On The Vanity of Earthly Greatness Summary

On The Vanity of Earthly Greatness - Arthur Guiterman

Summary

"On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness" is a modern poem written by an American poet Arthur Guiterman. It is a flawless poem, which shows the remorselessness of time and the vanity of human greatness.

Through this poem, the poet announces his philosophy of life or outlook that all those entities that symbolize earthly grandeur, greatness and power such as the tusks of mastodons, the sword of Charlemagne the Just, the grizzly bear, great Caesar etc. will be reduced in course of time into things of non-entity.

The presentation of subject matter is quite ironical. Without using the negative words, the poet turns the things of earthly greatness into mere showpiece and nothingness. Each sentence is well balanced with splendid things in place of subject being linked up with worthless objects at the other end. Each sentence of the poem brings out the image of a balance, with a grand figure on the side and cipher on the other side. The irony is obvious when the readers notice the tusks transformed into billiard balls, the sword of Charlemagne into rust, the grizzly bear into rug etc.

Summary

This poem has been composed by Arthur Guiterman. In this poem, the poet has tried to show the greatness of human being. And he says that vanity of greatness is bubble reputation. His poem refers to valuelessness of any bubble reputation of any person in the world. According to this poem, the tusks of mastodons which were fought in the past up to now, it has changed into billiard balls. The light of the sword of the great emperor Charlemagne has rusted now. Great mighty and grizzle bear for which people were frightened, but it has now been a rug. Julius Caesar was a Roman statesman and general who won large empire those days but he has become self as an object of decoration. So the greatness of today will be useless for tomorrow. Thus, the poet has given satire for the earthly greatness. This poem makes us the regretting of time and the vanity of earthly greatness. We know that power and superiority can be converted into minority and useless things. All the things of universe are changeable. He says that all the greatness beauty, honor, power, rank, and adventures are like bubble reputation like a drop of water on leaf. So it is irony piece for greatness.

Summary

“On the Vanity of Worldly Things” is a poem written by Arthur Guiterman, an American poet and journalist, is best known for his humorous verse. Through humour, he has tried to depict the reality of human beings and animals caused by the change in time. It shows the bitter reality that the power of animals or human beings doesn’t remain same when time and situation change. We always run after reputation and prestige. We become or want to be great and we think it will remain the same forever. We earn reputation and prestige and we think it will remain the same forever. We earn reputation and we think that the credit won’t be lost but actually we won’t think that is destroyed in due course of time. Our greatness is dismissed by time. So, time laughs at our blindness and pride.

Time is such a thing on which we cannot get victory. The nature has given us limited time to live and exercise our power. Beyond that time, we cannot move according to our desire. Only in favourable time and situation we can perform our actions or activities.

The “vanity” actually means the degrading value of reputations of any persons and animals in the world. To clarify this point the writer has presented few examples. Julius Caesar was a great warrior and a famous general statesman. He earned a great name and fame in his time through his strength and power. But that power lost its value with the change in the time and situation. He does not posses any arm and power to show his power of the past. His head is on the shelf and weapons and other things belongings are only in the museum in the form of history.

The roman emperor Charlemagne was a great in his time by his sword, power. But the power of his sword also became meaningless due to the change in time. Now that sword has been rusted and is kept useless in the museum. Not only the great kings and warriors, but there is also good presentation of powerful animals whose value has been decreased. Grizzly bear, whose embrace was very dreadful, has become nothing more than a rug to give warmth. Tusks of mighty brawls of mastodons have been changed into playing things like billiard balls.

All the given examples are concerned with the greatness but the greatness has been turned and reduced to valueless things. The vanity human greatness and animals’ strength have become a good subject to present irony. That irony makes one feel unwell and quite indifferent to the person.

Everybody becomes great in his time and situation but later on he becomes helpless and valueless. All reputation and achievements will be dismissed quickly. So, it is useless to take pride in one’s power as everything decays and fades away in due course of time.