression that we must move, even into the unknown, to find out whether it is better.
There are no guarantees, only the need to go. And it is clear, in the
final lines, that the change he most is discussing is death, the final stage.
STYLE:
Herman Hesse's style in this poem is unusually direct. He addresses the reader in very plain terms. He does
not depend on allusion or analogy. There are very few metaphors, except those, such as "slave of permanence", which are very
easily comprehended. Lines rhyme, but the rhyming scheme is not so regular that it distracts from the content. His words are
mostly common everyday words. Most of them have only one or two syllables. That makes the impact of the longer words greater.
There is heavy use of slant rhymes, such as "places" and "detain us". His style, overall, is as giving plain advice to someone.
It is a call to action.
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