The Ignoble Procession

The title strikes the reader's attention because of the unusual association of the word procession to the adjective ignoble, it is almost an oxymoron. The visual layout looks strange at a first sight: there is no specific pattern followed: there are 3 stanzas, the first one has 4 lines, the second one 5 lines and the last one only three lines. The poem is written in the first person. The speaking voice says that he feels humiliated and that that haste is ignoble and humiliating. The denotative analysis may provide information that makes sense both of structure and visual layout. The latter probably wants to convey the image of the people going to work early in the morning, in the City in London. Perhaps he can see those people while they are coming out of the tube. They are all in a hurry and they do not even take care of the people around. It follows that the line arrangement tries to recreate the picture resorting to free verse. Significantly lines get shorter and shorter in the end so as to focus the attention on two keywords: “haste” and “humiliating” thus summing up the main theme of the poem. Life seems here to be reduced to working and making money without any consideration for human dignity. Men’s bowler hats make clear that the scene is perceived in the distance. The reader perceives the poet’s disillusion in the face of a human being’s condition that is reduced to something mechanic, totally automated where there is not even a trace of a possible relationship. The choice of the word procession becomes symbolical of the speaking voice’s criticism: a procession is a religious ritual that invites inner-thinking and respect for people’s effort to mutually participate in a great experience. Here the procession has become somehow immoral: it is disastrous as a river that flows with too much energy.