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To Colombo
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Running in the Family, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory, History, and Story
Alcoholism
Ancestry, Homeland, and Identity
Irresponsibility in the 1920s
Colonialism
Summary
Analysis
The poem is one of the previously mentioned folk poems inscribed on the king’s fortress in the 5th century. The poem describes a man’s desire for the “ladies of the mountain,” who remain aloof toward their admirers.
By including a folk poem that is thousands of years old, Ondaatje anchors his account of Ceylon in the millennia of the past, demonstrating the country’s ancient legacy.
Themes
