‘Ban ‘Ban ‘Ban ‘Ban ‘Ban Ca’
Caliban…
Condemned to die a slave
o’Caliban…
No fight to free himself
o’Caliban…
These words you hear, o downtrodden
Take them with you far…and
Rise ye up in number ‘gainst
All Faceless, Curséd Hardship!
For…
The isle of Prosper
Is finally free,
But Caliban never
A sovereign shall be…
For once the old master
Has couped the d’état
A new dominator
Regime will’ve begot
So rise ye up all gentlemen,
Take heart of this sound verse,
Pray for our good fortunes
And to all: fight un-dispersed!
Liberty…
Lady Libertas, o
Liberty!
The island’s ours now, right?
o’Liberty…
But Prospero’s too strong,
o’Liberty!
It never was to be,
For Caliban was made as slave
It never could have come to pass
For magic proved too strong,
Sycorax…
Mother mother mother
Sycorax…
Sorry I won’t see you
Sycorax…
Miss you every day, o
Sycorax…
The power to beat Prosper,
Even her dark magic always lacked,
So doomed her son was always, his
Bonds, though broken, proved not escape.
Caliban…
‘Ban ‘Ban ‘Ban ‘Ban ‘Ban Ca’
Caliban…
Slave to all he met, o
Caliban…
Not free though Prosper gone
o’Caliban…
O freedom, high-day, high-day!
So dearly yearned for, not to be,
For master needed not be man,
And isle still was Ariel’s…
…
The isle for Ariel
Is finally free,
But Calibanana
Croupier his shall be…
Shakespeare:
“Has a new master, get a new man / Freedom, high-day; high-day, freedom; freedom high-day, freedom” (Shakespeare 2.2.180-181).
Brathwaite ("Caliban"):
“And
Ban
Ban
Cal-
iban” (Brathwaite, "Caliban" 33-37).
“and now I see that these modern palaces have grown / out of the soil, out of the bad habits of their crippled owners” (5-6).
“salute blackjack, salute backgammon, salute the one-armed bandit” (21).
Analysis:
My points of departure for this emphatically lyrical post-The Tempest (and in the end post-Brathwaite) poetic song of Caliban are lines 180-181 from Act 2 Scene 2 of The Tempest and Brathwaite’s characterization of Caliban in “Caliban.” Shakespeare’s Caliban seems to be in a permanent state of servitude; when he throws off one master, he finds another. I took this Caliban, while considering what would happen after Prospero left the island, and transformed his setting to one more like that of Brathwaite’s Caliban in the first part of poem to see how he would fare. The ending of this scenario as I see it is inevitably one of being able to triumph over neither subjugation nor his inherent slave-mentality.
The final stanza of my verse reveals the ultimate irony of the psychology of subjugation. Ariel, formerly ruled by Prospero, now takes on his ruler’s mantle, continuing to subjugate Caliban, but now for himself in his rule set now in Brathwaite’s Caribbean, with its casinos and other dens of iniquity. Instead of carrying wood, he is now a croupier in one of Ariel’s casinos, reminiscent of line 21 of Brathwaite’s “Caliban.” Much like in Brathwaite’s world, once the formerly enslaved is empowered, things will not necessarily translate into benefit for the fellow slaves.
Overall, my poem is a more negative take than Brathwaite’s on the fate of Shakespeare’s Caliban, lacking the hope and sense of rebirth present in “Caliban.” My poem is an ode to failed revolution and a fatalistic take on the psychological depth of the impact of enslavement in the face of power vacuum or regime change. The rhythm (and tone(s)) of the poem are above the poem's text: The poem has three different meters, which demonstrate the initial plight of subjugation and enslavement, a hope that might be had for freedom and successful self-rule, and the final sense of despair, despairing of empowerment for benefit and succumbing to the powerful mentality of subservience.