Ezekiel's Dilemma, Arising from His Split Personality:
Coming to the poem entitled Enterprise, we find Ezekiel trying here to grapple with his problem of a split personality. It seems that Ezekiel had been experiencing two divergent pulls-the existential enigma on the one hand, and the poetic enigma on the other. His self confronted the fallen world and stood in an ironic contrast to the ideal world. He felt that the culture of the city and the repressive social codes of morality in the modern world did not allow a man's individuality and freedom to grow but they subjugated and distorted his perception. This sort of thing, according to Ezekiel, spreads perversion in all walks of life. Marriage has become more of a bondage in which a man and a woman lose their freedom and even their identity. In the poem entitled Case Study, for instance, Ezekiel has written: "A man is damned in that domestic game." (The domestic game here means, of course, the conjugal life of a man and a woman). From this fallen sub-human level of individual and social set-up, the poetic self of Ezekiel flees to achieve balance and harmony. He stresses the need of commitment, sincerity, and integrity as essential conditions for the completeness of a poet; and without this completeness there can be no association of sensibilities with the result that a poet's imagination would remain fragmented. Without completeness, a poet would not be able to get out of the world of ego, and his responses and identifications would be mostly superficial and monotonous. This sort of thing would result in the distortion of the vision of a poet.
The Account of a Journey in the Allegorical Poem “Enterprise”:
Ezekiel exemplifies this in the poem Enterprise. This poem is an allegory or a parable. A group of men set out on a journey in pursuit of a certain goal. The very idea that they are going to achieve a lofty purpose has an ennobling and exalting effect on their minds. As they travel onwards, the sun beats down upon them but they have enough endurance and patience in them to withstand the heat of the sun. Indeed, the spokesman of the group thinks that they have stood the heat and the discomfort very well. They take note of everything around them as they go onwards. They observe the things and the commodities which the peasants sell and buy; they observe the behaviour of serpents and of goats; and they observe the sights of three cities where a sage had delivered his learned discourses. All this is an allegorical way of saying that a group of intellectuals including poets have got engaged in an elaborate, arduous, and cooperative exercise to achieve the highest possible proficiency, if not complete perfection, in their art.
The Ego of the Best of the Intellectuals among the Travellers:
Then differences arise among the travellers about how to cross a desert area. On account of these differences one of them, who knows the art of writing stylish prose and is the best of the whole group of travellers forsakes the group and goes his own way, while the others experience a sense of loss and feel depressed. This is an allegorical way of saying that the ego of the best of these intellectuals does not permit him to keep company with the others in their researches; and so he quits their company in order to follow the bent of his own mind.
More Hurdles and Obstructions in the Way of the Travellers:
Another stage of the journey is reached when the travellers are attacked twice and lose their way. This time quite a number of the travellers leave the main group and go their own way. The speaker in the poem tells us that on this occasion he tried to pray, while the leader of the group said that they were now quite near the sea. But a change has now come over these travellers. They notice nothing as they go; they ignore the meaning of thunder; they find themselves without the common needs such as soap. Some of them feel entirely exhausted and are no longer able to stand the strain of the journey. This is an allegorical way of saying that the intellectuals, including the poet, have been rendered ineffective and helpless on account of the difficulties they are experiencing in the pursuit of their noble mission.
The Realization of the Travellers on Reaching Their Destination:
At last, the travellers do reach their destination but now they hardly know why they are there. Now they feel that their deeds have been neither great nor rare, and that home is where they have to gather grace. This allegorically means that these intellectuals including the poet have reached a stage at which they feel that it was not necessary for them to flee from their home (namely the city), and that the best results can be achieved by reconciling themselves to their environment and not by escaping from that environment.
The Therapeutic Purpose Served by this Poem:
Such is the paradox that the pilgrims face on account of a lack of commitment, sincerity, and integrity. The last line of the poem shows Ezekiel's belief that the grace of fulfilment consists in the identification of the self with the objective world. This is the evolution of Ezekiel's poetic self. This, then, is the therapeutic purpose served by Ezekiel’s having written the poem Enterprise.
The Relief Felt by Ezekiel Through the Writing of this Poem:
Commenting on the significance of this poem, a critic says that this poem deals with the subject of pilgrimage, and that the term "pilgrimage" has here been used as a metaphor for life and the movement towards the spiritual meaning of life. The persona, or the I, of the poem goes through his experience of the journey of life and shows his endurance in the course of this ordeal. But soon differences arise among the pilgrims on how to cross a desert patch. Intellectual opinions and arguments lead to disintegration and disillusionment. The copious notes do not help in resolving the enigma of life, and a shadow falls on the travellers. The journey loses its symbolic significance and becomes merely topographical. The urge and the enthusiasm for the inner meaning fade away. The pilgrims even ignore the thunder which is symbolic of illumination, and which is related to man's longing for the higher world. And, when the goal is reached, it does not provide any sense of accomplishment or fulfilment. The entire purpose and meaning of the pilgrimage have been lost. However, the failure on the part of the pilgrims proves paradoxical; their shame and torment lead to the realization of the last line in which Ezekiel implies that grace or redemption can be obtained through the very act of living in the world and not running away from it. But the word "home" in the last line is not a metaphor for the outer world only; it is a metaphor also for the individual's private landscape or the individual's psyche or mind. Both these realms, the outer and the inner, are essential to human growth and fulfilment. Such is the conclusion that Ezekiel arrives at as a solution to his predicament, thus achieving some sort of relief for his poetic and other tensions.