The Tale of Melon City

‘The Tale of Melon City’ is a humorous poem from Vikram Seth’s first poetry collection, ‘Mappings’. Vikram Seth is a post-modern poet who has explored multiple themes in his writings, ranging from the diaspora to humour. ‘The Tale of The Melon City’ is a poem that is symbolic of the folly of ignorance.

The Tale of Melon City: Summary

The King of Melon city announced that a big arch would be built to improve the situation of the people. However, the arch was built slightly low. When the king tried to pass through the arch, his crown stumbled and fell down. The calm king became angry and sentenced the Chief of the Builders to death. The Chief of the builders passed the blame to the workmen. The workmen said that the brick was of the wrong size and the masons should be punished. The masons further put the blame on the architect. Finally, the architect was summoned, and he cleverly saved himself by putting the argument that it was the king who requested some changes. 

The king was caught in the dilemma. The crowd got angry. The king sought the guidance of the wisest man in the city. The old wise man suggested that the culprit must be punished. It was decided that the arch itself would be hanged but people objected since it touched the head of the king. Finally, a noose was hung high in the town, and one by one, people were measured to check who could fit in. Finally, the king’s turn came, and it fitted him perfectly, and he was executed. Upon the king’s death, the minister, following the old traditional values, let the public choose the next king. It was decided that whoever would be able to pass the arch would be ordained as the King. A fool ignorantly passed the arch and with great public admiration was named the king. The new king however only loved melons and thus the new crown was named after the Melon King.

Title

The title ‘The Tale of The Melon City’ tells us both about the time and the plot of the poem. The poem is based on the kingdom of the fair and a cool-headed king of ancient times. The king wanted an arch to be built in the city to ‘Edify’ for the people of his kingdom. His idea of improving the morality of the people is based on old and traditional beliefs, which did not have any positive outcomes. In the same manner, his ministers are of archaic belief too. Ministers chose the traditional way of choosing the next king instead of taking a rational and practical decision. They let the idiot, who passed the arch, become the next king and happily crowned the ‘Melon’ on his suggestion. That is how the city got its name ‘Melon City’.

Themes

‘The Tale of Melon City’ sums up human nature in a humorous manner. As mentioned in the above sections, the king sacrificed his own life to keep the people of his kingdom happy. To fill his position, the melon was announced as the new king. No one seems to question both the decisions, and they all carried on living their life normally as if nothing had happened at all. Seth has indicated towards the selfishness, egocentric, ignorant and mob mentality of the people. People don’t care about who rules them, how they rule them as long as it doesn’t interfere with their freedom and peace. 

Seth has criticised the dark side of human nature. People living in Melon City do not have regard for human life. People cannot hold themselves responsible for their actions. Instead of accepting flaws and finding solutions, society chooses an easy way that is putting the blame on others. Here in ‘The Tale of Melon City’, accusers passed the blame from one person to another. The king, without thinking, sentenced the chief of builders to be hanged.

Chief of builders passed the blame to the workmen, workmen to mason, and so on. The people of the kingdom were more excited to see the execution. The noose was not hung to punish the culprit, it was hung to decide a culprit. Here the high noose reflects the king himself and his death, the death of autocracy. This is suggested in the verses below 

 “Let us postponed consideration

    Of finer points like guilt. The nation

    Wants a hanging. Hanged must be

    Someone, and that immediately.

    The noose was set up somewhat high.

    Each man was measured by and by.” 

Other important themes of The Tale of The Melon City are ‘Anger’ and ‘loyalty’.

The king, who is called ‘Just’ and ‘Placid’, loses his calm over the design of the arch. It is ironic. His anger and irrational decision of hanging the culprits led to a series of incidents, which in the end, ended with his own life. If the king had acted calmly and asked to make improvements, the situation could have been avoided. 

There is an absence of loyalty in the ministers who are responsible for serving the kingdom. They did not guide nor stop the king from taking an irrational step. They accepted the idiot’s decision of crowning a melon without giving it a second thought, which shows they never cared for the king or people of the kingdom.

Poem’s Tone 

The Tale of The Melon City has an ironic tone. Since the beginning of the poem, many incidents occur that highlight the irony of the situation. It is humorously presented by Seth.

“In the city of which I sing

There was a ‘just’ and ‘placid’ King.” 

The king is described as someone who is fair and calm-minded, which is not true. The king lacks emotional as well as social intelligence. He makes irrational decisions that lead to his downfall, something that he does not realise. 

The king has positive intentions of improving the morality of his kingdom “To Edify spectators there”, which he, unfortunately, failed to achieve. The low arch implies the low morals of the people. The king’s crown fell because it crashed with the low arch and was completely taken away from him because of his ignorance and base mentality. The irony of the poem peaks with the verses 

“Thank Goodness we found someone, said

  The ministers, for if instead

  We had not, the unruly town

  Might well have turned against the crown”. 

Ministers here show their concern about the public’s reaction and that they will turn against the king. It makes readers laugh because they actually turned against the king. They let their king die for the sake of their entertainment. Ministers of the kingdom are practical enough to understand the kingdom needs ‘ king,’ but at the same time, they crowned the ‘Melon’ as the king. Another instance that adds irony and comic effect is “Long Live the King, The king is dead”.

Literary Devices  

• Alliteration – Examples – “The workment went”; “Tricky Thing”
• Repetition – The words and phrases have been repeated throughout the poem. For example, “The Chief Of Builders”
• Inversion – Poets usually change the order of the words in sentences to make it poetic. Here in The Tale of The Melon City, Seth has used this poetic device as well

Conclusion

We can conclude from ‘The Tale of The Melon City’ that it is an ironic representation of the symbolic folly of ignorance and corrupted power. It is a lesson on the folly of ignorance and irrationality. The king dies in his own attempt at giving punishment to the ignorant person who made the low arch of the city. After a series of blame games, it was found that it was the king who amended the design of the arch and hanged himself. It teaches us that when people are ignorant about moral standards, ethics or rationality, they end up crowning an idiot, an impertinent fellow to rule the kingdom.