Poem: “Waiting For The Barbarians” by Constantine P. Cavafy The poem “Waiting For The Barbarians” is a very unique poem. The poem is very basic and easy to follow but there is a deeper meaning within the text. After reading the poem, it is very clear that it is about a question and answer "Q&A" session regarding the arrival of the barbarians.
The structure of the poem shows how the poem takes place at a Q&A session. It is quite evident that the question askers are a group of citizens and the answerer is a messenger. Lines that begin with a dash are the questions and the lines that start with because are the answers to the questions. The questions are usually in couplets or quatrains, which the exception of one. Although the structure is neat, it doesn’t play a huge part in the meaning of poem. When reading this poem aloud, it becomes very clear that sound doesn’t have a role in this poem. There is no alliteration, assonance, or onomatopoeias whatsoever. But the poem does have a nice flow for a Q&A session. Cavafy does use quite a bit of imagery for this poem. Due to the historical context of this poem, it is no surprise that the imagery has a historical twist. When reading this poem, it is very easy to picture a Greek village ready to surrender to the barbarians who are supposedly coming that day. Back in ancient Greece, many villages gave into the barbarians as they didn’t want to risk losing many men to a somewhat hopeless cause. There is also some very descriptive imagery such as “…carrying elegant canes beautifully worked in silver and gold?” However, other than visual imagery, there is nothing else that fascinates the other senses. While the diction of the words is simple, the tone of this poem is very ironic. The poem has a very conversational feel to it. Cavafy has written this poem as if it was an actual dialogue between people. Some of the words in the poem, such as praetors and orators, maybe unfamiliar words to some readers. The etymologies of these words have Greek backgrounds, which makes sense as Cavafy was a Greek poet. But under these basic words is the use of irony. The village has completely shut down for the barbarians. Now why on earth would a village, which is civilized, be waiting for barbarians, who are uncivilized, to essentially run their village? And when the barbarians don’t show up, the village doesn’t know how to function. The barbarians gave the village an excuse not to do anything, but since the barbarians are absent, there’s no reason for them not to be productive. In order to run a civilized village, the barbarians had to be there, insinuating that the uncivilized people are, in a sense, running a civilization. With the irony detected, the deeper meaning of this poem is apparent. This poem is a metaphor for how Cavafy feels about society. Society is meant to protect its citizens against the terrors of an uncivilized world, but if that fear is non-existent then what purpose does society serve? This question is most apparent in the last two lines of the poem: “Now what’s going to happen to us without the barbarians? Those people were kind of a solution.” Without the barbarians, this Greek society apparently has no purpose of serving its citizens. This poem is defiantly one of those simple yet complex poems. Under all the imagery and simple language is hidden a deeper meaning about the purpose of society. If there is no fear, how can society serve it citizens? Cavafy certainly leaves that question to be answered by each and every reader of this poem.