The Full Text of “Enterprise”
The Full Text of “Enterprise”
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“Enterprise” Introduction
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"Enterprise" was written by the Indian poet Nissim Ezekiel and published in his 1960 collection The Unfinished Man. The poem follows a group of people on a "pilgrimage" whose long trek begins with a strong sense of purpose but ends in devastation and disillusionment. The pilgrims, who come across as idealistic yet somewhat naive and ill-prepared, get so beaten down by their journey that, once they reach their destination, they don't even remember why they're there. The poem has been read as an allegory for a number of things (including the journey of life itself, India's emergence from the grip of colonial rule, and the flaws of organized religion). Above all, it speaks to the way that idealism can falter in the face of reality, the divisive nature of pride, and the value of focusing on the journey rather than the destination.
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“Enterprise” Summary
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The journey began as a kind of religious trek to a holy place, one that lifted people's spirits and made their problems seem insignificant. The next stage of the journey led to some questions but didn't test the group's resolve. The sun shone down on the pilgrims as if in honor of their fiery anger.
The speaker thought the group was doing well, making lots of observations and taking lots of notes along the way about things such as: the economic activity of the peasants, snakes' and goats' behavior, and three cities where a wise person once taught.
But when people started to argue over how to cross a particular area of desert, one pilgrim, whose writing sounded better than anyone else's, decided to leave the group. A growing shadow loomed over them all.
During another part of the journey, the group was attacked twice and got lost. Some people declared themselves free from the group and left. The speaker attempted to pray, and the group's leader said he could smell the sea nearby.
They stopped noticing anything around them as they continued on their journey. They were a slow-moving group without much hope, not paying any attention to bad omens like thunder. They lacked the basic necessities of life, like soap. Some members of the group were totally destroyed by the experience, while others were just in the process of being destroyed.
When they finally made it to their destination, they barely even knew why they'd came. The journey had made their faces dark and sad, and they realized that nothing they'd done was particularly special or meaningful. They must collect their grace at home.
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“Enterprise” Themes
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The Journey of Life
"Enterprise" can be read as suggesting that, in life, the journey is more important than the destination. The speaker, part of a group of pilgrims, describes a long and arduous trip that starts with hope and idealism and ends in disillusionment and despair. The poem implies that the pilgrims fail to meaningfully engage with and value the world around them as they make their way across the land, and that this leads to their undoing: ironically, their excitement about the glory of their “enterprise” blinds them to the life directly in front of them.
The poem suggests that these pilgrims aren’t focused on the right things from the getgo. The word “enterprise” means a big project or undertaking and is often used to talk about business ventures. It's strange, then, that the speaker also calls this a “pilgrimage”—a long trek towards a holy site. The spiritual connotations of the word "pilgrimage" imply that the people setting off on this journey are seeking some sort of deep fulfillment, but the earthly connotations of the word "enterprise" suggest that they're looking in the wrong place.
Indeed, as they make their way across the land, the pilgrims get wrapped up in superficial tasks and observations. They take "copious notes" on things that don't really seem to matter: transactions made by "the peasants," the behavior of snakes and goats, and the cities where "a sage" once taught (not the sage’s actual teachings). Rather than experiencing or trying to find a sense of connection with their surroundings, they appear to waste their energy calculating and cataloging material things—on the appearance of progress rather than actual progress.
This sense that the group’s focus is off reappears when “a friend” with the most “stylish prose” decides to leave over a squabble about how to “cross a desert patch.” Despite being ostensibly united in their aim—crossing this desert—they get so wrapped up in how to do this that the group splinters. The speaker’s mention of the friend's writing style, rather than its substance, also mirrors the pilgrims' focus on “where a sage taught” rather than what that sage taught. In both cases, the pilgrims seem to get distracted from the main thing that a pilgrimage is typically all about: finding meaning and fulfillment. They're too focused on achieving some grand feat that they overlook what matters.
In fact, the further they go the more blinded to their initial purpose they seem to get. Their leader vaguely promises that he can smell the sea—that is, he claims to sense that the destination is close at hand—and this spurs them forward, seemingly enticed by the glory of reaching “the place.” Meanwhile the pilgrims "notice[] nothing" about the world they actually inhabit, ignoring bad omens like "thunder" and immediate, basic “needs like soap.” Their dreams of epic glory blind them to reality.
And even though they do reach their destination, the pilgrims no longer know "why" they wanted to go there in the first place. They realize that their actions are "neither great nor rare," but rather hollow and meaningless. Now that they've reached their goal, the pilgrims intuitively suspect that the goal was never really the point—and that what it took to get there wasn't worth it.
Read as an allegory for the journey of life itself, this suggests that such single-minded focus on some lofty end game is pointless. In fact, such focus may have led these pilgrims far from the one place they might have found the “grace,” or inner strength and purpose, that they ostensibly sought: home. The journey of life, here, is something deep, personal, and intimate, rather than a vast, epic trek.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-30
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Idealism vs. Reality
In one reading, “Enterprise” is a poem that calls for readers to focus on the journey of life itself rather than any specific destination. But it can also be read as a general exploration of the way idealism gets cut down in the face of reality. Though the pilgrims in the poem begin their trek with enthusiasm, their initial vigor proves no match for the trials of the journey itself. They struggle with everything from exhaustion to clashing egos until that they start to doubt whether this “enterprise” was worth undertaking in the first place. The poem thus speaks to the way that even the most noble, idealistic “enterprise” can become worn down by stress, division, and pride.
The poem never reveals the exact nature of the “enterprise” at hand, but it’s clear that it’s something lofty and ambitious. And whether this is a literal religious “pilgrimage” or an allegory for some other kind of journey, the pilgrims start off with purpose and enthusiasm. Their pilgrimage "exalt[s]"—that is, raises—their minds and makes their "burdens" feel "light." In other words, the mere thought of this noble endeavor seems to make earthly cares and obstacles melt away—for the pilgrims, and perhaps for those whom this “enterprise” is meant to serve.
This enthusiasm sustains the pilgrims for the "second stage" of the journey, which the speaker does not describe in detail. But the speaker does say that, at that time, the "sun beat down to match our rage." The implication is that this "enterprise" gives the group a fiery idealism, a feeling as though nothing will stand in their way. The "second stage" also doesn't "test the call"—that is, it doesn't break the pilgrims' lofty sense of purpose (or, maybe, they don’t feel the need to thoroughly question or investigate that purpose).
But the poem questions whether such intense, pure ideals can be sustained for long, and the group's enthusiasm quickly proves to be naïve. Members start arguing, and some leave the group (including the writer with the "most stylish prose," suggesting that there’s been a conflict of egos). They get attacked and run out of critical supplies "like soap," suggesting that their initial idealism may have distracted them from preparing properly for the demands of this journey.
When the pilgrims finally make it to their destination, they arrive "broken" and "bent," unsure why they’re even there. The poem shows how this loss of idealism—perhaps caused, ironically, by the initial, blinding strength of that idealism—wears the group out. Members' faces "darken" in resignation, and their "deeds" become perfunctory and meaningless. Whether this suggests that idealism always ends in disillusion or that these pilgrims merely failed to fulfill the promise of their ideals is ambiguous. What's clear, though, is that the energy and enthusiasm that come with hope and idealism can wane over as cold, complicated reality sets in.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-30
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Enterprise”
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Lines 1-3
It started as ...
... The burdens light.The poem starts by describing the beginnings of the "enterprise" of the poem's title, a complex project with bold intentions. The speaker is part of a group that decides to undertake a pilgrimage. The poem never clarifies the pilgrimage's purpose or destination, which is part of what opens the poem up to so many symbolic/allegorical interpretations. Generally speaking, though, a pilgrimage is a long journey to a holy site that facilitates personal, communal, and/or spiritual growth. A pilgrim, it follows, strives for spiritual transformation through travel.
And when this pilgrimage begins, that's exactly what the speaker and the others seem to want. Their minds become "exalt[ed]"—that is, raised to a happier and nobler state—and problems seem metaphorically "light" (insignificant) in the context of the greater goal.
Yet, even here, there's a hint of irony at play: it shouldn't be the decision to undertake a pilgrimage that really provides spiritual nourishment, but the journey itself. Perhaps like life, the journey is as important, or even more so, than the destination. In other words, the pilgrims are excited by the idea of pilgrimage but haven't yet come face to face with its reality.
The full-stop caesura after "light" signals that this initial optimism may be short-lived, giving the poem a jerky rhythm that goes against the momentum required by a pilgrimage.
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Lines 3-5
The second stage ...
... match our rage. -
Lines 6-10
We stood it ...
... sage had taught. -
Lines 11-15
But when the ...
... — and grows. -
Lines 16-20
Another phase was ...
... he smelt the sea. -
Lines 21-25
We noticed nothing ...
... some merely bent. -
Lines 26-30
When, finally, we ...
... to gather grace.
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“Enterprise” Symbols
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The Natural World
As the pilgrims make their way to the destination, they encounter various elements of the natural world. Nature here can be read as representing the difficult, earthly reality of the journey, which butts up against the group's lofty, naive optimism.
In the "second stage" of the trek, for example, the speaker notes how the "sun beat down to match our rage." The pilgrims view the sun, with its fiery, insistent presence in the sky, as a symbol of their own determination and idealism. That is, the way is tough, draining, hot—but that toughness simply speaks to the nobility and strength of the "enterprise" itself.
When the pilgrims arrive at a "desert patch" in the third stanza, their group spirit starts to unravel. The desert—a place devoid of shelter or nourishment—presents a challenge to their early enthusiasm. On an allegorical level, it might suggest a sudden lack of ideas, a drying up of funding/resources, or any other practical consideration that impedes the progress of this "enterprise."
It's no wonder, then, that the group is enticed by the smell of the "sea" in the following stanza. Water, here, suggests relief and vital nourishment after this difficult journey through the desert—an answer or resolution to the problems created by the desert. Yet the poem never indicates whether the group actually makes it to the sea; its smell only pushes them forward when there's no actual end in sight.
Finally, the pilgrims ignore the typical symbolism of thunder in the penultimate stanza. Deep down, they seem to know the thunder symbolizes something ominous (their own destruction, perhaps—a great storm coming to topple their enterprise), but they are so stubbornly focused on reaching "the place" that they wilfully ignore nature's attempt to warn them of danger ahead.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 5: “The sun beat down to match our rage.”
- Lines 11-12: “But when the differences arose / On how to cross a desert patch,”
- Line 20: “Our leader said he smelt the sea.”
- Line 23: “Ignoring what the thunder meant,”
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Darkness and Shadows
Darkness and shadows in the poem symbolize danger, doubt, and despair.
At the beginning of the pilgrimage, the speaker notes how the very idea of the "enterprise" makes people's "burdens light." The pilgrims' problems, personal or otherwise, seem less significant because of their faith in the mission. That lightness also evokes positivity, promise, hope, and faith.
Soon enough, however, this early optimism gives way to reality. After the departure of a key member of the group, the speaker describes how "A shadow falls on us — and grows" (line 15). The shadow represents doubt, uncertainty, and fear—a feeling that all is not right. The darkness of the shadow also speaks, perhaps, to the pilgrims' growing failure to see the purpose of their journey.
Indeed, when they do reach their destination, the pilgrims no longer remember why they sought it out so desperately. The "enterprise" has lost its meaning, leaving some people "broken," some "bent," and everyone's face "darkened" by the experience. This language contrasts sharply with that of the first stanza, where the thought of the pilgrimage raised minds and lifted burdens. Darkness, here, speaks to the crushing effect of the journey and its many disappointments.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 15: “A shadow falls on us — and grows.”
- Line 28: “The trip had darkened every face,”
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“Enterprise” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Asyndeton
The poem uses asyndeton in the second stanza. Here, the speaker describes how the pilgrims behaved as they made their journey. As they traveled, they made observations and wrote "copious notes":
On things the peasants sold and bought,
The way of serpents and of goats,
Three cities where a sage had taught.The lack of conjunctions here (such as "and") creates a sense that this could be an endless list, that these are just three out of countless items in the pilgrims' "copious notes."
This has a subtle comic effect, painting the pilgrims as more like detached scientific observers than engaged spiritual searchers. They seem more committed to keeping a superficial record of their travels than learning something or raising their minds.
Where asyndeton appears in the poem:- Lines 8-10: “On things the peasants sold and bought, / The way of serpents and of goats, / Three cities where a sage had taught.”
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Caesura
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End-Stopped Line
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Irony
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Repetition
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Alliteration
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Sibilance
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"Enterprise" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Pilgrimage
- Exalting
- Burdens
- Stood
- Copious
- Sage
- Straggling
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(Location in poem: Line 1: “It started as a pilgrimage”)
A long journey over a great distance to a holy site, often with the express aim of personal/spiritual growth.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Enterprise”
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Form
"Enterprise" has 30 lines, broken into six stanzas of five lines apiece (technically known as quintains). It also sits somewhere between a dramatic monologue—the reader only hears one perspective—and a narrative poem, in that it tells a chronological story.
One way to think of the different stanzas is as different stages of the journey. The speaker talks of the "enterprise" with terms like "stage" (line 3) and "phase" (line 16), and this is reflected in the form itself. Each stanza introduces the next part of the story, and, like little chapters, each ends with a full stop (end-stop). As a result, the poem feels very self-contained and matter-of-fact.
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Meter
The poem uses a pretty steady iambic tetrameter throughout: four iambs, feet with an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern, per line. Here is line 1 as a typical example of this meter at work:
It started as a pilgrimage
The choice of meter gives the poem a march-like momentum, that fits with the story of a pilgrimage (which is, to put it crudely, a really long walk!). Try repeatedly reading the line above out loud and notice how dependable and purposeful the rhythm becomes.
But the poem prevents too much the meter from generating too much forward motion—this is, after all, about a pilgrimage that goes wrong. Caesurae and end-stops work against the meter, creating tense, difficult silences (as in line 19: "[...]To leave the group. I tried to pray").
Metrical variation also disrupts the poem's flow, like this example from line 7:
Observed and put down copious notes
There are different ways of scanning this line, but it's definitely awkward and has extra syllables to match with the "copious[ness]" of the pilgrims' note-taking.
The last line also features a major variation:
Home is where we have to gather grace.
There is an extra syllable at the start of this line to show that the pilgrims still face difficulty. This extra stress makes the end feel weighty and resigned, completely undoing the earlier momentum of the iambic tetrameter.
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Rhyme Scheme
"Enterprise" has a strict rhyme scheme throughout. Each five-line stanza runs ABABA (then CDCDC/EFEFE and so on):
[...] pilgrimage A
[...] all B
[...] stage A
[...] call. B
[...] rage. AThe main effect of the rhyme is dependability. That is, the rhyme scheme is stubborn and unchanging, mirroring the attitude of the pilgrims themselves. It combines with the (mostly) steady iambic tetrameter to give a sense of ongoing, forward motion (occasionally disrupted by end-stops, caesurae, and metrical variation). It drives ceaselessly towards its end point, similarly to how the pilgrims are focused on their destination—as opposed to the experiences along the journey. In having an imbalance of rhymes—three of one set and a pair of the other in each stanza—the scheme also suggests that something is slightly off.
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“Enterprise” Speaker
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The speaker is part of a group of pilgrims on an unspecified mission. Speaking from a first-person perspective throughout, the speaker appears to be heavily invested in the journey and charts it from its beginning to its end.
In this way, the speaker displays the same traits as others in the group—the desire to observe and record what happens. But the speaker also notably omits any sense of the journey's purpose, perhaps mirroring the general attitude of those partaking in the "enterprise."
In line 19, for example, the speaker says "I tried to pray." But the nature of this prayer—for what, and to whom—goes unsaid. The speaker, then, though able to acknowledge that the "enterprise" has in some sense failed (as in line 27's "We hardly knew why we were there"), also appears to remain committed to it in one form or another.
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“Enterprise” Setting
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"Enterprise" is a narrative account of a pilgrimage that compresses seemingly long stretches of time into a short space. The first two stages of the "enterprise," for example, occur in the first stanza. After their initial optimism, the pilgrims find their journey fraught with difficulty.
The poem notably lacks specifics, perhaps in order to make it more universal, a subtly cautionary tale against the pure focus on an end destination—as opposed to embracing experience along the way. That said, the speaker does offer some details about the environment in which the pilgrimage takes place. There is a hot sun, a desert, serpents, goats, and a sea—but that's not enough to pin down where in the world this takes place.
The last line is especially ambiguous in terms of setting: "Home is where we have to gather grace." The pilgrims have reached their destination, but it's not clear whether home is where they started or finished up. This speaks to the group's general confusion and, perhaps, to the naivety of their initial enthusiasm for the trip.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Enterprise”
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Literary Context
Nissim Ezekiel (1924 to 2004) was an Indian poet and playwright. Both his father and mother were educators, and Ezekiel himself taught in both India and England. He is considered a key figure in postcolonial Indian literature—that is, work that followed, and responded to, nearly 200 years of British rule in India. With that in mind, scholars typically group Ezekiel's writing with poets like Dom Moraes, Kamala Das, Jayanta Mahapatra, and A.K. Ramanujan.
Ezekiel was heavily influenced by earlier English-language writers, and in particular by Modernists like W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Ezra Pound. This poem was first published in The Unfinished Man (1960), which takes its title from Yeats's "A Dialogue of Self and Soul." Yeats's tone, if not his content, can be detected in this poem's tight meter and regular rhyme scheme.
When compared to other poems in the same collection, "Enterprise" shares a sense of existential angst—a search for meaning that doesn't quite bear fruit. Alongside poems like "Night of the Scorpion," "Enterprise" is frequently taught on courses that explore the intersection between English and Indian literature.
Historical Context
Ezekiel was living in India at the time "Enterprise" was written, having earlier traveled to England for his studies. Indian independence had been won in 1947, and the following years saw many writers trying to make sense of this new independent identity within the context of considerable British influence.
By the 1950s, India's direction was uncertain: Mahatma Ghandi, the pacifist figurehead of the Indian independence movement, had been assassinated in 1948. Competing visions for India's future created political tension, though the situation became relatively stable as the decade drew on and new Indian institutions attempted to fill gaps left by the withdrawal of the British administration.
Ezekiel's poetry of this era, however, doesn't offer much in the way of specific historical perspectives. The "enterprise" in question need not be specific to India (though it can be read as an allegory for some of the difficulties of post-independence existence); instead, it might speak to the human condition in general. The search for meaning, identity, and community—and the obstacles along the way—is a theme that spans human history.
Though considered one of the fathers of post-independence Indian English verse, Ezekiel's writing is not strictly tied to its country of origin either. To that end, it's worth noting that Ezekiel came from a small Jewish community based in Mumbai, descended from oil-pressers who settled in India around 150 BCE. Pilgrimages have long been an important component of the Jewish faith.
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More “Enterprise” Resources
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External Resources
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"India's Most Famous Jewish Poet" — An article in Tablet magazine about Ezekiel's relationship to India, Britain, and Judaism.
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What Is a Pilgrimage? — Learn more about the kind of journey referenced in the poem.
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More Poems by Nissim Ezekiel — A selection of Ezekiel's work, including the well-known "Night of the Scorpion."
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Ezekiel's Obituary — An article discussing the poet's life and work.
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