Nissim Ezekiel’s poem “Enterprise” presents a metaphorical journey to a pilgrimage and the frustration as its after-effect.

Though the journey started with high-flying spirit, the pilgrims faced a lot of hardships in the middle. Finally, after reaching there they found out that there was nothing extraordinary. Moreover, many other groups had reached there earlier. So, it was not a rare achievement either. That is why the narrator concluded that they should have stayed at home and tried to gather love and respect of others.

Home is where we have to gather grace.

The religious implication of this story told in the poem is that “doing good to the mankind makes more sense and it’s a better way than going to a pilgrimage to gather God’s grace. We often give high importance on religious rituals and ceremonies. But the poet reminds us that loving and taking care of the men around us are more virtuous than performing unnecessary religious actions. In its message, the poem “Enterprise” is similar to Leigh Hunt’s poem “Abou Ben Adhem”.