William Somerset Maugham is considered to be one of the best known English writers of the XXth century. He was a great novelist, successful dramatist and popular short-story writer. His short stories are characterized by the brilliance of style, a pointed ridicule of many social vices and ironical cynicism. They are amusing and exciting as well as thought-provoking. ``The Poet'' is a fine example of Maugham's style.
Several forms of presentation interrelate in this story: a piece of narration and character-drawing, a description of surroundings.
The narration is first-person. The narrator is one of the main characters of the story. The first-person narration is typical for Maugham's style.
The main idea of the story is that our expectations can mislead our vision and influence our conception of reality. The theme of the story is the difference between feelings and beliefs of people and the real world.
The plot of the story is rather simple but gripping. The action of the story is laid in Spain, in a small town of Ecija. The narrator, a rather famous writer, is invited to Don Calisto de Santa Ana, one of the best known Spanish poets. The narrator is very excited and in his anxiety takes a merchant for a famous poet.
The story consists of the exposition (up to ...to avoid the honour), story, climax (He was every inch a poet ...not unworthily) and denouement. The end of the story is rather unusual and unpredictable. Only in the denouement the main idea is revealed.
The story can be divided into 5 logical parts. The first part may be entitled ``The narrator's attitude to Calisto de Santa Ana''. In this part a famous poet is described by the narrator. The description is very emotional and passionate. We see the poet through the eyes of the narrator, an ardent lover of his poetry. That's why a number of lofty epithets are used in the text ``vehement speeches'', ``incisive wit'', ``burning sonnets'', ``heroic arrogance'', ``a multi-colored vitality'', ``ringing lines'', ``haunting cadences''. These epithets help to create the portrait of a legendary poet. Don Calisto was famous not only for his poems but for his love of adventures. The narrator retells the love-story of the Poet and Infanta, who went to the monastery when the Poet ceased to love her. The author's attitude to the story is rather ironical: ``it was creditable to her and flattering to our poet''. The narrator rather ironically speaks about the famous people. The examples of periphrasis can be found in the text: ``the celebrated'', ``the great ones of the earth'', ``a person distinguished above his fellows by his rank or his attainments''. The narrator mocks at himself when he speaks about his attitude to the great poet. For this purpose the trite metaphor is used: ``that swept me off my feet''; and rather colloquial phraseological unit ``his verses were on the lips of all young men'' can be found in the text. This part is very emotionally-coloured, that's why we can find here such stylistic devices as a case of inversion: ``so intermingled are those ringing lines...'', cases of partial inversion ``in a world unsympathetic to Byronism he had led...'', ``but above all he was a lover''; a detached construction ``had we not read till we knew them by heart the burning sonnets in which he described his love, his anguish, and his wrath?'' The rhetoric question ``and was not Calisto de Santa Ana greater than any earthly king?'' helps to achieve the ironical effect and to show the passionate attitude of the narrator to the Poet. A number of enumerations can be found in this part: ``they had a passion, a heroic arrogance and a multi-coloured vitality''; ``my friends talked to me endlessly of his wild ways, his vehement speeches, his incisive wit, and his amours.''
Key-phrases and sentences of the first part are ``a great poet'', ``a romantic figure'', ``the last descendant of the grand school'', ``I was enraptured by them'', ``He was a rebel and sometimes and outlaw ...but above all he was a lover''.
The second part of the story starts with the sentence ``But all this took place many years ago...'' and ends with ''...at the appointed hour''. This part can be entitled ``The Invitation of the Poet''. The key phrases are ``lived in seclusion'', ``offered me this introduction'', ``refused to face the camera'', ``refused the offer'', ``consternation'' ``to present myself at this house''.
From this part we learn that the narrator wasn't eager to see the famous poet, he came to see a charming Spanish town with ``silent and sun-swept streets'' (epithets). From his friend the narrator learnt that the Poet sometimes invited other writers to his place. A wonderful metaphor is used which sounds rather ironical ``would talk to them with the fire that had electrified his hearers in the great days of his prime''. The narrator learnt with some consternation about the invitation of the poet. He was afraid to spoil the effect produced by the romantic reputation of the poet and his verses. The narrator spoke with irony about ``the moving sonnet'' which the Poet had written when he had understood with ``a bitter and sardonic pang'' about the loss of his ``extraordinary beauty''. These lofty epithets and litotes ``not a little touching'' create the ironical effect.
The third part (``My hotel was ...with your master'') presents the description of a small town where the action is laid. It may be entitled ``The Narrator's Way to the Poet's House''. The key phrases are ``a deserted city'', ``a town of churches'', ``a place of consequence'', ``and a fitting style''.
The national colouring is created with the help of local words ``caparison'', ``reja'', ``patio'', ``conquistador'', ``bargueno''. Besides the town is described in every detail (it's rather typical for Maugham) though there was nothing special about the town. But as once Ecija had been a place of consequence the narrator considered it to be a fitting place for a man who once had been a great poet to live in. A number of epithets are used by the author - ``a deserted city'', ``a crumbling façade'', ``imposing coats of arms'' - to create a true atmosphere of the town. To make the description more emotional he uses repetition: ``The streets, the tortuous white streets...'' A kind of oxymoron is used to underline the contrast between the present and the past of this town: ``dilapidated grandeur''.
The fourth part of the story ``The Poet's House'' starts with ``She opened the iron gateway ``and ends with''...their theatrical heroics''. The key phrases are ``an air of poverty but not of squalor'', ``was overcome by the spirit of the place'', ``thus surely should a poet live and die''.
The house is described in every minute detail and this description doesn't say much of the owner, but to the narrator each detail reminded of some fact from the biography of the Poet.
The narrator became more excited: ``cool enough and even somewhat bored'', ``a trifle nervous'', ``overcome by the spirit of the place''. A number of epithets are used to describe the place: ``ruined and magnificent house'', ``reckless deeds'', ``theatrical heroics''. A metaphor helps to strengthen the effect: ``ghosts of the past throng the silent patio and an age dead and gone gained a sort of shadowy life for me''. Examples of oxymoron show the contrast between the shabbiness of the place and the fame of his owner: ``noble indigence'', ``ruined and magnificent house'', ``disturbing silence''. The description of the place is mingled with inner represented speech of the narrator.
In the fifth part ``The appearance of the Poet'' the emotions of the narrator reached the culmination: ``my heart beat quickly'', ``I caught my breath'', ``I was abashed''. The narrator noticed every detail of the Poet's portrait. The colorful and convincing description is created with the help of epithets: ``a skin the colour of old ivory'', ``sombre fire'', ``unsmiling eyes'', ``a look of cool appraisal'', ``the eyes of an eagle'', ``a tremendous moment'', ``the lovely and tender song'' and metaphors ``he had swayed men's minds and touched their hearts''. The narrator is sure that only a great poet may possess such features. Hyperbole ``He was every inch a poet'' is used to intensify the created effect and makes the description sound a bit absurd. Maugham uses a number of allusions accompanied by metaphoric epithets to make the effect more prominent: ``the heir of the great old Spanish poets, the magnificent Herrera, the nostalgic and moving Frau Luis, Juan de la Cruz, the mystic, and the crabbed and obscure Gongora''. By this long enumeration an effect of suspense is created. The author also uses litotes, rather typical of his style ``he trod in their steps not unworthily''.
The ending is quite unexpected. The author deliberately tells nothing about the narrator's emotions after the moment he has learnt the truth. Maugham lets the reader decide what the narrator will do next.
The key sentences are: ``I caught my breath'', ``He was every inch a poet'', ``I was abashed'', ``I had come to the wrong door''.
The characterization of the narrator is indirect. The effect is achieved through the contradiction between the words of the writer that he doesn't like the celebrities and his real deeds and feelings which show that he is an ardent fan of the great poet and believes the heroic and romantic aureole created around the Poet. He believes all the gossips about the poet and knows every detail of his life. At the same time he is an educated man and mocks at himself. His ironical attitude to his own passion is shown in the story. One can't believe the portrait of the Poet created by the narrator as it was created by his rich imagination based on the romantic reputation of the Poet.
The story under analysis is a fine example of Maugham's style: it is exciting and thought-provoking and has a simple but gripping plot.