SUMMARY OF THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN

 


Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax.

The speaker introduces the lovely river town of Hamelin in Brunswick and tells of its serious vermin problem 500 years before. Rats had overrun the city, to the point that the public demanded of the Mayor and "our Corporation" that the rats be destroyed or else the people would remove them from power.

The Mayor and Corporation have a stressful meeting, but can discover no viable option until "the strangest figure" arrives. He is extremely gangly, garbed in bizarrely colored clothing, and old-fashioned. They also notice he has a flute hanging around his neck, which he continues to finger while they talk. He explains that he has heard of their problem and has a "secret charm" that leads creatures to follow him when he wants. He says he uses his talent "on creatures that do people harm" and asks for one thousand gilders if he can rid the town of rats. They quickly up his offer to 50,000 gilders.

The piper heads outside and begins to play his flute. Almost immediately, the rats come out from everywhere and follow him as he plays and dances through the streets, until he finally gets to the river and leads them all to their deaths by drowning. Only one rat escapes, and the speaker tells how that rat swam to family and told the story of the Piper for the rest of his days.

Hamelin is overjoyed and immediately sets to repairing itself, but the Piper interrupts their merriment to request his 1,000 gilders. The Mayor and Corporation, suddenly wondering whether they ought to pay a vagabond such money, apologize patronizingly and then offer him only 50 gilders. Angry, the Piper makes a veiled threat, but the Mayor blows him off.

The Piper heads out into the street and again begins to play his flute. However, this time it is not rats, but the children of the town who begin to follow him. The adults find themselves unable to move as they watch the children dancing along behind the Piper as he heads out of town. Finally, the adults are able to move and decide to follow at a distance, assuming he will sooner or later have to stop playing. But when the Piper reaches a nearby mountain, a magic portal opens and all the children disappear with him into it. The speaker then tells of one boy, whose lame foot prohibited him from keeping up and who was thus left behind. He remains sad and distraught the rest of his days for not having glimpsed whatever promise lay in the Piper's song.

Hamelin, having suffered a great tragedy in losing all its children, tried to send word to the Piper that they would pay his fee, but to no avail. They made laws to commemorate the memories of the children and have rebuilt since then. The speaker adds a note that there is a "tribe of alien people" in Transylvania whose legends tell how their forbearers once rose "out of some subterranean prison," though nobody in the tribe understands the meaning of the legend.

The final short stanza is addressed to "Willy," and the speaker insists upon the importance of keeping promises.

FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING REFER TO THIS VIDEO LINK





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SUMMARY OF HAROLD:OUR HORNBILL

Image
  HAROLD OUR HORNBILL Harold our hornbill is a fantastic story written by one of the greatest poet RUSKIN BOND.    RUSKIN BOND was an Indian writer of British decent, he is most probably India's best known and most widely read author. he started writing at an early age and since then has consistently writen stories that reflect life in the hill station of the Himalayas. Bond was awarded the Padma shri in 1999 and Padma bhushan in 2014 in recognition of his contribution to children's literature. LETS READ THE SUMMARY OF HAROLD OUR HORNBILL A hornbill Called Harold is a short story by Ruskin Bond. This story is often covered in the Grandfather’s Private Zoo series. Ruskin’s grandfather is an animal lover and is in the habit of keeping a collection of animals and birds at his home. Harold was the name of a hornbill bird. The bird has, in particular, a long beak.Coming to the story, Harold’s mother like many other hornbills was a careful and obedient wife. And his father too was an
Read more

INVENTION OF STEAM ENGINE

Image
  STEAM ENGINE . The steam engine was invented in the 18th century by British inventor James Watt. Watt's development of the steam engine revolutionized the way that work was done in factories, mills, and mines, and helped to drive the Industrial Revolution forward. Watt's steam engine was an improvement on earlier designs that were used primarily to pump water out of mines. Watt's engine used a separate condenser to cool the steam, which made it much more efficient than previous designs. He also developed a system of valves that allowed the engine to work automatically, without requiring constant monitoring. The steam engine was instrumental in transforming the world's economies and societies, enabling the production of goods on a massive scale and powering the development of new industries. It played a key role in the growth of the railway industry, as well as in the production of textiles, iron, and steel. Today, while the steam engine has been largely replaced by ot
Read more

SOLAR SYSTEM PART I

Image
The solar system is the collection of celestial objects that orbit around the star called the Sun. It includes the eight planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), as well as their moons, dwarf planets (such as Pluto), asteroids, comets, and other small bodies. The solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago from a giant cloud of gas and dust called the solar nebula. The Sun formed at the center of the nebula, while the planets and other objects formed from the leftover material that clumped together under the force of gravity. The eight planets in the solar system are divided into two groups: the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), which are small and rocky, and the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), which are large and mostly made of gas and ice. There are also numerous moons orbiting the planets, with some of them being almost as large as planets themselves. Some of the notable moons include Jupiter's four Gal
Read more