Call, I this morning my mistress,
Decorate the deliciousness as in bless,
Haste my mistress, I shall be carving
Shall I produce my fiction on starving.
Stress, I initiate my thinking tank,
Go and fetch something from lower rank,
(Forgive, my apologies to address thee
Of the lower rank; in fact is me)
Recall an incident in great sorrow
Unforgettable, impacted so deep, until any ‘morrow
Saw that brave soul, when bloodshed two was fought
Died he there, home he was never brought,
I recognized a hunger in each his thirsty eye
Starving for beloved, too poor to adieu a bye.
In first octave this sonnet is a keen satire on people who talk about starvation though they do not know what it is because they have never faced it. Poem starts with writer addressing to his wife to prepare his meal. Here it is very ironic that poet is going to write a poem on ‘Starvation’ and he, himself is commanding his wife to make delicious food. Then he says that he is stressing his mind (thinking tank) to write something on the very topic of starvation while he totally unaware that it is very difficult to write something starvation which is soft, serious and an issue full of feelings. The poet calls those who starve are from lower rank but later he admits that he is wrong in calling those poor people from the lower rank and considers himself as a lower rank personality for his lower thinking. Here poet is representing the society which calls them to be from higher ranks but value of their thinking is low.
Sestet in the last lines of the poem speaks story of a soldier in the World War II who has fought so bravely for his country and is dying now. According to poet he is an example of real starvation because he dies thinking of his beloved who is waiting for him at home but he is unable to even bid her a good bye before he dies.
