Friday, December 19, 2014

In paragraphs 6 and 7 of "The Ballad of Father Gilligan," what did Father Gilligan do and why?

W.B.Yeats' "The "Ballad of Father Gilligan" is a moving
story of how God comes to the rescue of a sincere priest whose only concern is the
salvation of the souls of his
impoverished parishioners.


Father Gilligan who was
exhausted in fulfilling his priestly duties day and night during an epidemic in the
Irish countryside,  either  in giving the last communion to his poor parishioners who
were dying in large numbers or conducting funeral services for them,  was at home
one evening taking a well deserved rest and had dozed off in his
chair.


Just as Father Gilligan had dozed he was disturbed
from his sleep by the urgent call of another dying parishioner. Wearily, Father Gilligan
began to grumble and murmur about his lack of rest:


readability="8">

'I have no rest, nor joy, nor
peace,
For people die and
die;



But the very next
instant he checks himself seeks God's forgiveness and kneels down by the side of his
chair and begins to
pray:


And after cried he,
'God forgive! My body spake, not
I!'

Father Gilligan
seeks God's forgiveness for his murmuring and grumbling by saying that it was his weak
and fatigued body which complained and not his spirit and mind which were keen to save
the souls  of the dying villagers. As he continues to pray he  is completely overwhelmed
by sleep. The tired Father Gilligan slept the entire night kneeling down by the side of
his chair.


In stanza 6 early in the morning, at dawn he
woke up to the cheerful sound of the chirping
sparrows:


Upon the time of sparrow-chirp When the
moths came once more. The old priest Peter Gilligan Stood upright on the
floor.

In the 7th stanza Father Gilligan wakes up
from his sleep and realizes that he has fallen asleep even while he was kneeling down
and praying - he was so tired and exhausted. He realizes that he has not attended to the
dying request for the last communion of one of the villagers and saddles his horse and
rushes off in a tearing hurry to administer the last communion to the dying villager and
thus hoping to save his
soul:


'Mavrone, mavrone!
the man has died While I slept on the chair'; He roused his horse out of its sleep, And
rode with little
care.

Poor Father
Gilligan realized his mistake and rushed off to the house of the dying parishioner, only
to be greeted by the dead man's widow with the news that he had actually come earlier on
and had ministered the last communion to the dying man and by doing so had ensured the
salvation of his soul:


readability="6">

The sick man's wife opened the
door,
'Father! you come
again!'



It is then that he
realizes that God the Creator had taken pity on him who had worn himself out completely
in His service, had sent an angel to minister the last communion to the dying
man:



'He Who
is wrapped in purple robes,
With planets in His care
Had pity on the
least of things
Asleep upon a
chair.'


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