From the last scene of Great Expectations

Is that you, dear… why, it’s you!
So how come you ‘bout here?
Ah! Must be feeling nostalgic.
Here, this place where your charms grew,
Where you grew beautiful, and a little cruel,
Where we once met, and then you departed.
Yes, the old days are so nagging,
Although, you are so strong.
But why… why are tears welling in your eyes?
Do you cherish this place old?
But everything is gone… only shambles,
The rustling fallen leaves, the moss and brick,
The rusty bench, and the air sick.
But again so much is here;
Hidden, but… perhaps….not lost.
Let’s walk a little more,
Let’s walk beside.
Let’s see if we can find something old.
-16/5/00, Calcutta-63

COMMENTS :

Very few people know but Charles Dickens’s most famous novel Great Expectations is also a great love story. There the protagonist Pip falls hopelessly in love with a girl, who, he is induced to believe foolishly, was destined for her. The girl Estella, brought up in such a way that she became dead cynical and devoid of all tender sensibilities, finds amusement in sustaining the illusion Pip holds, until she jilts him by marrying the man who is not only abhorrent but is also Pip’s mortal enemy. It is a very foolish marriage, rash indeed- the husband treats Estella very badly. Fortunately he dies. Pip, by this time had left behind his past and went to make on a new life in a new place. One day he comes to visit his old place and finds Estella there. In the earlier version Dickens had a sad ending for the readers, but forced by popular demand, he mended the end and gave us a more optimistic ending. Although the ending is left ambiguous in the end, it still leaves enough scope for the optimist to write his own ‘And they lived happily ever after.’

The poem and the treatment of the ending was inspired by a recent film version of the novel which starred Robert de Nero as Magwitch, which ended with the lovers holding hands as the sun went down on a fine evening.