Explorations in English Poetry

Worldwide Circulation through Authorspress Global Network First Published in 2007 Revised and Enlarged Edition in 2021 by Authorspress Q-2A Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi-110 016 (India) Phone: (0) 9818049852 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.authorspressbooks.com Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets ISBN 81-7273-370-4 Copyright © 2021 Jaydeep Sarangi Concerned authors are solely responsible for their views, opinions, policies, copyright infringement, legal action, penalty or loss of any kind regarding their articles. Neither the publisher nor the editor will be responsible for any penalty or loss of any kind if claimed in future. Contributing authors have no right to demand any royalty amount for their articles. Printed in India at Thomson Press (India) Limited Preface The rain I have known and traded all this life is thrown like kelp on the beach. Like some shape of conscience I cannot look at, a malignant purpose is a nun's eye. – Jayanta Mahapatra The postcolonial literature in English has emerged as the paradigmatic dissidence – an alternative voice against the accepted colonial repression. It is needless to say that ‘colonial’ need not always signify texts rigidly associated with the colonial power. We may bring to the fact that the colonial texts often betrayed the anxieties of ‘empire’, which stand for the traditional colonial construct. There is a paradigm shift in attitude when one looks at it through sceptical glasses. New texts have come out with radically subversive gusto, and interpretative autonomy against the orthodoxical orientation and politico-military evasion in the social space. (Indian) English Literature dazzle with confidence, strength and unique identity. Writers with three/four generations of English education on their back works as the powerhouse of writing back through excellent poesy. It has hues of Jasmine, waters of the Ganges and heights of the Himalayas. English poetry in India went through a series of transformations, from imitation and dependency to varying degrees of cultural and linguistic self-confidence. Life envelops within its fold the solitude and transience of shared moments. Poetry is the music of survival. It is not only the way home; it is also a way of healing the torments in mind. The diverse facets of the natural world and the multiple shades of life 6  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets allure the Indian poets so much that these aspects constitute the theme-song of their poetry. The diasporic poets’ perceptive self establishes a vital connection between their roots in India and the rootlessness under the alien sky, as to the values they embody and treasure. Diasporic poets carry a space of pleasures of subjectivity related to nationalism. They experience the cultural plentitude and the social displacement in a unique way. English Poetry (in India) has become a significant selfsustaining tradition with ever-growing international readership and academic curiosity. The contemporary poets in English have earned their recognition through sheer merit and resourcefulness without an expiry date. They have wide readership across the globe. They reflect their private and universal links. Some are writing about borders, blurring borders, hybrid space, angst of oppression, travels, social issues, which make them unique and amazing. The present edited anthology of critical essays encapsulates the contemporary Indian voices within India and abroad (of diaspora). The list of New Indian poets in English is a huge one. Poets are writing from different backgrounds, time zones and cultural contexts. A poet hopes, through his poems, to unsettle received signals, to bring new experiential truths to the table, and to build bridges across time, allegiances, and minds. A poet is to write and communicate truth in his poetic way. This is, in a way, prophetic. One shouldn’t consider poetry as flat as toothless gums and shriveled skin. Its volcanic power can topple states. That’s why many poets were arrested in the history of man. Many were expelled from the Universities. A true poet is a law giver of the day. Pablo Neruda, Nicanor Parra, Roberto Bolano, Giorgos Seferis never compromised with tangible truths. Many of them were diplomats by profession. A true poet is a free person. Poetry is also criticism of life and manners of the time. It exposes the sordidness and boredom of postmodern life. A poetic mind unburdens this sacred intuitive inclinations clothed in a ‘priestly robe’. Poetry is a record of tranquil moments spurred by the need for figurative explorations of experience. It’s about life, and Preface  7 truths about life. A poem is not necessarily a soul’s spanking weather. It is a powerful art form. I always consider poetry as deep realisation of life. At times, it is political. Its strong and pungent lines mirror a political society. There are so many social and political satires in the history of poetry in different languages. A poet is a committed artist who takes his readers towards aesthetic celebration of the self and nature, and records twists and turns of a sensitive heart. English poetry in India engages the readers with all these map makings. Indian poets of the present generation are unique soul makers at several planes. They have great control over myths and legends, language, choice of words and cadence. The anxiety of acceptance and appropriation is a matter of remote past. They are confident, blunt, bold and intelligent. In an interview with Jaydeep Sarangi and Antara Ghatak Sanjukta Dasgupta says, “If you have read my poems on Hindu Gods and Goddesses with some attention you will find that in my poems about divine Hindu icons there has been a concerted effort to break free from known stereotypes. I have tried to deconstruct and reinterpret the mythical figures and divine idols of worship.” (Writers in Conversation).In Sita’s Sisters, Sanjukta Dasgupta urges her readers to read these poems as texts of resistance and resilience, confidently gesturing towards inevitable social change. Some poets engage us with love’s lyrical monsoon. Many poets from different backgrounds are armed with love, grit, fortitude, nostalgia and hope. Clay, wax, wood, bronze, stone, and a harmonium – these are the materials the artists laid their hands on with consummate antistatic fabric. The coloration is quirky: Tonight however I’ll play the farewell song On my mother’s harmonium. (‘My Mother’s Harmonium’, Dasgupta) The language of poetry, poets believes, is different from that of prose not merely in its connotative abilities but also in its reflexivity in drawing attention to its own communicative (im)possibilities. 8  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Poets experience poetry as being perennially occupied in the process of communication, of saying, unsaying, and non-saying. For some, Indian English Poetry is deep and philosophical. Poets hope, through their poems, to unmount received meanings, to bring fresh truths to the table, and to build a few walkways across time, allegiances, contexts and empathies. India is a land of myths, languages, histories and cultures. Even within one state, there are any number of ethnic groups, languages and practices. The mosaic of poetry is varied in thoughts and expressions. The richly cultivated style and expressive elegance of Indian poets in English after the publication of Nissim Ezekiel’s A Time to Change by Fortune Press, London (1952) are marked by the bold English: Distance and dollars have made the dupatta disappear, But you stay in place behind a table of rubber-bands and clips, Fake mahogany it is…. (Tabish Khair) The ‘glocal’ (global+ local) language, the local colour of the global language (code) of Indian English poets is a part of their sociolinguistic identity. Linguistic hybridity (to express the native social context) is a decisive marker of the decolonising process. It’s an empowering act. No one can determine the choice of the language of the other. I strongly believe that there shouldn’t be anything as we tag ‘Indian English’ before writings in English by the Indians. It’s English poetry. The title of the book is a firm assertion of the fact that Indian English Poetry is English poetry. There is no point in carrying the baggage of anxiety and sloth which can stand of its own feet in this age of empowered economy, technology, freedom and the space for writing. Writing is an act of assertion of truths. The book is not definitive; it aims to encourage readers and researchers to explore further and discover the rich heritage that exists in contemporary Indian Poetry in English. This anthology is a modest survey of trends in contemporary Indian Poetry in English. It includes both the senior poets and the new poets. I appreciate the spontaneous Preface  9 assistance I have received from scholars from different parts of India and abroad. My hope is that this book will perform a sterling role in furthering the ongoing development of Indian Poetry in English and other areas of knowledge. I look forward to receive constructive suggestions from knowledgeable quarters. I express my indebtedness to all the learned contributors of this anthology who, in spite of innumerable pressures and engagements elsewhere, helped me successfully complete this anthology. I take this opportunity to thank Jayanta Mahapatra, Keki Daruwalla, Bibhu Padhi, Stephen Gill, G.J.V. Prasad, Madhusudan Prasad, Bashabi Fraser, Malashri Lal, Sanjukta Dasgupta and Late Niranjan Mohanty for their encouragement. To my academic friends, I say “Thank you” for always being there to support my efforts. I humbly dedicate this updated, enlarged and reprint version of the book in memory of Prof. R. P. Nair of American College, Madurai. Here is my humble poetic submission to that great soul: I Made a Long Distance Call (In memory of Prof. R. P. Nair, editor of Kavya Bharati) The night unfolds mysteries of the dark I sit beside an old clock tonight Under my shadow empty-handed, Empty-hearted, I ask The mouthful dark to describe this Painful void, this hunger. Your moonshine art Grew deep in years of service With me a library of love is Languishing for his untimely departure. Someone is coming, someone is moving out. Vaigai is flooded with tears. A simpleton and an editor is lost. I hear strange sounds of howling of alphabets. 10  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets It happens, day in and day out. Goddess Meenakshi is smiling somewhere Life is a game where you cannot win. You win. Somewhere life is lying abused Somewhere your muse is not found Only the scarves hang from the trees. Dark deep night is closer, I can feel. Ominous dancing like my shadow. This has crossed all limits. My poetic prolix is a wakeup call. Night’s mysteries are awake with the erratic rain. After a long cold sleep with the Vaigai. Your leaving smells foul, a song of Stillness I gather in both hands. Bats are hunting alone. Nobody in Madurai is awake at this soft deadly hour Only a child’s unmasked dreaming. Spirits of the dead have a night out For an appointment with the just walked away. Dear emperor of words, “Take care.” No matter, how high you fly in the sky You never complain or whine You just put your hand out You will rain somewhere beyond this land. The heart desires to be held. For me, poetry is a fair green mistress. I live with her. I take her for night rides with me. She is my darkness. She is my light post. She is my daughter of hope. She is the sister of the earth. To all esteemed contributors, thank you so much! The book is a product of the support and encouragement from the contributors. I’m grateful to the publisher, Authorspress, New Delhi, for publishing this enlarged and reprint version of the book within a very short period of time. Let us sail through new rungs of air… Kolkata, January 2021 Jaydeep Sarangi Contents Preface 1. The Two Titans in the Realms of Indo-Anglian Poetry 5 13 P. Gopi Chand and P. Naga Suseela 2. The Mystic Muse: Poetry of Swami Vivekananda 21 Subhendu Mund 3. Poetic Achievement of Aurobindo Ghosh 38 A.K. Jha 4. A.K. Ramanujan’s “A River”: Literary and Linguistic Analysis 43 R. Arunachalam 5. Syntactic Choices in Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poetry 58 Archana Kumar 6. Exploring the Self: A Note on Kamala Das’s Poetry 73 Sudhir K. Arora 7. Contemporary Abuses and the Need for Edifying Generality: A Study of Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poems 94 Kasthuri Bai 8. Muse as Rebel in Meena Alexander’s The Bird’s Bright Ring 107 C.L. Khatri 9. The Mode of Confession in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath and Kamala Das: A Comparative Study 117 Bikram Kumar Mohapatra 10. Reading Arun Kolatkar’s “The Bus” as an Exposition of the Vacillating Duality of Existence Ashes Gupta 128 12  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets 11. “Not to Die of Life/We have Art”: A Study of O. P. Bhatnagar’s Art in His Poetry 136 D.C. Chambial 12. The Voice of Rain: A Study of the Poems of Bidhu Padhi 149 Pradip Kumar Patra 13. Rediscovering D.H. Lawrence: A Reading of Bibhu Padhi’s Living with Lorenzo 157 Binod Mishra 14. Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate: A Versified Slice of Modern Life 172 N. Sharada Iyer 15. Chambial’s Poetry: A Spring of Enlightening Visions 187 Sujaat Hussain 16. (Re-)Placing the Canon in a Post-Colonial Space: A Study of the Poetry of Indian Diaspora 195 Jaydeep Sarangi 17. Reflecting Life Through Poetic Mirror: A Note on R.C. Shukla’s Poetry 203 Sudhir K. Arora 18. Postcolonial Inflections in Three Contemporary Indian English Poets 214 Sutanuka Ghosh Roy 19. An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca 226 Basudhara Roy and Jaydeep Sarangi 20. Nissim Ezekiel: A Poet Father, Up Close and Personal 250 Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca Notes on Contributors 263 Index 265 1 The Two Titans in the Realms of Indo-Anglian Poetry P. Gopi Chand and P. Naga Suseela Indo-Anglian poetry means the poetry written in English by Indian poets. The origin and development of Indian poetry in English synchronises with the introduction of English in India. Many Indian stalwarts like Ram Mohan Roy, Kashi Prasad Ghose, and Henry Derozio had acquired considerable command over English – even before the introduction of English (as a medium of instruction in 1835) in India. Derozio and Kashi Prasad Ghose are the earliest pioneers in the field of Indian Poetry in English. Poetry of early nineteenth century is reminiscent of the English Romantic Poetry. W.W.Byron, Shelley, Moore, etc., greatly influenced the poets of this age. The poetry of this time is mostly imitative except a few flashes of originality and promise. The Age of Renaissance, also called the Age of Dutts (because the two sisters Aru Dutt, Toru Dutt and the renowned intellectual Romesh Chandra Dutt), dominated the poetical scene of this period. Toru Dutt exhibited great ability and originality in bringing Indo-Anglian to a high level of creativity. Romesh Chandra Dutt’s wonderful translation of The Ramayana and The Mahabharata earned him a niche in this field. Rama Thirtha possessed the gift of communicating his emotions in simple, lucid and highly effective language. His poetry is the apex of his religious and spiritual experiences. He was a great patriot and mystic poet endowed with 14  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets romantic vision and deep feelings and found unity in diversity in life and nature. The poetry of Gandhi era is suffused with intense patriotism and political awareness. The stalwarts of twentieth century PreIndependence Indian Poetry in English are Tagore, Aurobindo, Sarojini Naidu, H.N.Chatopadhyaya, etc. We may call this age the age of Naidu & Aurobindo. Love of life is the main theme of Nobokissen Ghose’s poetry. Many of his poems are autobiographical. Tagore gained a place for modern India on the world literary scene. He was the only Indian who won the Nobel Prize for Poetry. Aurobindo’s poetic output is enormous. His works consists of lyrics, narrative poems, philosophical poems and poetic plays. Sarojini, the Nightingale of India, occupies a unique place in the field of poetry. She has given poetic and picturesque expression to ‘India’. Harindranath is a prolific writer who combines Aurobindian mysticism and Marxian experience and exploited every possible mood, pose and stance. The body of poetry is greater in the Modern Age than in any preceding age. There are more than 150 poets. The poets of this age attained a fusion between substance and medium of expression. The poetry ranges from personal emotion and lyricism to complex linguistic experiments. The diction of this period is known as contemporary speech idiom. Nissim Ezekiel Nissim Ezekiel is one of the dynamic Indian poets in English. He has exposed in his poems the follies and superstitions of Indians. To expose these he made use of wit, irony and humor. His satirical poems reflect a reformative zeal. He is an explorer of the conscience, i.e., Indian conscience. His poems remain ever fresh because they are drawn from contemporary Indian realities. A writer in Ezekiel’s view has an immense responsibility to society. He has to make life more meaningful and endurable by not remaining aloof from his surroundings. According to him: The Two Titans in the Realms of Indo-Anglian Poetry  15 A man can do something for and in his environment by being 1 fully what he is, by not withdrawing from it. Being a poet, art critic, journalist and a distinguished teacher, Ezekiel consider poetry a short cut way to discover truths: Poem is an episode, completed In an hour or two, but poetry Is something more. It is the way The now, the what, the flow, From which a poem comes.2 Ezekiel expresses the spiritual emptiness and disillusionment in many of his poems. The poem Enterprice reminds us of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in one aspect. A group of men along with the poet undertake the journey with a noble purpose, but in the end it leads to futility. The journey results in dismay and disappointment to all. They come to the conclusion that their deeds are neither heroic nor unusual. Finally they see the truth that home is the place where they have to gather grace and enjoy themselves with contentment. Mother’s sensibility is beautifully portrayed in the poem The Night of the Scorpion. Ezekiel narrates a perfectly realistic and convincing Indian sentiment and belief in this poem. After passing through the realms of superstitions and rationalistic ideas and approaches, amidst the wails of pain the mother pours out her wish: Thank God, the scorpion picked on me and 3 Spared my children. The Indian ‘Mother’ emerges out of The Night of the Scorpion. Poet, Lover, Bird Watcher gives us the poet’s views about the methods that one should adopt to achieve success in writing poetry. He compares a poet to a lover and a bird watcher. Each gets fulfilment and illumination only through a patient waiting and silent perseverance. A poet has to wait till he gets inspiration from his mind and soul to write a poem. 16  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Good Bye Party to Miss Pushpa T.S. is a rich fountain of satire in a light vein. He pokes fun at the way half-educated Indians speak and write the English language. The colleagues of Miss Pushpa bid her farewell when she is leaving for foreign country for ‘higher education’. Marriage is one of the finest of love poems of Ezekiel. He explored various facets of love and marriage in the poem. To him love is a prime source of inspiration and ecstasy. In reality it is followed by frustration and disillusionment. Woman no longer remains a figure of fairy but due to her own whims and caprices become a creature of flesh and blood with all sensuous feelings. Love is pure and love in marriage is a desired wish. Love in common man’s eye, remains an object of physical possession and experience. Marriage should not make us retreat to the ideas of ‘sin’: The same thing 4 Over and over again. The poet is not cynical of marriage but he brings out the mystery in marriage, i.e., the bond keeps the wife and husband united but all their indifferences and frustration move as undercurrent throughout their life. Ezekiel’s ‘Case Study’ reminds us of Hamlet of Shakespeare. Here the poet portrays a man with weak will, wavering and inoculate. He cannot make up his mind about things, his career, and his mission in life. Modern man’s predicament is well present in this poem. In India spinsters are rare. Parents force daughters to get into marriage. But the poem ‘Virginal’ is known for compactness of structure and condensed central idea. Towards the end of the poem Hindu Dharma is cited: The universe is much too small to hold 5 Your longing for a lover and child. The Two Titans in the Realms of Indo-Anglian Poetry  17 Life without experiencing womanhood and motherhood is in vain. The poem also shows the hypocritical subconscious feelings of a spinster. Through the monologue Railway Clerk Ezekiel presents the pains and sufferings of a middle class government employee who is dissatisfied with the work environment and unsatisfied with his family members. He is crushed under the millstones of domestic disharmony and official discontentment. Ezekiel presents true Indian picture in truly Indian phrases and lines, going beyond the norms of native English usage: I am never neglecting my responsibility I am discharging it properly I am doing my duty But who is appreciating? 6 No body, I am telling you. He realised the need for a local speech and idiom to give expression to his thought. Such a language can stand the test of time. He carefully uses certain Indianisms to evoke various associations and connotations. He says: I try to use the contemporary idiom in whatever form it comes at 7 the time of writing. Ezekiel sometimes find resemblances in T.S.Eliot. We can’t live life on nature’s terms. The only possible way out is to live a sane life in accordance with the basic simplicities of human nature. In all the six volumes of his poems – A Time to Change, Sixty Poems, The Unfinished Man, The Exact Name, Hymns in Darkness he explores and longs for the perfection of human personality. His poetic and philosophical quest reflects a Catholic outlook and a humanistic attitude that takes us to a naked truth that it is impossible to call anything permanent. Ezekiel with great patience tried to find out a satisfactory conclusion to the riddle of modern human life. But like Buddha he pronounces a great truth that neither belief nor disbelief will save human beings. Attipat Krishnaswami Ramanujan To a large extent Ramanujan’s poetry is autobiographical. Hindu’s heritage and historical sensibility abound in his poetry. He is not 18  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets simply blind to Hindu faith and convictions. In some of his poems the themes of the family and heritage are mingled to create a unique blend. Ramanujan believes that living among the relations binds the feet. Hindu’s entire Anatomy is bred in ‘ancestor’s bones’. Ramanjan’s imagination is haunted by: ‘Ancestral Crocodiles’ and tortoise and this is reflected in the poem ‘Relations’. He is interested in the history of India, though he has been living for many years abroad. The awareness of the tragedy of his country which he describes as the ancient chaos of country, finds expressions in such poems as ‘Compensation and the Last of the Princes’. He perceives in the anxiety of the individual, the anxiety of his people long subjected to misery, slavery and anxiety. For Ramanujan family relations with the figures of father, mother and wife constitute history. The poem ‘Love Poem For A wife’ shows how an unshared childhood separates a husband and a wife who could otherwise led a happy conjugal life. In looking for a cousin on a swing, love is revealed in a new manner. Though the girl is six years old she is instinctively conscious of the fact that her partner belongs to the opposite sex and that this consciousness has thrilled her. On growing up into a mature girl she consciously looks for a cousin in order to have the same experience on a swing. Here the speaker’s nostalgia for the wife’s unshared childhood arises from his need to overcome the alienation, which keeps them apart at the end of the years. But the crisscross of memories, the enactment of the drama of the wife’s past in the husband’s consciousness, only serves to emphasise the narrow limits in which the conjugal relationship appears to survive with its explosive insecurities and tensions. Ramanujan’s imagery is particular, precise, concrete, visual, auditory and kinetic. He is obsessively preoccupied with inner and physical violence; fear, anxiety and despair have been his themes. In ‘The Hindoo: He Reads His Gita And Is Calm At All Events’, the poet exposes ironically the supposed calmness or stoicism of the Hindu’s which is temporary. In moments of crisis the calmness disappears because of the sudden shock he receives. This poem throws much light on human nature. In Small Scale The Two Titans in the Realms of Indo-Anglian Poetry  19 Reflections on a Great House the poet staged the history of the great family house. We witness a number of bizarre persons coming to the house never to go back, or to return to it soon if they, by chance or by design, go out. In the last stanza there is a mingling of humorous and pathetic effects when we are told about the nephew who went out of the great family house, fought in the war, and then returned to the house as a dead body on a particularly ‘chatty afternoon’. Ramanujam radically goes against the convention and expresses his stream of thoughts in a scintillatingly fresh manner in the poem ‘River’. Poets so far praised the river for its enchanting beauty and source of ‘preserver of life’. Ramanujan saw the other side of the picture and depicted the river as detestive image in its turbulent motion. He described it as ‘destroyer of life’. The poem ‘Obituary’ is a complex poem in which the poet expresses his feelings and impressions of his father. When his father died he left behind ‘debts and daughters and a bed-wetting grandson’. The father was born as a result of a caesarian operation and he died of heart failure. Life is summed up in a nutshell. The closing line is ‘a changed mother and more than one annual ritual’. ‘Striders’ is a short poem with short lines. It describes the behavior of a certain kind of water bug. What attracted Ramanujan to this water bug is kept in the dark. Ramanujan’s keen observation and interest in the animal world is evident. An insignificant water bug rouses profound philosophical thought in the mind of the poet and the readers. The scene of the bubble-eyed water-bugs perching weightless on the surface of a stream depicts the supreme facility with which the striders balance themselves on the flowing waters. This is reminded of a biblical reference where Prophet Moses crosses the ocean by simply walking on its surface. This was one of the miracles performed by the great Prophet. The water bug too performs the same miracle because it never considers the surface of the water as an obstacle. Ramanujan has united the insect with the human and the divine worlds. Ramanujan explored his inner conscience, religious sensibility and explored the outer world and presented the hidden sensibilities in vivid and true colours. He 20  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets presented most common pictures and brought out the subconscious hidden thoughts of his readers whenever they go through his poetry. Ramanujan and Nissim Ezekiel presented a facet of Indian life, Indian suffering, Indian experience, Indian thought, Indian superstitions, Indian vedantic attitudes through Indian images and Indian idiom. To find out what is India and what is Indian is ever puzzling but the poems of Ezekiel and Ramanujan though not answer these questions, make us experience the essence of these two questions. References 1. Ezekiel, Naipal’s India and Mine, ed. by Adil Jussawala, New Writing in India, Penguin, 1977, p.3. 2. Nissim Ezekiel, “Pilgrimage and Myth”, M.K.Naik, Critical Essays on Indian Writing in English, p.119. 3. The Night of the Scorpion, Gokak V.K.(ed.), The Golden Treasury of Indo Anglian Poetry, ND, Sahitya Akademi, 1983. 4. Marriage, The Unfinished Man, 1969. 5. Virginal, Collected Poems of Nissim Ezekiel. 6. The Railway Clark, Nissim Ezekiel, Sixty Poems. 7. Nissim Ezekiel, Quest, 1968, No.56, p.103. 2 The Mystic Muse: Poetry of Swami Vivekananda Subhendu Mund I Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) is known the world over as a visionary and a saint, a mystic with eyes wide open to the realities of human life, one who was dedicated to the cause of mankind yet soaring in the cosmos of the unknown. His Complete Works runs into eight volumes, but the corpus of his speeches and prose writings is too overwhelming in insight, versatility and magnitude to allow his poetical works to be visible. Thus, the Swami’s identity as a poet is almost lost. Even those who are supposed to know seem reluctant to believe that the Swami could at all have written poetry! His poems, in all probability, have ever been included in any anthology of Indian English poetry. Nevertheless, he is briefly mentioned in the histories of Indian English literature, but much of the space devoted to his literary achievements is appropriated by the eulogy of his charismatic personality and appreciation of his speeches and prose writings. Very few critics or scholars of Indian English literature are aware of the Swami’s mysterious sojourns to the realm of poetry. Swami Vivekananda wrote poems both in Bangla and English, and rendered verses from Sanskrit scriptures as well as his Bangla poems/songs into English. Although there are several books and booklets comprising his selected poems, perhaps only two proper anthologies have been published. While Poems (1947) is perhaps the first collection of his poetical works, another collection called In 22  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Search of God and Other Poems (1968) was published by the Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, which had also published the first one. Poems is a slender volume of about seventy pages, edited by Swami Pavitrananda. Unfortunately the book is now difficult to find. Some of his poems – both original and translated – are included in his Complete Works, especially the Volume IV. Quite a few poems are appended to Selections from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda; yet it is surprising that these poems could not catch the attention of scholars and critics. M. K. Naik, in his A History of Indian English Literature (1982), prioritises the contribution of Swami Vivekananda as a writer of English prose. In all probability, he too had not seen Swami Vivekananda’s Poems. Naik, one of the foremost scholars in Indian English Literature offers a sweeping remark on his prose/speeches: “Firmly grounded, like Tagore, in the Indian ethos, Swami Vivekananda spoke with less charm and poetry but with more virility” (81-82). While Naik finds “less charm and poetry” in Swami Vivekananda, Romain Rolland says, His words are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like the march of Handel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his … without receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. And what shocks, what transports, must have been produced when in burning words they issued from the lips of the hero! (qtd. in Nikhilananda ‘Swami Vivekananda’) K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, in his monumental work Indian Writing in English (1963) also focuses on the prose of the Swami, an aspect albeit very difficult to ignore. However, Iyengar is perhaps the first scholar to have recognised the Swami as a “visionary”. While commenting on his poetry, especially with reference to “Kali the Mother” he says that it is endowed with “almost an apocalyptic vision of the breaking of the worlds and the Dance of Doom” (52). While comparing the poem with Subramania Bharati’s “Oozhikkoothu”, he observes that it is “equally powerful in its evocation of the frenzy of the creatrix who turns the destroyer of the worlds” (53). The Mystic Muse: Poetry of Swami Vivekananda  23 I think the two essays, ‘The Poetry of Vivekananda’ and ‘Vivekananda and Tagore’, by K. V. Suryanarayana Murti in Kohinoor in the Crown: Critical Studies in Indian English Literature (1987), have so far been the sole critical responses to the poetry of Swami Vivekananda. Even Romain Rolland (1866-1944), the Swami’s celebrated French biographer, himself a poet and writer of no mean repute, does not dwell much on this fascinating aspect in the multifaceted genius of the great spiritual leader of colonial India. Murti’s critiques seek to read the poetry of the early Indian English poets like Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore as poetical re-presentations of Indian spiritualism. He submits that the works of these early poets were influential in carving out an identity of Indian English poetry in the perception of the western readers. Moreover, these poets, by essentialising Indian spiritualism in Indian English poetry, set the tradition firmly as a continuity of the traditional Indian worldview and approach to metaphysical concerns. In “The Poetry of Vivekananda”, he maps the growth of the poet and the seer, and shows how the two aspects in Vivekananda’s personality – poetic imagination and spiritual quest – undergo a fusion in his poetical works. Defining Vivekananda’s poetry as “sublime poetic art”, he observes, His poetry is a splendid blend of immense poetic sensibility and spiritual profundity, intellectual brilliance and indefatigable energy, unselfconscious universal love and the authentic voice of a prophet. His sense of renunciation, devotion, quest, innate mystic effulgence, self-realisation, and the consequent philosophic offspring – all are there converged in his poetry inseparably fused. (11-12) In the second essay, “Vivekananda and Tagore”, Murti attempts a comparative study of the poetry of the two poets and traces the influence of the Swami on Tagore. He concludes, “Swami Vivekananda is forerunner to Tagore … particularly in introducing Indian philosophical thought to the West in English poetry” (29). He further points out: 24  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets … the fact that philosophic musing in poetic rhythm – which is one of the peculiar excellences of Indian English literature – has flowed from Swami Vivekananda, one of the early pioneers of the Renaissance in India, to Tagore, Sri-Aurobindo [sic], and other pious men of the ilk, can hardly be gainsaid. (21) II Swami Vivekananda was not as prolific in poetry writing as he was in prose. In fact, a sizeable amount of what is considered his prose ‘writing’ is actually constituted by the transcription of his speeches and interviews. In about nine years, from 1893 to 1902, the most meaningful and active years of his life, Swami Vivekananda wrote at least 35 poems in English; translated his own Bangla poems and numerous verses from Sanskrit. English versions of seven of his Bangla poems (sometimes called “Songs”) are also available. The Swami’s translation from Sanskrit includes 41 verses from Bhartrihari’s Vairagya Shatakam, the Nasadiya Sukta (Rig-Veda, X129) and Shivastotram. The Volume IX of the online Complete Works also informs about a collection of Swami Vivekananda’s poems published in 1968 (In Search of God and Other Poems, Mayavati, Advaita Ashrama, 1968). Regrettably, all his poetical works are not available in any one source. For example, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (Volume IV) contains “Kali the Mother”, “Angels Unawares”, “To the Awakened India’, “Requiescat in Pace”, “Hold on Awhile”, “The Song of the Sannyasin” and “Peace”, written originally in English; three Sanskrit verses in English translation: “Nirvanashtakam, Or Six Stanzas on Nirvana”, “A Hymn to Divine Mother”, “A Hymn to Shiva” and six Bangla poems/songs in English translation: “To a Friend”, “The Hymn of Creation”, “The Hymn of Samadhi”, “A Hymn to the Divinity of Shri Ramakrishna”, “And Let Shyama Dance There”, and “A Song I Sing to Thee”. A set of eight poems is included in Selections from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. However, Suryanarayana Murti’s two essays refer to 24 poems in course of discussion, obviously those included in Poems. According to Murti, the poems The Mystic Muse: Poetry of Swami Vivekananda  25 in the book are “limited to about seventy pages in print” (21). Now, of course, some of his selected poems can be accessed in a number of Internet sites, but the same poems are repeated in most of them. Swami Nikhilananda compilation of 15 poems (5 January 1953) has recently been posted by Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, New York. The online edition of The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda includes most of his poems in Volumes IV, V, VI, VIII and IX, but the inclusion does not follow the pattern of the printed Complete Works. There are some poems in these volumes – such as “One Circle More’ – which are not included in the printed ones. More importantly, Volume IX includes a few unfinished/ unpublished poems or fragments, as well as translations which would be very helpful to scholars in mapping the creative consciousness of the Swami. These are: “An Unfinished Poem” (“From life to life I am waiting here at the gates – they/ open not”), “An Untitled Poem to Shri Ramakrishna”. Makarand Paranjape has presented some of the poems of Swami Vivekananda in The Penguin Swami Vivekananda Reader (2005). This explains why Swami Vivekananda is not quite known to the world as a poet and his poetical work has not received the critical attention it deserves. Bunches of poems here and there, translations included, do not help at all in focusing the talent of the Swamiji as a poet of substance. It is surprising that the organisations associated with Swami Vivekananda – after the publication of Poems in 1947 – have never again thought about collating and collecting all his poetical works, including translations in the space of one volume. This would have not only created another opportunity for knowing the great mind of the Swami better, but also helped the study of the development of Indian poetry in English at the crucial period of its transition into becoming essentially Indian poetry. It could have helped demonstrate the ascendance from the early stage of poetical exercises to the more mature poetry, from the derivative to the innovative. This paper is perhaps the first extensive and intensive critique of the Swami’s poetical work. It intends to attempt a holistic approach to assess the blending of the aesthetic and the mystic 26  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets aspects in his poetic personality and to reallocate his position in the history of Indian English poetry in particular and Indian Writing in English in general. An intensive reading of Swami Vivekananda’s poems leaves no doubt about the fact that he was a natural poet. It is evident from the fact that whenever he felt the urge to write poetry, he spontaneously wrote in his mother tongue. Had he been a mere poem-maker, a so-called poetaster, he would have written more consciously, and perhaps written/composed only in English, meant for western consumption. For instance, “On The Sea’s Bosom” was composed by the poet in his mother tongue Bengali during his return from his second trip to the West, perhaps while crossing the eastern Mediterranean. Similarly, most of his “songs” were first written in Bengali. Many of his poems are said to be inspirational: he often wrote poems soon after meditations or revelations. Murti also believes that he burst into poetry in “moments of great ecstasy” (11). Romain Rolland informs that “Kali the Mother” was composed “in a fever” of divine excitement followed by his “terrible vision of Kali – the mighty Destructress, lurking behind the veil of life” (116). In the footnote to the poem Rolland informs that after visiting the Kshir Bhavani Temple in Kashmir he was in great ecstasy. As soon as he came back to his houseboat on Dal Lake, he wrote this poem. Rolland says, “During the evening, in a fever he groped in the dark for pencil and paper. Wrote his famous poem, Kali the Mother: then he fell exhausted” (116). As the Swami had to interpret the Indian mysticism as well as his own enlightened view on life and living to the West, he had to write in English. He is described as the “bridge between the East and the West” by a number of scholars. In fact, in most of his English poems he was either communicating to a Westerner or was in a Western country at the moment. This hypothesis is confirmed when one looks at the references available on the background to the composition of these poems: ‘Quest for God’ was written on 4 September 1893 to Prof. J. H. Wright; of Boston/Harvard University who had introduced Swami Vivekananda in the Parliament of Religions; “To an Early Violet” was written in New The Mystic Muse: Poetry of Swami Vivekananda  27 York on 6 January 1896 to inspire Sister Christine; “The Living God” was written to an American friend from Almora on 9 July 1897; “Requiescat in Pace” was written in memoriam to J. J. Godwin in August 1898 and “A Benediction” was written to Sister Nivedita. Similarly, “Peace”, composed at Ridgly Manor, New York on 21 September 1899 is from a letter to Miss MacLeod; “Thou Blessed Dream” was written to Miss Christine Greenstidel from Paris on 14 August 1900; and “A Blessing”; was written to Miss Alberta Sturges from Perrors Guireck, Brittany, France on 22 September 1900. Similarly, the Swami wrote “My Play is Done” and “The Song of the Sannyasin” in New York (16 March 1895) and Thousand Island Park (July 1895) respectively. Even these poems, though written in English, are marked by spontaneity and sincerity. Needless to say, the Sanskrit verses the Swami rendered into English were out of his own choice to interpret the essence of his spiritual realisation or preaching. If he chose a handful of such verses from the ocean of Hindu scriptures as Bhartrihari’s Bairagya Shatakam (“Bhartrihari’s Verses on Renunciation”), Shankaracharya’s “Nirvanashtakam” (‘Nirvanashtakam, Or Six Stanzas on Nirvana’), “A Hymn to the Divine Mother” or Shivastotram (“A Hymn to Shiva”), the reason is not difficult to guess. For example, “Bhartrihari’s Verses on Renunciation”, included in Unpublished Notes of Some Wanderings with the Swami Vivekananada, compiled and edited by Sister Nivedita were meant for his “western disciples”. The Sister informs that the Swami orally translated the verses during a pilgrimage in 1898, but he did not follow the order of these in the original. Sister Nivedita tells that she took down some of the verses verbatim while the Master translated them extempore. Miss Josephine MacLeod found the manuscripts of the rest of them, in the Swami’s handwriting, in the former’s personal collections, and handed them over, shortly before her death in 1948, to the Vedanta Society of California. Besides, the Swami’s devotion for Lord Shiva, Mother Kali and his Guru and mentor Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is also reflected in many of is poetical works. 28  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Swami Vivekananda neither had the time nor the scope to devote himself to the pursuit of a career as poet. He was basically a saint, a spiritual leader, an interpreter of Hindu view of life, and a visionary of rare magnitude. His occasional sojourns to the world of poetry were, therefore, purely the consequence of an individual’s urge for self-expression. His literature might appear to have “less charm and poetry” to an eminent critic but in his haste of making a judgmental remark, M. K. Naik perhaps failed in his duty as a historian of Indian English literature. Naik, the critic-historian in question could not see the historiographical significance in the contribution of Swami Vivekananda as a poet. We should not forget that Iyengar had already discussed the poetry of the Swami in Indian Writing in English 20 years before Naik’s history was published. While Naik’s observations and evaluations have resurrected many an unknown poet and writer though his numerous learned essays, and especially his canonical work A History of Indian English Literature, his oversight of Swami Vivekananda’s poetry, I am afraid, closed the possibility of further studies by potential scholars. Moreover, Iyengar’s comparing Vivekananda’s poetry with that of Subramania Bharati and the two essays of Murti, did not quite help in arousing the curiosity of readers and scholars for the poems of an influential personality like Swami Vivekananda. I must hasten to add here that I do not valorise his poetry just because he is a great individual, but because of two good reasons. First, I find him a genuine poet and secondly because he enjoyed a very influential position in the renascent India and in more ways than one shaped the personalities of many of his younger contemporaries. The incorporation of Indian philosophical thought, an aspect which transformed the identity and character of the imitative nature of early Indian English poetry groping for foothold, was basically the gift of Swami Vivekananda to the genre. We may recall the words James H. Cousins had uttered in 1918, about a century ago, on the imitative poetry Indian English poets had been writing. The Indians writing in English, he said, should be true to “their self ”; and their poetry should be “Indian in spirit, Indian in thought, Indian in emotion, Indian in imagery, and English only in words” (179). The Mystic Muse: Poetry of Swami Vivekananda  29 There was a qualitative change in the Indian poetry in English in early twentieth century. It is evident that Swami Vivekananda’s immediate successors like Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore and others were inspired by him, particularly his adopting Indian spiritualism and mysticism as the essence of his poetry. Murti rightly points out that “Vivekananda is the forerunner to Tagore” (28). The poetry of Swami Vivekananda anticipates greater preparedness because of obvious reasons. He was not an ordinary individual. For a moment if we forget his prophetic stature, and confine ourselves only to the written words that he has left behind, we will find a great mind at work. His depth and versatility are evident in the written material he has left behind in nine volumes of Complete Works. His knowledge of Indian philosophy and literature, science and technology, politics and economics; his awareness of the sublime as well as the mundane; his involvement with the spirit of the various peoples and religions, and above all his command over his thoughts and words are facts enough to inspire awe. Professor J. H. Wright had reportedly said about him, “Here is a man who is more learned than all our learned professors put together” (qtd. in Murti 11). When one of this kinds writes poetry, we have to tread very carefully. III In the Indian tradition, there has scarcely been any dividing line between scripture and literature. All our great puranas are universally acknowledged as our great literatures. And it may not be wrong to assert that most of our great literatures, our mahakavyas and puranas, like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Raghuvamsam and Gita Govinda, have, in the general perceptions, invariably ascended to the level of scriptures. Spiritualism was at the centre of all activities in the nineteenth-century India. Most of the influential personalities of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century were either engaged in the re-interpretation of Hinduism or actively associated 30  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets with religious/spiritual movements. Persons like Raja Rammohun Roy, Keshub Chandra Sen, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Annie Besant and Sri Aurobindo caused a sociocultural upheaval through spiritualism. Even the nationalist spirit of the freedom movement was deeply influenced by spiritualism. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Mahadeo Govind Ranade, Mahatma Gandhi and the other leaders of the Indian Freedom Movement derived their inspiration and motivation from the Indian spiritual philosophy. Swami Vivekananda’s advent into the scene brought about the much-wanted assimilation between the Indian and the Western spiritualism, philosophy and science, as well as the realities about the correlation between life and religion, materialism and mysticism, humanity and Godhood. It is therefore predictable that his creative energy would reflect his ideals, his beliefs, and his intuitions. No wonder his immense creative energy was spontaneously channelised occasionally in the form of poetry. His poetry was what Sri Aurobindo calls “intuitive poetry”. A true poet, according to Sri Aurobindo, is a seer, one who can transcend all conventional stereotypes to ascend to the level of a visionary, where the idea of “tat sat” is realised. His hypothesis of “intuitive poetry” seems to exactly define the poetry of Swami Vivekananda: It will restore to us the sense of the Eternal, the presence of the Divine which has been taken from us for a time by an intellect too narrowly and curiously fixed on the external and physical world, but it will not speak of those things in the feeble and conventional tones of traditional religion, but as a voice of intuitive experience and the rhythm and the chant of the revelation of an eternal presence. The voice of the poet will reveal to us by the inspired rhythmic word the God who is the Self of all things and beings, the Life of the universe, the Divinity in man, and he will express all the emotion and delight of the endeavour of the human soul to discover the touch and joy of that Divinity within him in whom he feels the mighty founts of his own being and life and effort and his fullness and unity The Mystic Muse: Poetry of Swami Vivekananda  31 with all cosmic experience and with nature and with all creatures. (The Future Poetry 240) Let me assert that I have extensively quoted from Swami Vivekananda’s poems in the present paper due to two reasons. First, his poems are not easily available to readers; and secondly, short citations may not be adequate to visualise the magnitude of the Swami’s thought and style. Now let us look at a few selections from Swami Vivekananda’s poems. A sensible reader can easily correlate the idea of “intuitive poetry” with the two excerpts that follow: All nature wear one angry frown, To crush you out – still know, my soul, You are Divine. March on and on, Nor right nor left but to the goal. Nor angel I, nor man, nor brute, Nor body, mind, nor he nor she, The books do stop in wonder mute To tell my nature; I am He. Before the sun, the moon, the earth, Before the stars or comets free, Before e’en time has had its birth, I was, I am, and I will be. (“The Song of the Free”) Or There is but One – The Free – The Knower – Self! Without a name, without a form or stain. In Him is Maya dreaming all this dream. The witness, He appears as nature, soul. Know thou art That, Sannyasin bold! Say – “Om Tat Sat, Om!” Where seekest thou? That freedom, friend, this world Nor that can give. In books and temples vain Thy search. Thine only is the hand that holds The rope that drags thee on. Then cease lament, Let go thy hold, Sannyasin bold! Say – “Om Tat Sat, Om!” (The Song of the Sannyasin) 32  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets These excerpts are instances of graceful expressions of realised spiritual truth that a seer can alone transform into poetry. Read together with a small poem called “The Living God”, we can see how wisdom translates into poetry. The entire poem is quoted below for readers’ ready reference: He who is in you and outside you, Who works through all hands, Who walks on all feet, Whose body are all ye, Him worship, and break all other idols! He who is at once the high and low, The sinner and the saint, Both God and worm, Him worship – visible, knowable, real, omnipresent, Break all other idols! In whom is neither past life Nor future birth nor death, In whom we always have been And always shall be one, Him worship. Break all other idols! Ye fools! who neglect the living God, And His infinite reflections with which the world is full. While ye run after imaginary shadows, That lead alone to fights and quarrels, Him worship, the only visible! Break all other idols! The poet-seer exhorts those running after “imaginary shadows” to “Break all other idols” and worship Him “who is in you and outside you.” In his perception, God is here: “Whose body are all ye.” The poet identifies the masses as the “only visible” shapes of “the living God,” because they are in reality “His infinite reflections with which the world is full.” This alone is the teaching, the Mahabakya of the Vedanta – “Om Tat Sat, Om!” – He or Tat The Mystic Muse: Poetry of Swami Vivekananda  33 alone is Truth or Sat. And Sat is what exists, what is visible, what is within the scope of experience. In his famous speech, ‘Vedanta and Indian Life’, Swami Vivekananda says, “Look upon every man, woman, and every one as God” (Selections 230). This almost forms the refrain in most of his speeches and writings. There are numerous instances where he seeks to translate this in poetry. Thereby, his poetry becomes “the inspired rhythmic word” and reveals God as “the Self of all things and beings, the Life of the universe, the Divinity in man.” In “Quest for God”, an early poem, written on 4 September 1893, which forms part of a letter to Prof. J. H. Wright who introduced him in the Parliament of Religions, Swami Vivekananda presents the quintessence of the Vedanta as well as his own realisation in a very simple yet profound manner. In his quest for God, the seeker had been searching “O’ver hill and dale and mountain range,/In temple, church, and mosque,/In Vedas, Bible, Al Koran;” but that was all “in vain”, because He does not dwell there. The seeker finds Him “In nature’s beauty, songs of birds,” He sees “through them – it is He”. He is not only manifest in the world without; He is there within his own self: A flash illumined all my soul; The heart of my heart opened wide. O joy, O bliss, what do I find! My love, my love you are here And you are here, my love, my all! Similarly, in “To a Friend”, the poet exhorts that God is there in His “manifold forms before” everyone, but we, in our ignorance, cannot see Him: These are His manifold forms before thee, Rejecting them, where seekest thou for God, Who loves all beings without distinction, He indeed is worshipping best his God. Therefore, in “The Song of the Sannyasin” the poet says, “Few only know the truth.” He calls upon the sannyasins (monks): “Go 34  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets thou, the free, from place to place, and help/Them out of darkness, Maya’s veil.” The poetry of Swami Vivekananda chiefly dwells on the premise of spiritualism. At places it is didactic; and understandably, the language becomes declamatory. These features do not normally help in retaining the aesthetic quality of poetry. Yet his poetry achieves considerable success in acquiring several poetic dimensions. It is important to remember that the Swami preferred to express himself through poetry whenever he felt that a prosaic explication might not drive his point home. He has resorted to poetry whenever he has felt like communicating in an intimate manner with someone close to his heart. He has written in poetry to sanyasis of his order, to Sister Nivedita and many others. In other words, he had great faith in poetry as a powerful instrument for communication of intricate feelings or mystical beliefs. For example, the poem “To an Early Violet”. The poem has an interesting background. It was written in New York on 6 January 1896 to Sister Christine “to give encouragement to the disciple to stand up to adverse circumstances.” The early violet is used as a metaphor in the poem to indicate the hardship a young woman has to cope with after taking the vow. Violet blooms in spring, but when it blooms in late winter, before the advent of spring, it has to fight for survival against the cold blast. The poem not only shows the Swami as a poet of imagination but also reveals the humane element in the personality of a great sanyasi of his stature. IV For an exalted theme as Vivekananda’s, the language and style are befittingly grand and exalted. The voice of the mystic poet reveals to us his spiritual realisations through poetry. His poetry embodies the ananda or divine bliss of his endeavour to discover the truth of Divinity within and without: within his own self as well as in the empirical world. God, to him, is manifest in nature and with all creatures. The Mystic Muse: Poetry of Swami Vivekananda  35 It may be relevant to mention here that a close reading of many of his poems as well as his speeches and writings reveal Swami Vivekananda’s acquaintance with great poets and their poetry. He seems also to have a sound knowledge of literary/poetic theories. Well-versed as he was in the study of the Vedas, Upanishads and the other major works in Sanskrit, he had acquired a strong sense of poetry. This was expectedly augmented by his extensive and intensive reading of the great works of world literature and philosophy. His poetic style can be compared with that of Homer, Dante and Milton, and among his contemporaries, Sri Aurobindo, Walt Whitman and A. E. Houseman. The themes as well as a few loaded words in some poems remind the reader of the works of British poets like William Blake, William Wordsworth, Tennyson and Matthew Arnold: all of them active within about a century of the Swamiji’s times. On many occasions, Swami Vivekananda speaks with ease on very intricate principles of poetry. For instance, in “Vedanta and Indian Life”, he mentions Homer, Dante and Milton in the context of “the marvellous poetry of the Upanishads” which are characterised by “the painting of the sublime, the grand conceptions” (Selections 222). He observes, Take for instance, Milton, Dante, Homer, or any of the western poets. There are wonderfully sublime passages in them; but there is always a grasping at infinity through the senses, the muscles, getting the ideals of infinite expansion, the infinite of space. (220) Swami Vivekananda was aware of the mantric power of poetry. He believed that great poetry rises from the finite to the “infinite”, and that in great, sublime poetry, there is always “a grasping at infinity”. On the other hand, such poetry has enormous effect: “strong as the blows of a hammer.” It may be appropriate to quote a few lines from the speech to exemplify the Swami’s idea of the impact of great poetry: But one other idea I must note, that the language and the thought and everything come direct, they fall upon you like a sword- 36  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets blade, strong as the blows of a hammer they come. There is no mistaking their meanings. Every tone of that music is firm and produces its full effect; no gyrations, no mad words, no intricacies in which the brain is lost. No signs of degradation are there – no attempts at too much allegorising, too much piling of adjectives after adjectives, making it more and more intricate, till the whole of the sense is lost, and the brain becomes giddy, and man does not know his way out from the maze of that literature. … If it be human literature it must be the production of a race which had not yet lost any of its national vigour.” (222) It is such poetry that rises to the level of mantra. In our poetic tradition all our great poetry are looked upon as mantras. In Sri Aurobindo’s perception, The mantra … is a direct and most heightened, an intensest and most divinely burdened rhythmic word which embodies an intuitive and revelatory inspiration and ensouls the mind with sight and the presence of the very self, the inmost reality of things and its truth and with the divine sol-forms of it, the Godheads which are born from the living Truth. Or, let us say, it is a supreme rhythmic language which seizes hold upon all that is finite and brings into each the light and voice of its own infinite. (194) It may not be an exaggeration to conclude that the poetry of Swami Vivekananda attains that lofty height of the mantra, “the inspired rhythmic word”, which is not meant for mere aesthetic delight of the reader but for the quest of the divinity within one’s own self, to borrow Sri Aurobindo’s words again, to realise God as “the Self of all things and beings, the Life of the universe, the Divinity in man.” Primary Sources Nivedita, Sister, Unpublished Notes of Some Wanderings with the Swami Vivekananda. n.d. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. IV. Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1969. Paranjape, Makarand, ed., The Penguin Swami Vivekananda Reader, New Delhi, Penguin, 2005. The Mystic Muse: Poetry of Swami Vivekananda  37 Selections from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 19t impression, Kolkata, Advaita Ashrama, 2003. Vivekananda, Swami, In Search of God and Other Poems, Mayavati, Advaita Ashrama, 1968. Vivekananda, Swami, Poems, Compiled and edited Pavitrananda, Mayavati, Advaita Ashrama, 1947. by Swami Poems of Swami Vivekananda are also available at: www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/ vivekananda/complete_works.htm http://www.poetseers.org/the_ poetseers/vivekananda/vivekannadas_poetry/ www.indolink.com/Poetry/vvekIndx.html www.ariseawake.com/PoemsofSwamiVivekananda.html www.poetry-chaikhana.com/V/VivekanandaS/index.htm www.hinduism.fsnet.co.uk/ namoma/sayings_swamiji/mPoems.htm www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda hinduism.about.com/od/poetry/a/vivekananda.htm References Aurobindo, Sri, The Future Poetry, 1953, Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1994. Cousins, James H., The Renaissance in India, Madras, Ganesh & Co., 1918. Iyengar, K. R.Srinivasa, Indian Writing in English, New Delhi, Sterling, 1984. Murti, K.V. Suryanarayana, ‘The Poetry of Vivekananda’, and ‘Vivekananda and Tagore’, Kohinoor in the Crown: Critical Studies in Indian Writing English Literature, New Delhi, Sterling, 1987, 11-19 and 20-29. Naik, M. K., A History of Indian English Literature, New Delhi, Sahitya Akademi, 1982. Nikhilananda, ‘Swami Vivekananda, Biography’, New York, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 5 January 1953, Available at: www.ramakrishna.org/sv.htm Rolland, Romain, The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel, 1931, Trans. E.E. Malcolm-Smith, Kolkata, Advaita Ashrama, 2004, French. 3 Poetic Achievement of Aurobindo Ghosh A.K. Jha Of all the Anglo-Indian writers Sri Aurobindo in his long life and varied career wrote regularly both in prose and poetry. As a prose writer he wrote letters, journalistic essays, critical reviews, philosophical treatises and as a poet he wrote epigrams, translations, adaptations, lyrics, narrative poems, poetic plays, a series of ‘futurist’ epic, Savitri. He experimented with almost all forms of poetry and prosody and therefore he can be justly called an ‘experimentalist’ and a ‘modernist’. Sri Aurobindo, according to Mr. K.D. Sethna (1947:3), has done three exceedingly rare things. First, to his credit a bulk of excellent blank verse, a rare achievement indeed. At least five thousand lines in the collected poems and plays are written in superb verse with blank diversely modulate beauty and power. The huge epic, Savitri, is a marvel, which places him at once in the company of the absolute top rankers by the sustained abundance of blank verse of the first rate. Secondly, Sri Aurobindo has used quantitative metre with great skill. What is an extra ordinary import is that this metre has eluded even English poets. Sri Aurobindo has solved once for all the problems of quantity in English, a feat which gives the language a ‘brave new world’ of poetic efforts. Quantitative metre brings in to English a structural music equal to Greek and Latin poetry. Sri Aurobindo has successfully alluring hexameter in his verse. And Poetic Achievement of Aurobindo Ghosh  39 thirdly, Sri Aurobindo has laid bare a rhythmic life beyond the ranges of inspired consciousness. His mystical and spiritual utterances hail from ‘planes’ of inspiration higher and intenser than any usually found in the major poet, ‘planes’ tapped with some freedom by only the Vedas and Upanishads. Sri Aurobindo stands as the creator of a of a new Vedic and Upanishadic age of poetry. Savitri is his wonderful gift to the world; it is mantric and philosophical throughout. According to Mr. Sethna, “Savitri is from every angle the right correlate to the practical drive towards earth – transformation by India’s mightiest Master of spirituality in his Ashram at Pondichery” (Sethna: 156). The Greek sings of the humanity of man, Sri Aurobindo the divinity of man. Under the Hellenic influences, we have forgotten that an equally poetic world exists in the domain of spiritual life even in its severity, as in that of earthy life and its sweetness (Gupta: 16). Sri Aurobindo has made a passion of the spiritual life. Poetry, after all, has a mission. Poetry is not merely what is pleasing and moving, but what is inspiring and elevating. Our Vedic poets always looked beyond humanity, beyond earth, and therefore could they make divine poetry of humanity and what is of earth. Sri Aurobindo (1940:513) has the same outlook and this explains the ring of the old world manner in him. Hindu legends and myths delighted him because they “at once our supreme transcendent self, the cosmic Being, foundation of our universality and the Divinity within if which our psychic being, the true evolving individual in our nature, is a portion, a spark, a flame, growing in to the eternal Fire from which it was lit.” he made poetry a vehicle of expressing his positive philosophy of the human race. Savitri is a fine explication of his philosophy. Sri Aurobindo held that poetry springs from a higher region. In performing his job, the poet becomes the seer and reveals to man his eternal self and the godheads of its manifestation. In other words, the true creator of poetry is the soul; in Eternity poetry begins, in Eternity it ends. In fact, Sri Aurobindo has spoken of four planes of being between the mental and the highest consciousness which, in the order of their ascending spiritual luminosity, are the Higher 40  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Mind, each producing poetry of its own particular intensity. His epic is the finest of ‘Overmind’ poetry. Sri Aurobindo wanted poetry to be mantric and mystical. The function of poetry, to Aurobindo, is neither to teach truth, nor to pursue knowledge, nor to serve any ethical purpose, but he gave a life of its own, to embody beauty (intense impression), and give delight (the soul of existence). The future course of poetry should be directed towards the fathoming of the life Divine, the Supreme Reality, and of man’s own divine possibilities. It is interesting to note that there is a marked difference between Sri Aurobindo’s early poetry of the Savitri period. The early poetry has been written under the influence of the Decadent poets. But poems like Ahana, the last poems, “Rose of God”, and Savitri, have been composed in an entirely new world of poetic inspiration and fulfilment (Gokak 1972:10). Sri Aurobindo’s poetic diction is usually charged and sustained. Take the following as an illustration; A blaze of his sovereign glory is the sun, A glory is the gold, and glimmering moon. A glory is his dream of purple sky, A march of his greatness are the wheeling stars, His laughter of beauty breaks out in green trees, His moments of beauty triumph in flower; The blue sea’s chant, the rivulets wondering voice Are murmurs falling from the Eternal’s harp. (Savitri, page no. 624) Sri Aurobindo wrote, as is evident in Savitri, under a divine inspiration. His diction is, therefore, chaste and austere, not lax and prolix as in Shakespeare or Spenser. In his later poetic phase Sri Aurobindo realised an idiom which is neither traditional nor ‘modern’ in the accepted sense, but typically his own. The typical idioms he realised has been branded as a mantra a direct and most heightened word employing the soul’s vision of the supreme Reality (Gupta: 133). He claimed that poetry is the ‘mantra of the Real’ and considered the poem as the ‘Rose of God’. Sri Aurobindo, like Poetic Achievement of Aurobindo Ghosh  41 Robert Browning, presses into service vocabulary of divine kinds. He does not confine to mere ‘poetic’ words like Swinburne and the Decadents. There are passages in his poetry in which he uses technical terms, mathematical terms, words connected with the printing trade, psycho-analysis and military science. His poetic words like ‘soul’, ‘over soul’, ‘world soul’, ‘Matter’, ‘Life Divine’, ‘Cosmic consciousness’, etc., have a technical import and precision about them. As far as his style is concerned, he experimented with different kinds of style in his poetic life, and the best of them are all manifested in Savitri. The style of this epic is flexible and varies according to its context and theme. It can be neoclassical or romantic, symbolic or modernistic. He employed a dramatic or narrative style in order to present a character or situation, an encounter or a debate. His reflective style is of three kinds – the balanced and antithetical style employed when the matter familiar to the reader, the paradoxical style when he writes with intensity and thought is subtly metaphysical, and the learned style when he presents the contours of the theme which is difficult or unfamiliar to the reader. There is also the expository of analytical style employed in dealing with rare perceptions and mystical levels of consciousness. There is, then, the lyric style rising to a great height of intensity and passion. Lastly, there is the allusive style (Gokak: xxxvii). Sri Aurobindo has mentioned four levels of style or “seeing speech” the adequate, the dynamically effective or rhetorical poetic manner, the metaphysical or illuminating style and the more purely intuitive or revelatory utterance. Eyebrows have been raised against Sri Aurobindo as a poet. It is asked whether he is a yogi, although he made it plain in one of his letters that he had been, first and foremost, a poet and politician, and only later a yogi (Ghosh 1973: 03). There is also a potent danger to identify Sri Aurobindo’s verse with “pure poetry”. But in reality his verse is nor “pure poetry”, it rather involves the future of man and lives on which the evolution of consciousness is likely to proceed. 42  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Notes and References Sharma, K.D., The Poetic Genius of Sri Auriobindo, Bombay: Sri Aurobindo Circle, 1947,. 3-3, 156, 153. Gupta, N.K., Poets and Mystics (1951), p. 16. Gupta, Remeshwar, “Sri Aurobindo’s Poetic Idiom”, The Banasthali Patrika, Nos. 17-18, 133. Ghosh, S.K., Sri Aurobindo: Poet and Social Thinker, Dharwar: Karnataka University, 1973, p.3. Aurobindo, Sri, The Life Divine, II, 1940, 513. Gokak, V.K., “Introduction”, The Golden Treasury of Indo-Anglian Poetry, 1828-1965, p. XXXVI. ....... , “The Evolution of Sri Aurobindo’s Aesthetic Theory”, The Banasthali Patrika, No. 17-18, July 1971 – January 1972, 10. 4 A.K. Ramanujan’s “A River”: Literary and Linguistic Analysis R. Arunachalam Introduction A.K. Ramanujan is a distinguished linguist, scholar, translator and poet in Indian English. He is well known for his rendering of Sangam Tamil poems in English. This paper examines from literary and linguistic perspectives how his poem “A River” critically discusses the poetic traditions in Indian literatures in general and Tamil literature in particular. Literary Analysis Structure of the Poem The poem consists of four stanzas. The first stanza deals with how a modern original poet like A.K. Ramanujan describes the river Vaigai in the summer season. The second stanza recollects the descriptions of the river Vaigai in the rainy season by the ancient poets. While the third stanza comments on the way in which the new poets write their poems, the fourth stanza projects how the new poets who imitate the old counterparts repeat the similar descriptions of the river. Poetic Traditions of the Old Poets The very opening lines of the poem highlight the fact that the themes of the ancient Indian poetry pertained to the glorifications of the gods and the kings / philanthropists who patronised the 44  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets bards. Such a tradition was prevalent in the Western literatures also, as Aristotle had pointed out that only a person of high stature could become a tragic hero. The sources of inspiration of the ancient poets were very much limited to the upper stratum of the society, as the river Vaigai could provide them the poetic themes only in the rainy seasons, that too when it had floods and was full of activities. The old poets dwelt upon the minute descriptions of the natural canvas in their poems at length. They could measure the levels of the floods in terms of inches and the number of steps sunk. They could enlist the exact number of incidents that occurred in the river. They could specify that the floods could carry three huts, one pregnant woman and two cows named Gopi and Brinda. The christening of the cows instead of the woman implies that the old poets are concerned about the animals rather than the human beings and the very choice of the names indicates the profound influence of the literary traditions of the epics like The Mahabharatha and The Ramayana over their poetry for ages. Their calculated silence about the inhabitants of the huts and the pregnant woman stresses their insensitivity and indifference to the sufferings of the downtrodden people, who according to them are not deserved to be their poetic themes. Poetic Traditions of the News Poets who copy the Old Poets A.K. Ramanujan argues that the new poets who imitate their old counterparts still quote the words and deeds of the ancient poets faithfully in their verses but they never bother to speak about the sufferings of the pregnant woman who perhaps carries the twins. As in the case of their predecessors, the river inspires them only once in a year, when there is flood in the rainy season. They also repeat the way in which it carries three village houses, two cows named Gopi and Brinda and a pregnant woman who of course has twins in her, but these unborn children do not have moles to tell them apart and the different coloured diapers are used to identify them. A.K. Ramanujan sarcastically states that these new poets make their poems scientific and original superficially because they rearrange the items/persons carried away by the flood in the numerically A.K. Ramanujan’s “A River”: Literary and Linguistic Analysis  45 proper order, displaying their knowledge of mathematics and refer to the physical feature of the absence of moles in the bodies of the children exposing their advanced knowledge of anatomical science. Further the use of the napkins suggests how the modern poets are very particular about the description of the sophisticated life of the pregnant woman instead of the sufferings of hers as well as her unborn children, while dying. These modern poets would have really displayed their creativity and originality in the content, style and language of their subject matters. But they have miserably failed to do so, as they are overawed by the poetic traditions of their forefathers. Poetic Tradition of the Modern Original Poet A.K. Ramanujan is a typical modern original poet because he displays his creativity and freshness in his thoughts and presentations. He goes against the well-established traditions of describing the river in the rainy season only when there is flood. Contrary to his predecessors, he visits the river Vaigai during the summer season and describes its dry, lifeless existence. In fact the river becomes a trickle in the sand leaving sand ribs, straws and women’s hair deposited behind the water gates, made up of rusty bars under the bridges full of patches of repairs all over them. There are two types of stones, the wet stones shining like sleepy crocodiles and the dry ones resembling the water buffaloes taking rest under the sun. This type of description of the impoverished condition of the river is a refreshingly novel effort to project the other neglected side of the same subject in a down to earth approach. It indeed proves the arguments respectively of Arnold and Wordsworth that literature is a mirror of all aspects of life and the poet is a man speaking to men. Linguistic Analysis Halliday (1985)’s framework is applied to examine critically how the linguistic features of the poem in terms of the textual function and cohesion project its literary qualities. 46  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Textual function According to Halliday, clause consists of elements which function as Subject (S), Predicator (P), Complement (C) and Adjunct (A) as in 1. The poet (S) / described (P) / the river Vaigai (C) / in his poem. (A) 2. He (S) / was (P) / a great linguist (C) / in Tamil. (A) There are three kinds of subjects: a) Psychological Subject (PS) called Theme (T) meaning the one which is concern of the message. b) Grammatical Subject (GS) called Subject (S), meaning that of which something is predicated, and c) (C) Logical Subject (LS) called Actor (AC) meaning the doer of the action. These three kinds of Subject represent the textual, interpersonal and ideational functions respectively. All these three functions may be mapped on in one constituent as in 1. The old poets (PS, GS & LS) / provided the new poets the description of the river. 2. Or two functions are mapped on in one constituent. 3. The new poets (PS & GS) / were provided / by the old poets (LS) / the description of the river. 4. The description of the river (PS&GS) / was provided/ by the old poets (LS) / to the new poets. 5. Or all the three functions are separated as in: 6. The description of the river (PS) /the new poets (GS)/ were provided / by the old poets (LS). The Predicator is realised by a verbal group minus the finite element – temporal or modal operator. For ex. ‘been asking’ in A.K. Ramanujan’s “A River”: Literary and Linguistic Analysis  47 ‘have been asking’ and ‘have been going’ in ‘must have been going’ are the predicators. The Complement is an element that has the potential of being subject but is not. In example 3 there are two complements ‘the new poets’ and ‘the description of the river’. Either of them could function as subject as in examples 4 and 5. The Adjunct is an element that has not got the potential of being subject, realised by an adverbial group or prepositional phrase in English. 7) The old poets met the people / on the bank of the river (A) / on a rainy day (A). Theme-rheme Structure Every clause has the Theme-Rheme structure at both inter-clause and intra-clause complex levels. The Theme is the element that serves as the point of departure of the message. It is that with which the clause is concerned. The remainder of the message is called the Rheme, which develops the Theme as in 1. [The new poet /visited the river // when there / were floods.] theme rheme THEME theme rheme RHEME Unmarked and Marked Themes There are unmarked and marked Themes. An unmarked Theme is the one that is mapped on to subject as in: 1. The new poets (THEME (PS), SUBJECT (GS) ACTOR (LS) / quoted / the old poets / in their verses. 2. The old poets (THEME (PS), SUBJECT (GS) / were quoted / by the new poets (ACTOR (LS) / in their verses. 3. A marked theme is the one that is other than Subject (GS). 48  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets 4. The old poets (Complement) (THEME (PS) / the new poets (SUBJECT (GS) ACTOR (LS) / quoted / in their verses. 5. In their verses (ADJUNCT)(THEME (PS) / the new poets (SUBJECT (GS) ACTORS (LS) / quoted / the old poets. 6. Forget (PREDICATOR) (THEME (PS) / the old poets/ the new poets (SUBJECT (GS) ACTOR (LS) never shall. Where Complement (C) Adjunct (A) and Predicator (P) are shifted to initial position of the utterances to function as Themes (i.e., Psychological Subjects with which the clauses are concerned about). Likewise interrogative, imperative and exclamatory clauses also have both unmarked and marked Themes (Halliday, 1985:3852). Simple and Multiple Themes The Themes are classified into simple and multiple Themes. The simple Theme has the ideational component only namely Subject, Predicator, Complement or Adjunct in the clause initial thematic position. Whereas the multiple Theme consists of textual and / or interpersonal components in addition to the ideational component. The textual element within the Theme may have any combination of (i) Continuative (ex. Yes, well, etc.), ii) Structural (e.g., and, or, but, so, because, since, even if, etc. or relatives like which, who, that, etc.) and (iii) Conjunctive Adjuncts (e.g., For instance, rather, therefore, etc.). The interpersonal element within the Theme may have a (i) Modal Adjunct (e.g., probably, really, no doubt, etc.), (ii) the Finite verb, in a yes/ no interrogative clause, and (iii) a vocative element (e.g., sir, officer, etc.). (For further details see Arunachalam, 1992, 1999 and 2000-2001). Textual Function in ‘A River’ An analysis of the thematic structures of the poem given in appendix I below shows that there are five Themes at the interclause complex level. The very first Theme “In Madurai, | city of temples and poets | who sang of cities and temples: | every A.K. Ramanujan’s “A River”: Literary and Linguistic Analysis  49 summer” is a marked Theme which stresses textually the greatness and significance of Madurai as a literary capital of Tamil Sangam literature and the creativity of the original modern poet like A.K. Ramanujam in describing the river in its impoverished condition in summer. The other Themes are unmarked. The second one “He was there for a day” pertains to the casual and very occasional visit of the old poet to the river in the rainy season, thus textually reporting his matter-of-fact approach towards the subject matters of his poems. The third Theme “People” focuses on the people who visit the river to watch the impact of floods. Moreover, the foregrounding of the people to the thematic position highlights the fact textually that the observations of the people form the base for the poetic themes of the old poet. The fourth Theme “The new poets | still quoted the old poets” and the fifth Theme “He said” refer to the new poets who quote their predecessors faithfully and lackadaisically, thus textually presenting their verbose, verbatim and lacklustre presentation. Besides the deliberate choice of the singular personal reference ‘he’ in its generic use for the plural noun ‘the new poets’ given in the preceding occurrence highlights textually the fact that all new poets who copy the old poet tend to repeat the same in their poems. The above Themes function as themes of the main clauses at the intra-clause complex level too. In addition, four themes occupy the thematic positions of the subordinate or main clauses at the intra-clause complex levels. They are all unmarked themes. The theme ‘they’ is used to focus on the occurrence of floods that is of great concern to all public, as it refers to people in general. Another theme ‘no one’ refers to all new poets who simply copy the old poets. Here also the choice of the singular subject for the preceding plural subject ‘new poets’ is deliberate to stress textually the unanimity of the modern poets in their subject matters and presentations and the influence of their old counterparts on them. The last two themes pertain to the river Vaigai. The theme ‘the river’ is brought to the thematic position to show textually that it is a source of poetic inspiration to the new poets. Another theme ‘it’ is 50  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets employed to bring out textually how the river is the subject of its routine activities, when it is in space. As far as the simple/multiple themes are concerned, all Themes are simple at the inter-clause complex level, as they consist of the ideational components only. It textually means that the poem deals directly with only the subject matters that are treated as points of departure in the organisation of message. Further the absence of the interpersonal elements at the thematic positions textually implies that the poet does not explicitly state his comments or views on the events recounted. Similarly it can be inferred from the fact that the lack of the textual elements at the inter-clause complex level also means that the poet does not provide explicit clues for the textual organisation of the message. At the intra-clause complex level, only three out of nine themes are multiple consisting of textual and ideational elements. The multiple themes with textual structural elements ‘when’ and ‘but’ bring out the hypotactic and paratactic relations between the clauses linked focussing on the temporal and adversative meanings textually respectively. Another multiple theme with textual conjunctive element ‘and then’ brings out the additive relation between the clauses embedded in the organisation of the message. The absence of the interpersonal elements at the intra-clause complex level reinforces the observation that the poet does not intrude to comment on his presentation. Cohesive Analysis: Employing the framework of Halliday (1985) and Halliday and Hasan (1976), the analysis of the cohesive devices in “A River” is presented below and in Appendix II. The Cohesive Analysis figures show that though both lexicosemantic and grammatical devices are employed in the poem, the former (60%) dominates the latter (40%) stressing the fact textually that the subject matters of both old and new poets are one and the same. Among the lexical cohesion the use of lexical collocation (lc) provides textually an ample scope for the poet to project his originality. It is discernible in the fact that the modern original new poet A.K.Ramanujan uses the maximum instances of lexical A.K. Ramanujan’s “A River”: Literary and Linguistic Analysis  51 collocation (lc) proving the fact that the same theme can be presented in a refreshingly original manner. The use of lexical reiteration (l) in terms of repetition (lr), synonyms (lrs) near synonyms, (lrns) and superordinate (lrsup) restricts textually the scope of the poet in his creativity. The maximum employment of lexical repetition by the new duplicate poets stresses the fact textually that these poets echo their counterparts in content, language and style. Further their preference to synonyms, near synonyms and superordinate numbering 1, 1 and 2 respectively displays their restricted choice of lexical cohesion. It is reinforced in the fact that they choose the lexical collocation on two occasions only. The use of the conjunction “and then” dramatises the way in which they imitate the old poets verbatim. The use of more or less equal instances of lexical collocation (6) and lexical reiteration (5) by the old poets highlights textually the creative and original efforts to present their poetic themes. The absence of grammatical cohesive devices namely substitution and conjunction in the description of their poems stresses their limitation in their content, language and style. The use of all kinds of cohesive devices, namely, reference, substitution, conjunction and lexical cohesion excluding ellipsis by A.K.Ramanujan in his description of the river in the first stanza and his comment on the way many new poets imitate their ancient counterparts in the third stanza emphasises textually the fact that the new original poet experiments in a variety of ways with his subject matter, diction and presentation. The exclusion of ellipsis implies that even the new original poet still has scope to improve his poems. The preference of the grammatical cohesion, namely, reference to other devices by all the poets implies critically that reference coheres the presupposed items with the presupposing counterparts based on the semantic relation between them. The internal analysis of the demonstrative reference shows that out of twenty one instances the non-selective specific anaphoric demonstrative reference ‘the’ is used twenty times (95%), while the demonstrative 52  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets adverb ‘there’ is used only one time (5%) to provide the cohesive tie between the utterance in terms of the locative (spatial) aspect namely the river Vaigai. The use of ‘the’ maximally and uniformly provides effectively the cohesive ties to be linked to the presupposed items in the preceding parts of the poem. Moreover all of its instances offer environment for ‘double ties’ strengthening the texture of the text. The personal reference items like “he, it, they, there and them” provide continuity and link among the items in terms of the explicit anaphoric personal reference establishing the definite identity of the participants / places / items at the textual level itself and increasing the texture of the poem. The distance between the 83 presupposed and the presupposing items of the cohesive ties used in the poem are immediate (32), immediate and mediated (1), mediated (1), mediated and remote (5) and remote (44) to the extent of 39 per cent, 1 per cent, 1 per cent, 6 per cent and 53 per cent respectively. The figures show that almost half instances of the ties to the tune of 47 per cent provide tight texture in the poem with the help of immediate and / or mediated environments. More than equal use of the remote ties amounting 53 per cent highlights textually the fact that the new poets copy the old poets by way of repetition creating continuity among various items in the poem. Conclusion The above analysis of a poem demonstrates that its literary qualities may be objectively substantiated with the linguistic features with the help of a framework. It also helps the teachers to explain the poem systematically with the concrete textual evidences to prove their eclectic and subjective arguments. References Arunachalam, R., 1992, Rhetoric in English and Tamil: A Contrastive Study, Hyderabad, Osmania University Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. ......... , 1999, “Unmarked/Marked Theme in English and Tamil/Telugu” in Research Anthology, 1999, 498-502, Tiruchendur, T.R.A. A.K. Ramanujan’s “A River”: Literary and Linguistic Analysis  53 ......... 2000-2001, “O.Henry’s After Twenty Years: A Text Analysis” in Osmania Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 26-27, 2000-2001, 1-28, Hyderabad, O.U. ......... , 2003, “A River”: A Critique of Poetry” in Research Anthology, 2003, 1633-1637, Tiruchirappalli, A.I.U.T.T.A. ......... 2004, “Textual function in the poem “A River” in Research Anthology, 2004, 347-351, Tiruchirappalli, A.I.U.T.T.A. ......... 2005, “Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’: A linguistic analysis” in Pegasus, Vol. 4, 2005, 68-79, Agra, Agra College. Halliday, M.A.K., 1985, An Introduction to Functional Grammar, London, Edwin Arnold. Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan, 1976, Cohesion in English, London, Longman. Ramanujan, A.K., 1972, “A River” in Saleem, P. (Ed.), 1972, Contemporary Indian Poetry, Madras, MacMillan. APPENDIX I Analysis of Textual Function in ‘A River’ In Madurai, city of temples and poets who sang of cities and temples: every summer // T1MS tims THEME theme a river dries to a trickle in the sand baring the sand-ribs, straw and women’s hair clogging the watergates at the rusty bars under the bridges with patches of repair all over them, the wet stones glistening like sleepy crocodiles, the dry ones shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun.] RHEME rheme [He / was there for a day // t2us theme T2US THEME rheme when they /had the floods.] t3um theme RHEME rheme 54  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets [People everywhere // talked T3UM t4um THEME theme of the inches rising, of the precise number of cobbled steps run over by the water, rising on the bathing places, and the way it carried off three village houses, one pregnant woman and a couple of cows named Gopi and Brinda, as usual.] RHEME rheme [The new poets /still quoted t5us theme T4US THEME the old poets, // but no one /spoke rheme t6um theme RHEME in verse of the pregnant woman drowned, with perhaps twins in her, kicking at blank walls. [He / said: // t7us themeT5US THEME rheme the river / has water enough t8us theme RHEME rheme to be poetic about only once a year / and then it / carries away t9um theme rheme in the first half-hour three village houses, a couple of cows named Gopi and Brinda and one pregnant woman expecting identical twins with no moles on their bodies, with different-coloured diapers to tell them apart.] A.K. Ramanujan’s “A River”: Literary and Linguistic Analysis  55 APPENDIX II Analysis of Cohesion in A River Sl. Stanza Line No. of Cohesive Item No. even before birth.] ties type 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. I 2 3 1 3 6 2 7 9 9 1.II 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 1 4 2 2 3 3 4 5 1 2 10 11 12 13 14 15 Cohesive Distance Presupposed Item city song cities temples the sand sand ribs the Watergate the bars the bridges them the stones the dry ones water buffaloes the sun lcadurai lc lr lr dr lc lns dr slc dr lc dr lc pr dr lc dr lc sub(n) lc dr lc 0 0 0 0 0 0 R4 R4 0 0 R1 Rc 0 R6 R6 0 0 0 0 R11 R11 the poets the floods He there they the floods talked the dr lr dr lc pr dr pr dr lr lc dr R13 R13 R11 R11 0 R12 M1 R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 poets cities temples river river sand river river watergates watergates watergates watergates bridges sand sand stones wet stones crocodiles summer summer poets poets river river poet river poets floods floods sang floods 56 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets inches the number the water rising the places it one couple lc dr lc dr lr sup lr dr lrs pr lc lc R1 floods 0 inches 0 inches R3 floods R3 floods R1 rising R3 everywhere R3 everywhere R1 water 0 three 0 M1 one, three the poets still quoted the old poets but dr lr con lrs dr lc lr con one spoke verse the subs lrs lc dr 13. pregnant lr 14. woman lr drowned twins lc lc her pr R9M2 poets R9M2 poets 0 previous stanza R11 sang 0 poets 0 new 0 poets 0 previous utterance 0 new poet 0 quoted 0 poets R5 pregnant woman R5 pregnant woman R5 pregnant woman R9 water 0 pregnant woman 0 pregnant woman M1 pregnant woman 0 kicking 6 2 7 3 8 2 9 10 11 1 1 1 1. III 1 2. 3. 4. 5. 2 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 15. 16. 3 4 5 4 6 1 3 3 17. 18. 6 1 walls lc 19 7 1 birth lc A.K. Ramanujan’s “A River”: Literary and Linguistic Analysis 1. IV 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1 2 2 3 3 4 1 2 He said the river water poetic once year pr lrns dr lr lr lrs lc lrsup and then con 9. 5 1 10. 11. 12. 13. 6 2 7 8 1 1 14. 9 1 a couple of cows lr 15. 10 1 named Gopi and Brinda lr 16. 11 1 one pregnant woman lr 17. 18. 19. 20. 12 13 14 15 1 1 1 1 it carries away half hour three village houses twins their diapers them pr lr lrsup lr lr pr lc pr  57 R6M1 new poet R5 spoke R30 river R30 river R13 water R6 verse R20 a day R19M1 a day of flood 0 previous utterance R3 river R15 carries off R22M1 a day R17 three village houses R16 a couple of cows R16 named Gopi and Brinda R18M1 the pregnant woman R13 twins 0 twins 0 moles R1M1 twins 5 Syntactic Choices in Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poetry Archana Kumar The language of poetry in a language acts like other language acts but it is differentiated from them by characteristics of its own. The distinctiveness of the language of poetry lines in patterns: “the language in a poem is organised into a pattern of sounds, structure and meanings which are not determined by the phonology, syntax or semantics of language code though it provides it with its basic resources” (Widdowson, 1975, p. 36). We need to examine the various patterns at the level of phonology, lexis, syntax to properly appreciate poetry. Indian English Poetry creatively uses English which is not a language of Indian origin. Therefore, we need to give particular attention to patterns and choices at various levels of language in the poetry of individual poets. In this paper attempt has been made to analyse syntactic features of Jayanta Mahapatra’s poetry spanning over more than three decades. For the propose of analysis, William Baker’s framework to study the syntax of modern English Poetry has been used. William E. Baker’s analysis of syntax of poetry of the period 1870-1930 is perhaps the most thoroughgoing analysis of syntax in recent times. For the purpose of analysis, Baker sets up a tentative frame, which includes mainly syntactic types of dislocation, fragmentation, elaboration and regularity. A syntactic dislocation is defined as an alternation in the normal locations of words or word groups; elaboration is a quantitative change in character in that an Syntactic Choices in Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poetry  59 extraordinary number of word groups with the same character function together in one sentence; fragmentation is an unusual alteration in location; it occurs when a word or word group is without an orthodox location with respect to other words and a regular sentence is a string of words of appropriate character in their customary locations (Baker, 1967, p. 18). In the traditional poetry, the syntactic dislocation took place due to a consideration of end-rhyme or meter but in modern poetry, dislocation may be for the purpose of emphasis. Within the broad area of dislocation, subtle differences are possible, for example, the type of dislocation in which the verb is placed before the subject noun-phrase is different from the variety in which the direct object comes before the verb. Jayanta Mahapatra skilfully uses various kinds of syntatic dislocation for enrichment and emphasis. The placement of verb before the subject noun phrase in the sentence, Beyond the wood fence grow/ lotuses and wild hyacinths of wetness (“A Hint of Grief ”), focuses the vegetational richness of the Oriya landscape during the rain and it also brings out the beauty of flower wet in raindrops. The line in “Abandoned Temple”, Squats a votary before it, contrasts the expectation. The abandoned temple should have a deserted look but the semantic contrast between lack and presence has been presented through the inversion. In “Woman in Love”, the transposition of verb before the subject, into your silence of sacred tree shadows/ hails the trumpet of the sun has been effected to enumerate sounds which together make the trumpet of the sun – madness of birds’ chirping, song of tropic fire. Following C.C. Fries and W. Nelson Francis, Baker has held the view that the normal position of a one-word adjective is before the noun (Baker, 1967, p. 217), in our everyday language also our experience is the same, as exemplified by such common expression as a beautiful girl, a sober man. Any deviation from this pattern, therefore becomes striking. In the poem “Myth” in the line, memories, dark and unfulfilled, dislocation lends a kind of internal rhythm to the line and its 60 Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets  rhythmic flow makes the expression stand out strikingly among the rest of the line and also conjures up a host of beliefs associated with ringing bells in a temple. In the poem, “Woman In Love”, transposition of adjective after noun takes place in the phrase, childhood virginal. The positioning of adjective virginal after the noun brings out the novelty in the use of modifier. In “Walls” occur three examples of placement of adjective after noun. i) thing greatly dear… ii) the three sisters, innocently sweet iii) I … bore, hot … The adjectives take their place after noun to draw attention to themselves which otherwise, might have been missed. The inversion of adjective-noun is rarely a stylistic device for ornamentation, wherever it is used, it adds to semantic richness of the poem. The third kind of dislocation in Jayanta Mahapatra’s poetry is dislocation of genitive prepositional phrase from the noun it is bound with. It is frequently used in the later poems of Mahapatra here are a few examples: i) shadows in retreat fly of serpent-girls, elephant-god, fiery birds. ii) moments of age past, of the power from earth of shadows of tree and quartz of the drained silence of starvation. The normal order in the first example should be shadows of serpent girls and likewise, in the second example, all phrases are bound with the head noun moments – moments of power from the earth, moments of drained silence of starvation. This kind of dislocation results from fast pace of thoughts. One noun head has two-three dislocated genitive preposition phrase making us read back and forth and thus lending coherence and compactness. The inversion of verb-complement order is rarely used. The Adjectival complement, long and lean, precedes the copular verb in Syntactic Choices in Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poetry  61 “Hunger”. The inversion is effected to bring out the ironic juxtaposition of the poverty-stricken girl and lust-ridden mancustomer. When thoughts jostle with one another, as if in rivalry, to seek expression, the standard order of sentence is interrupted by parenthetical remarks. Usually the interpolations are nominative absolute to the subject phrase: i) this talk of freedom. freedom from want, social justice and greed. (“Heroism”) ii) and those peaks, too, Annapurna, Daulagiri (“Myth”) iii) this earth strange shore of strength to touch you with its wand… (“Woman in Love”) A major type of dislocation found in Mahapatra’s poetry is placement of adverbial (prepositional phrase) in the front position in a sentence. The prepositional phrases used consist of mainly locative adverbial and sometimes-temporal adverbial. In “The Quest”, the very first line has frontal positioning of locative adverbial phrase: Under the rain, beyond the walls, I search for the lost inhabitants of my country. and in “One Clear Night”, the setting is provided first by locative adverbial phrase: Over the hills, to the lonesome trees the shadows of the night play god once again. In Jayanta Mahapatra’s poetic world, space has been accorded prominence over and above anything else. Mahapatra is careful in specifying the place and time of the emotional drama: i) In the flickering dark, his lean-to opened like wound (“Hunger”) 62  ii) Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Now in a night of sleep and taunting rain my son and I speak of that famine nameless. (“Grandfather”) The normal position of direct/indirect object is immediately after the transitive verb, therefore placement of the object before verb foregrounds the object at the expense of verb. In “Grandfather”, for you, it was the hardest question of all, placement of object, you, before the verb foregrounds the dilemma of you in the poem – the grandfather’s dilemma whether to abandon his faith and embrace Christianity for this decision would change the course of life of the whole family. In “The Vase”, Ah! This voice I hear, dislocation of direct object reflects the emotionally charged state of the speaker, his mood of nostalgia. There are a few instances of inversion of the normal order of elements of noun phrase. In “Among the Trees” in the line, gaunt and cool the trees stand before me, the normal position of modifiers, gaunt and cool, is after the determiner, likewise, in ‘Sunburst’ the phrase, possible, rigid, two shy twelve years old, there is a string of modifiers from which possible, rigid are dislocated. This kind of inversion is primarily made for rhythmic effect. There are very few instances of inversion of prepositional phrase, grove behind and of adjectival phrase, in loneliness alone. The inversions are a device to draw the attention to itself by creating surprise. In the phrase, in loneliness alone, use of assonance lends rhythm. The prepositional phrase adjunct takes its position after the verb, but in a few instances, Mahapatra has transposed the order. In the poem, “Abandoned Temple”, in the phrase, shadow in retreat fly, the adjunct is placed between subject and verb. In the other instances, the adverbial phrase is made the participant: i) In to your silence of secret tree-shadows hails the trumpet of the sun. (“Woman in Love”) ii) In the charred coconuts of the festival is a secret shared by the carapace of the sun. (“Learning to Flow Free”) Syntactic Choices in Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poetry  63 In both instances, subject/ verb/ adjunct order is transposed, the figurative expression – trumpet of the sun, carapace of the sun is given the end position. Both are examples of unusual collocations, semantic oddity is passed over by their placement at the end but it highlights the dramatic tension between silence and sounding of trumpet and charred coconuts and charred carapace of the sun. The adjuncts are very frequently given the front position as in the poem “The Circle”, with each quiet breath he draws his circles still, in “Way of the River” the line, In the dim moonlight/ it breaks the trails, and in, “Learning to Flow Free…” in the line, for beyond darkness, nothing else shall survive, the adjunct is transposed from the end position to the front position. In most of the cases, a kind of rhythmic effect is imparted by the inversion. Lastly, there is another type of dislocation found more frequently in Mahapatra’s later poems, interruption of a standard word order by a parenthetical statement by way of an after-thought or an additional comment on the themes. The following lines from the poem “Performance” are an example of it: … because of the time again (can time ever know what fidelity is) that will have had too much of its dream (are you not my friends: Chinu, Bibhu, Raju) and in “The Assassins”, in the streets of Carthage and Rome the cold rancor of Hindu and Muslim (what past have I) The statements in brackets are parenthetical utterances included as afterthought. But in some of his later poems, the parenthetical utterances, placed at the end of the sentence are more in the nature of comment adjunct as in the following lines: i) .… somethings runs after me perhaps death’s own warning (“The Sunset”) 64  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets ii) so I can call you by your name – Orissa. (“A Hint of Grief ”) iii) it has become a ritual; this search for history (“The Quest”) iv) I can see the wind moving the bracken moving so fiercely that it blurs all thoughts. (“One Clear Night”) Regarding the use of this kind of dislocation, Baker remarks, “… dislocation by interruption may profoundly alter the cadence and momentum of the verse line, but unlike the reshuffling of elements in one sentence, this alteration makes the structure of poetry imitate the structure of ordinary speech – or even the less coherent pattern of unspoken but verbalised thought” (Baker, 1967, p. 32). The device of interrupting the normal word order of one sentence by another sentence or by a fragment gives Mahapatra’s poetry one of the most obvious characteristics of common, unpremeditated, colloquial language. Fragmentation is the most prominent syntactic irregularity used in poetry. It occurs when an essential component in the structure of a sentence is deleted. The essential components taken into consideration for this purpose are subject + verb + object or (complement). All exclamations are usually taken as examples of fragmentation. The most common kind of fragment in Mahapatra’s poetry is noun phrase fragment. Noun phrases are classified as fragments for they lack a finite verb to give them sense of being a grammatical structure. Although treated as a separate category, in most of the cases, modifier participial clause is appended to noun-phrase. Mahapatra may not care to provide grammatical coherence to these noun fragments, but there is a usually semantic coherence among them. Syntactic Choices in Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poetry  65 By means of participles, Mahapatra portrays a sense of continuous and simultaneous action without the sense of separation, restriction or finality which a finite verb with its defined tense, mood and person usually coveys. Besides actions do not advance in a narrative sequence but are subordinate to noun images. To some noun phrases are appended lengthy adjectival clauses, they do not advance the action but present a highly visual tableau. The occurrence of noun phrase fragment and appended participle is highest in early poems. In “Myth”, use of non-finite verb moulded in, old brassy bells/ moulded by memories, and the noun phrase fragment focus on the significance of bells in the structure of the temple and for the devotees. The noun phrase fragment, … a recurring prayer, is in the nature of comment adjunct and is semantically related to the devotees’ visit to the temple harbouring some wish in their heart and prayer in the temple by ringing the bells. The noun phrase fragments depict modes of worship and also project typical Indian reality and they also have a special meaning for the poet who had acquired a new religious identity. In “Sunburst”, the noun phrase fragments, in the opening of the poem serve a common purpose – they provide the setting of the scene of action in a very economical way: An old fear, the wild flight the exploding air … A common happening, an ordinary day. The preciseness in the use of words is highly effective in a narrative poem as it presents more than is stated through words. The words come alive and enact their meaning. The noun phrase with participial qualifier, a black humped bull, copulating on the warm tar/ the grass throbbing cruelly ablaze, brings out in overwhelming appropriateness a still of the crowd gathered around to view a cow and an ox copulating on the street and also records the crowd’s reaction to the scene of public intimacy on the street. In “Hunger”, the noun phrase fragment, a father’s exhausted wile, is a cry of moral shock of the narrator, a father driven by poverty himself offers his daughter for prostitution. The noun fragment with participial 66  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets modifier presents the continual dilemma of desire and will to abstinence, whereas the last line, the other one-fish slithering turning inside, records the triumph of lust over moral scruples. In “Somewhere my Man”, in the comment adjunct, even that simple thing, the noun phrase fragment seals off the complete identification of the man with the place. In the same poem, noun phrase with participial qualifier, a whole religion framed by the land juxtaposes the land, the people and their faith. It is people’s mode of worship that forms the core of religion. In “The Assassins”, the emotional turbulence of the poet is conveyed thought clipped phrase, the cold rancour of Hindu and Muslim, the poet’s concern with continual hatred and violence is well reflected. In some cases, the lack of finite verb does not make much difference, the lack of finality is even not noticed. The succession of two participial modifiers, in the final lines of “The Circle”, serves a significant purpose, flowing like river into each chronic pole/ aching in the depth of his creed, balancing between two non-finite verbs – flowing and aching, forces the final impact – pain of separation aching the heart and flowing like a current, with the use of a finite verb, it would have appeared a mere statement. In “The Faces”, the noun phrase fragment and adjectival phrases outnumber the sentence with a finite verb. It is among the few poems where fragmentary phrases are more than regular sentences. But too many fragments result in vagueness of meaning. The noun phrase fragments in later poems are not so very frequently used as in earlier poems. One reason for it is that Mahapatra seeks regularity and clarity of expression. The use of noun phrase fragment rarely results in any kind of ambiguity or obscurity. In “Walls” the noun phrases follow one another disjointedly in short sentence, as in an emotive speech: … all of light and those walls the walls. Syntactic Choices in Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poetry  67 The repetition of noun phrase, walls, reflects the turmoil of the speaker as the walls acquire a nightmarish appearance. He also experiences the narrowing of the crippling, crumpling walls as do the girls who embrace death for lack of dowry. In the later part of the poem, the catalogue of fresh, invigorating natural scenery presents despair and sorrow juxtaposed against magic of light: magic of light and later also the grass, the sky and the water and the clear sharp light… The instance of exclamatory fragments and interrogative fragments are not many. The interrogative fragments occur in “Grandfather” and “Today”. In “Grandfather”, the interrogative fragment, what Hindu world so ancient and true for you? foregrounds question which probes the core of the problem – how much does faith matter for a starving man? The roots of faith are so deep in the psyche that even in the face of starvation, a man is not ready to forsake it. The dilemma of a starving man is echoed by the interrogative fragment, what did faith matter? In “Today” short interrogatives. Today/ ignore it? Can one? affirm the impossibility of ignoring the present moment in which lives a host of memories of past love, but now lost – you asleep, whose silence wait for me. There are few instances of omission of subject-verb. It is very effectively used in “In A Night of Rain”. The introductory subject is implied in the phrases, a time, a hour, a rain. The nouns measure time and bring into prominence the paradox in the final lines A rain that/ does not wet the earth any more, the fragments summarise and highlight the argument of the poem. The noun phrase participial with modifier in “Woman In Love”, Wondering expression on its face/ wandering against inattentive waves, presents a mixed somewhat confused metaphor of boat wandering on the waves, sensation of touch wandering through the veins, wondering expression wandering on a tired child’s face against waves. But in “Something 68  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Spreading Itself ”, the participial modifier in noun fragment defines and clearly brings out the poet’s perception of life: Life: the slit left behind by the year’s flood a telegraph a key tapping away in the dark. … a quickening that contains all the colour of the rainbow. … The bandage crazed by the wound we made and the dumb yawn that appears out of nowhere and goes. The fragments scattered through the poem look disjointed. But these noun phrase fragments brings out multitudinal facets of life and approach life from shifting perspectives. Another syntactic device is elaboration. At least one finite verb is essential and indispensable for any grammatical sentence and other words or groups of words could be added to this basic structure. These elements especially are attached to the basic pattern of the sentence mainly by the two means of coordination and subordination. If in a passage, the device of coordination is exploited more that the device of subordination, the passage acquires a stylistic quality different from the one which uses more of subordination. The two main modes of coordination linking the constituents within an elaborate structure are apposition and linkage by means of conjunction. Apposition is the device of placing the various elements together. Coordination by means of conjunction, on the other hand, is a method of relating or bringing together in some fairly loose connection parts, phrases or discourse and is a means of signaling the unity of these parts. Excessive reliance on any one of or the other of these two syntactic devices effecting coordination imparts a special effect to the language of the poem. With regard to the tendency to put sentence units in apposition to each other, the instances are higher in the early poems because Mahapatra uses more of adjectives in apposition, compound adjectives are usually avoided, and instead one-word adjectives are Syntactic Choices in Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poetry  69 used. In later poems, he makes less use of adjectives in apposition as the poet does not care to reinforce the qualification of the substantives by using adjectives. The instances of putting verbs and adverbs in apposition are fewer. Coordination of sentence units could be achieved not only by putting the units in apposition but also by linking them by means of conjunctions. In the early period, the overall use of conjunction is less whereas in later period, Mahapatra is more careful in linking structural units by conjunctions. It is interesting to note that device of linking of adjectives by apposition used more in poems of earlier period is not much exploited. Mahapatra does not catalogue either verb or adverbs which gives his style the effect of being more vibrant, quick-moving and taut. Structural parallelism between sentences within the corpus of the sentence brought about by the devices of apposition as well as conjunction is a characteristic found in a large number of poems. The following are some of the actual instances of such parallelism: i) Here lies a crumpled leaf, a filthy scarlet flower. (“Myth”) ii) An old fear, the wild flight the exploding air… (“The Sunburst”) iii) Like huge banyan tree standing on the sides of the road … like dark nocturnal figures rising slowly. (“The Assassins”) iv) An hour when remembrance is vague. A time when indecipherable words of a lost language filter down. (“In a Night of Rain”) 70  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets v) What did faith matter? What Hindu world so ancient and true? (“Grandfather”) vi) My secret is more than songs or air more than time’s unpleasant corner (“The Secret”) vii) It is the potato peal the teeth won’t let go. it is the fragments of yesterday that are lying over in the streets. (“Something Spreading Itself”) viii) There will be no sacred relic, no democracy no first or last days of human love no vanity of victory (“Heroism”) ix) Nothing but the paddy’s twisted throat exposed on the crippled bleak earth anything but impotence in lowered eyes nothing but the tightening of muscles in Bhagybati’s neck nothing but the cries of shriveled women. (“Deaths in Orissa”) Geoffery Leeach remarks, “the assignment of significance to a parallelism rests upon a simple principle of equivalence. Every parallelism sets up a relationship of equivalence between two or more elements, the elements which are singled out by the pattern ascribing parallel. Interpreting the parallelism involves appreciating some external connection between these elements. The connection is broadly speaking a connection either of similarity or of contrast” (1969, p. 67). Many of the examples cited above reinforce similarity rather than contrast. They also serve the purpose of rhetorical emphasis. Only a few cases can be characterised as emphasising contrast between the constituent units. But these instances of parallelism even though combined with an implication of contrast cannot be described by the term antithesis. Another noteworthy feature is that most of the cases of parallelism have a gloomy, desolate connotation, which in a way reflects that Jayanta Syntactic Choices in Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poetry  71 Mahapatra lingers long on and elaborates gloomy aspects more than the pleasant and favourable aspects of things. Elaboration of individual sentences by means of the structural device of subordination is very extensively used. The adverbial clause of time and place are more frequently used; elaboration by using adjectival clauses is also a recurrent feature, the highest occurrence is that of adjectival clause. In the poem of the middle phase (which is the most creative and successful phase of Mahapatra’s poetic career), more than 50 per cent of the elaboration is by the use of adjectival clauses. The piling up of adjectival clauses makes the poems slow moving. It provides an effect of leisureliness but at the same time, it also illustrates that Mahapatra defines and qualifies the substantive to build up his themes. From the above analysis of syntactic choices in the poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra, we conclude that syntactic inversion is frequently used for emphasis. Adverbials frequently occupy front position; the setting and time of action, dramatic or internal, is carefully specified. Use of parenthesis is frequently made to comment or to include additional remark as an afterthought. The highest instances of fragmentation are noun phrase fragments, noun phrase fragments with appended clause are more in number but the semantic link is maintained, it does not get blurred. The skilful use of non-finite verbs conveys lack of finality. The use of interrogatives reflects Mahapatra’s tendency to seek answers where answers are not so readily available. Subordination is resorted more than coordination to elaborate the sentences, the sequentially of action is not so important as the building of the idea by piling up of subordinate (mainly adjectival) clauses. The stylistic features of Mahapatra’s poetry, however, cannot sufficiently capture the complexity of perception, which at times results in semantic irregularity. 72  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets References Baker, William E. Syntax in English Poetry, 1870-1930, Berkley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1967. Derbyshire, A.E., A Grammar of Style, London, Andre Deutsh, 1971. Leech, Geoffrey N., A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry, London, Longman, 1969. Widdowson, H.G., Stylistic and the Teaching of Literature, London, Longman, 1975. 6 Exploring the Self: A Note on Kamala Das’s Poetry Sudhir K. Arora The man who chooses the smoothest and easiest path of conventional life swims with the flow of the waves of the sea and remains commoner like the crowd but he who swims against them makes himself different from others and becomes trend setter. Kamala Das, an Indian English poet, is the trendsetter who with her poetic cannons – Summer in Calcutta (1965), The Descendants (1967), The Old Playhouse (1973), Tonight This Savage Rite (with Pritish Nandy, 1979) and fiery autobiography My Story (1976) has fired the traditional male oriented society. Kamala Das, born on March 31, 1934 in a respected poet family (great uncle Nalapat Narayan Menon, a writer of repute and mother, Nalapat Balmani Amma, a poet) of Malabar in Kerala, has established herself as a poet of revolt and woman of sensibility and is on the way of exploring her Self in the inner world while interacting with male chauvinism. She is baffled, feels isolated and sometimes becomes a failure in this daring venture of exploring the inner world and searching for her Self-there. Her true self that remains discontented with the corporal encounters oscillates like a pendulum and finally takes rest in the ideal love of Ghanshyam. Dr. Murli Manohar likes this Indian woman poet because of her individuality and independence. He writes: “She has been a selfesteemed person. She has shown her independence and individuality both in her life and in her career. She has converted 74  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets herself to Islam on December 16, 1999. So what? It is her choice. Who are we to question her? She is in a democratic country. She has every right to worship any religion she wants to. Whatever may be the reason, she has shown her independence and individuality. That is what I like about her life and about her poetry.”1 She is candid and honest in her Self-exploration. Her poetry shows a landmark in her female journey from “victimisation to consciousness.”2 Writing about the essence of Kamala Das poetry, Nambiar writes, “She becomes a feminist writer by making her women conscious and providing them wings to rise and flutter and hence constructing a collective identity. The essence of her poems is struggle about her own Self. As the self, female self, in her takes different roles, the ultimate self in her cries out honestly which, in fact turns out to be a collective cry. It is a cry for freedom”.3 Self is the crucial point of her poems. Her quest for identity refers to “the spiritual Odyssey”.4 For her, poetry is not an escape of the personality but it is the personality – the inner world that comes out to be built on the paper. She cannot escape from the dilemma even for a moment. She remarks: “One’s real world is not what is outside him. It is the immeasurable world inside him that is real. Only the one who has decided to travel inward, will realise his route has no end.”5 Now let us see how far her poems reflect her journey of the Self towards the Ultimate and how far she has explored the unexplored Self. We take some of her representative poems that are charged with her spirit of revolt and reveal her venture into areas unclaimed by society. ‘The Freaks’, a forthright statement of feminine sensibility, depicts emotional barrenness and the loneliness that the female persona feels while engaging in sex act. The female persona enters the sex cosmos to realise her Self and to be united with the male in order to have a place in his heart but on the contrary, her ambivalence comes to the front. She wishes to have a feeling of oneness with her male lover (husband) as her body is in sexual act while her whole being remains aloof in absence of the nourishment of her feeling and emotion. Disillusionment and cynicism are the offshoots of the sex act that makes her freak. While exploring her Exploring the Self: A Note on Kamala Das’s Poetry  75 Self through sex act, she makes a geographically survey of her lover, the betrayer and feels disgusted and repulsive He talks, turning a sun-stained Cheek to me, his mouth, a dark Cavern, where stalactites of Uneven teeth gleam She is horrified to see the sun burnt brown lusty face of the lover and disproportioned way of her uneven teeth that are gleaming in the cave of his mouth. She does not wish to be lost in the dark ugly caves of the physical but wishes to be in there in order to gratify the dark in her. She fondles him and makes him ready for sexual act as she finds that their minds race towards love but their thoughts and feelings wander. She feels the nimble work of the finger that raises lust in her but not the strength of true love. It is astounding to note that their married life is a failure in spite of the fact of living together. She does not discover her Self in him. Who can Help us who have lived so long And have failed in love? While sex cycling, she hopes that her heart, an empty cistern will be filled with water of love but is filled with coiling snakes of silence. She calls herself as a freak who flaunts the flamboyant lust to avoid herself being called as abnormal. In order to hide her inner sterility, vacant rapture and disgust she pretends to display a strong and concentrated craving for sexual indulgence. The journey of her Self remains incomplete. I am a freak. It’s only To save my face, I flaunt, at Times, a grand, flamboyant lust Kamala Das feels disgusting as she sees her lover’s mouth that becomes a dark cavern where she does not wish to lose herself. It seems that the dark cavern will swallow her Self-crushing her body. The lines “while our minds/ Are willed to race towards love” 76  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets suggest the mechanisation of the gratification of sexual hunger of the body, not of the soul. The phrase ‘Puddles of desire’ is metaphysical. Her desire to be in love remains a puddle as a sexual act that moves the dynamics of the body obstructs the path of desire of love. ‘Skin’s lazy hungers’ are the superficial appetites of the body as her body does not have the inner felt craving for sexual satisfaction. The female persona has her heart empty in the hope that the love will fill it up with its shower but contrary to her hope, he fills it with ‘coiling snakes of silence’ that darken her way of exploring the Self. ‘My Grandmother’s House’ with its nostalgic aroma is an endeavour of Kamala Das to peep into the secure and safe days of the past that she passed with her grandmother when she was a child. Her heart is choked with the intensity of emotion when she recalls her grandmother and the day she died. Even the house “withdrew into silence.” This house used to be the protective cover, which she misses at her husband’s house. She thinks of going to the house to have a look at the things inside it through the windows, which she finds, are closed. She longs to sit there by herself and to listen to the music of blowing cold winter inside, which revives memories of her dear dead grandmother. Kamala Das searches for herself in the floodlight of her husband’s house but the light blinds her and does not afford any sense of security. Hence, she wishes to shift the darkness of her grandmother’s house to her husband’s house where the darkness will safeguard and protect her from the strangers and the enemies. The languishing desire of the poet for a peep into her past and then picking up the darkness for her protection can be seen in these lines: How often I think of going There, to peer through blind eyes of windows or Just listen to the frozen air, Or in wild despair, pick an armful of Darkness to bring it her to lie Behind my bedroom door like a brooding Dog… Exploring the Self: A Note on Kamala Das’s Poetry  77 Z. F. Molvi writes, “In the poetry of Kamala Das, the world of harmony and love is symbolised by her grandmother. With her grandmother’s death she woke up to the brutal facts of life.”6 The feelings of pride and love that she received in her grandmother’s house are missing. This sense of deprivation has made her a beggar for love knocking at the strangers’ doors where she hopelessly hopes to receive it, at least in small measure. In her quest for love, she has lost the way and is knocking at the strangers’ door in the hope of love. Her quest for love is her quest for searching the Self but her husband has created the worst situation in her life making it without love and pride. I who have lost My way and beg now at strangers’ doors to Receive love, at least in small change? Blind eyes of windows and frozen air clearly suggest her overpowering sense of death. The darkness that she will bring will act as brooding dog that will give a sense of protection. In her search for the Self, she wishes to carry this darkness that will make her reflective and meditative. Overall, in her quest of love, she is bewildered and does not know the way that will lead her on the great adventure of exploring the Self. ‘A Hot Noon in Malabar’ reminds us of Wordswoth’s Intimation where the poet in his mature years misses the celestial light as he used to see in his childhood. The celestial pleasure is missed by Das in her husband’s house that becomes a torture. In exploring the Self, she feels worn-out and lonesome. It seems that the Malabar House with her grandmother becomes the supreme Self for which the Self of the poet is yearning but the way that goes there is afar and she cannot think of it without breaking the fetters and chains that do not allow her to move. The way for her is to parade from memory to desire without reaching the goal. Her exploration of the Self remains unexplored. The more she explores the Self, the more she finds herself between nostalgia and estrangement. She cries in despair: 78  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets To be here, far away, is torture. Wild feet Stirring up the dust, this hot noon, at my Home in Malabar, and I so far away…. As it is hot she recalls the noontime in Malabar that was a new experience for the inner contentment. She wishes to be wild in thoughts and wild in love because of the wild desire for love making in her mind. She laments she is now living so far away from her Malabar home. She experiences a strong desire to go back there. She states: Yes, this is A noon for wild men, wild thoughts, wild love. To be here, far away, is torture: Satish Kumar writes in this connection: “The old family home is symbol of shelter and relief from the tedium and monotony of the present. But the pathos and irony lie in the fact that despite her passionate yearning for the old family home, she cannot relive the past. She has to live in unpleasant and horrible present but the sweet memories of the past give her a feeling of joy and rescue her for a short while from the unhappy present.”7 ‘The Sunshine Cat’ records the persona’s feelings of disappointment, dissatisfaction and displeasure over sex and the sexual mortification and exploitation that she suffers at the hand of her husband and others who proved to be selfish in their attitude towards love making. Initially she loves her husband in the hope of reciprocation, but he proves to be selfish one who neither loves nor uses her but becomes “a ruthless watcher”. Being disgusted with her husband, she develops extramarital relations to quench thirst for love, she clings to their chest to hide her face in the hair which grew there. She tries to make them forget everything except the act of lovemaking but they prove to be like her husband. The woman in her suffers too much humiliation. She is so disgusted that she wants to wipe out all the memories related to them. All such humiliations make her lose her sanity. She goes to her bed to sob and to weep. Tears are the only trusted companions. She wishes for building a wall with tears and the wall will shut her in. Exploring the Self: A Note on Kamala Das’s Poetry  79 To forget, oh, to forget…and, they said, each of Them, I do not love, I cannot love, it is not In my nature to love, I cannot love, it is not In my nature to love, but I can be kind to you… They let her slide form pegs of sanity into A bed made soft with tears and she lay there weeping, For sleep had lost its use; I shall build walls with tears, She said, walls to shut me in…. There is always the internal vacuum in a woman’s life. The poet persona is locked up in a room of books. She befriends the streak of sunshine that seems to be a yellow cat. But winter fades its brightness and reduces it to a thin line. On account of her persistent depression and dejection, she feels herself to be cold and half dead woman who is of no use to men Winter came and one day while locking her I, he Noticed that the cat of sunshine was only a Line, a hair-thin line, and in the evening when He returned to take her out, she was a cold and Half-dead woman, now of no use at all to men. She is in the ocean of love where her Self, that is with the waves, in order to quench its inner thirst embraces the islands that remain quite mechanical and untouched with the embraces. In vain she seeks for love through physical union that makes her even more disturbed and restless than ever. Later in her poems, her maturity that she has gained after painful experiences can be seen in switching over to Ghanshyam who illumines her Self. Her hope of realising her identity through sexual act with other partners proved to be misleading as these lovers failed in showing the emotional love, love of soul. Their love emanated from the body, not from the soul. They did this to her, the men who knew her, the man She loved, who loved her not enough, being selfish And a coward, the husband who neither loved nor Used her, but was a ruthless watcher, 80  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets ‘The Invitation’ is a confessional poem that reveals the poet’s sexual act with a certain lover and her intention to commit suicide because of the lover’s deserting her. While standing on the seashore, the female persona realises that the sea is inviting her to make an end of her life by drowning. The sea asks her that she will lose nothing by drowning but it will gain something by swallowing her body. She recalls the man whom she loved to reject the invitation of the sea. The lover used to come to her arms like a fish that comes up for air. But she dismisses the memory, as she knows the lover will not come to entertain any help. But again she recalls that she felt paradise on the bed of six by two. Then the sea asks her to have a cool bath and pillow her head on anemones, otherwise she will end her life “lying on a funeral pyre / With a burning head”. But she is so obsessed with love that she needs the same lover to construct and destruct it. She wishes to be lost for love. No. I am still young And I need that man for construction and Destruction. Leave me…. But finally she cannot resist the temptation as she speaks to her lover in her imagination stating that the sea waves are beating against the seashore. It is not likely to resist its invitation forever. The tides beat against the walls, they Beat in childish rage…. Darling, forgive, how long can one resist? If the poem is minutely examined, it seems to be Das’s exploration of the Self. The poet beloved is the Soul and the sea becomes the Supreme Soul inviting her to be united by drowning, i.e., death. Death is the only way that will unite her Self with the Supreme Self. In this way, she will lose nothing but will become complete by uniting with the Supreme Self. The sea is garrulous today. Come in, Come in. What do you lose by dying, and Besides, your losses are my gains. Exploring the Self: A Note on Kamala Das’s Poetry  81 But she outright rejects the offer because of the worldly attractions particularly the physical union with the lover who provides her a paradise on the bed but later on deserted her. The sea in a very philosophical manner makes her convinced that the world will give her nothing and the lover will not come back. Hence she will always be burning on a funeral pyre. End in me, cries the sea. Think of yourself Lying on a funeral pyre With a burning head. Just think In the end, the Self of the female persona questions of the waiting for the lover and is tempted to sea that seems to be the sea of eternity where the exploration of the Self will end. ‘The Looking Glass’ explores Kamala Das’s quest for personal relationship that she wishes to develop with the lover through sex. Very frankly she searches her identity in the male dominated society and is shocked to find out that the primary duty of a woman is to satisfy the male ego by praising his masculinity and accepting her own feminine weakness. She is supposed to play the conventional role of a puppet, a plaything whose only aim is to gratify male lust. Kamala Das has universalised the personal as the female persona is every woman and the man is every man. The poem offers some tips to women for sucking maximum possible pleasures out of sexual experiences. A woman should stand nude before a mirror and asks her partner to do the same. She should not feel shy to praise his physical body. Stand nude before the glass with him So that he sees himself the stronger one And believes it so, and you so much more Softer, younger, lovelier…. Admit you Admiration. Notice the perfection Of his limbs his eyes reddening under The shower, the shy walk across the bathroom floor Dropping towels, and the jerky way he Urinates. All the fond details that make Him male and your only man. 82  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets She asks the woman to surrender her beauty, youth, grace, delicacy, hair, breasts and even her private parts to the superior male. Gift him all, Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts, The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your Endless female hungers. But she also gives expression to the sense of loss and dispossession that a woman experiences when the lover, with whom she has enjoyed sex, deserts her. Such sexual act is imprinted on her mind and she is left to suffer humiliation and frustration. She has the emotional involvement in sex act while for the man the skin communicated pleasures are momentary. Without the lover she becomes a living without life. She will not find any substitute to give her the same sexual pleasure that she experienced with him. She will always hear the lover’s voice calling over her name and remind her of the warm embraces. The body that was glossy and lustrous while lying in bed with him becomes dull, insipid and unattractive. Oh yes, getting A man to love is easy, but living Without him afterwards may have to be Faced. A living without life when you move Around, meeting strangers, with your eyes that Gave up their search, with ears that hear only His last voice calling out your name and you Body which once under his touch had gleamed Like burnished brass, now drab and destitute As a pilgrim, she is on the path of love, meets the lover and enjoys pleasure through sexual devotion with eyes shut to relieve her but as soon as she opens her eyes she finds lover missing. Venugopal affirms: “The poetry of Kamala Das is full of questions that are rarely answered. They are queries about truth. But, truth, in Exploring the Self: A Note on Kamala Das’s Poetry  83 general, is unbearable. And Kamala Das, the seeker after truth feels betrayed.”8 Kamala Das feels disgusted with her non-realisation of the exploration of the Self through love in this male dominated society. She wishes to forget the sexual disgrace inflicted on her in pillinduced sleep. She calls her husband the “ruthless one, clumsy with noise and movement.” She wants to keep away from the “mute arena of her soul.” Though she cannot prevent him from cycling the sexual lustful ride, she can stop him from disturbing the peace of her soul. In the poem “Luminol”, she gives an outlet to her feelings: Love-lorn, It is only Wise at times, to let sleep Make holes in memory…. ….. the soul’s mute Arena, That silent sleep inside your sleep. Her nymphomaniac nature is responsible for her misery. She wishes to escape from her memory of her sexual frustration but does not find any way so she thinks of drug like luminol for peace. The love that Kamala Das got from her father and grandmother remains an ideal that she searches in others while exploring her Self but is shocked and is disillusioned not to receive from anybody else in the whole of her life. In the poem ‘Glass’, she says: A woman-voice And a Woman –small. I do not bother To tell: I’ve misplaced a father Somewhere, and I look For him now everywhere. She misses the genuine feeling which arises out of the love for the Self, not for body. The body arouses the lust. She tells about a man who with the desire of sex draws her towards him rudely and treats her as “an armful of splinters”. His behaviour causes much pain to her. 84  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets …drew me to him Rudely With a lover’s haste, an armful Of splinters, designed to hurt, and, Pregnant with pain. Her frustration is visible when she calls herself as a glass that can be shattered because of fragility. I went to him for half an hour As pure woman, pure misery Fragile glass, breaking Crumbling…. ‘An Introduction’ is Kamala Das’s self-assertive statement attacking conventionalism. She seems to be advocating the rights of women. She introduces herself saying that she is an Indian, of a very brown complexion, born in Malabar having the ability to speak three languages. I am Indian, very brown, born in Malabar, I speak three languages, write in Two, dream in one. Her Self comes to the fore at the encroachment of her freedom of expression. She reacts to it as she does not want to lose her identity. She reacts: Don’t write in English, they said, English is not your mother-tongue. Why not leave Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins, Every one of you? Why not let me speak in Any language I like? The language I speak Becomes mine, mine alone. It is half English, half Indian, funny perhaps, but it is honest, It is as human as I am human, don’t You see? …..and further… It voices my joys, my longings, my Hopes, and it is useful to me as cawing Is to crows or roaring to the lions, it Is human speech, the speech of the mind that is Exploring the Self: A Note on Kamala Das’s Poetry  85 Here and not there, a mind that sees and hears and Is aware. As she grows up, she attains puberty and adolescence. She observes some physical changes in her body: For I grew, tall, my limb swelled and on two places sprouted hair She is married at the age of 15 to K.Madhav Das. But, she does not get the love she longs for but instead of it, she faces exploitation and embarrassment in sex encounter with her husband. When I asked for love, not knowing what else to ask For, he drew a youth of sixteen into the Bedroom and closed the door. He did not beat me But my sad woman badly felt so beaten The weight of my breasts and womb crushed me – I shrank Pitifully. Then… She revolts against the set rules meant for women. She breaks the traditional image of woman. Then …I wore a shirt and my Brother’s trousers, cut my hair short and ignored My womanliness. But the same male dominated society compels her to be fit for traditional feminine role. Dress in sarees, be girl, Be wife, they said. Be embroiderer, be cook Be a quarreler with servants. Fit in, oh, Belong, cried the categorisers. Don’t sit On walls or peep in through our lace-draped windows Be Amy, or be Kamala. Or better Still, be Madhavikutty. What she experiences are the experiences of every woman. The woman in her craves for love. …I met a man, loved him. Call Him not by any name, he is every man Who wants a woman, just as I am every Woman who seeks love. 86  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets She claims for her own identity. She wishes to be autonomous in decisions. She depicts herself in the following words: I am sinner, I am saint. I am the beloved and the Betrayed. I have no joys which are not yours, no Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I ‘The Old Playhouse’ reflects the female persona’s unsatisfactory and unacceptable connubial life with her husband who, like a captor intends to tame her into a swallow. He always tries to make her forget her very nature and the innate love of freedom by keeping her under control. She feels restless against this exploitation. Her individuality is robbed. She is denied her basic human rights and freedom. She raises her voice in an ironical tone. You planned to tame a swallow, to hold her In the long summer of your love so that she would forget Not the raw seasons alone, and the homes left behind, but Also her nature, the urge to fly, and the endless Pathways of the sky. Kamala Das raises her voices against this male supremacy. In the scheme of man, a woman cannot raise herself above the conventional image that deadens her person. You called me wife, I was taught to break saccharine into your tea and To offer at the right moment the vitamins. Cowering Beneath your monstrous ego I ate the magic loaf and Became a dwarf. I lost my will and reason, to all your Questions I mumbled incoherent replies. She comes to her husband to learn her identity and to develop her personality further. But the self-centeredness and the egoism of her husband prevented her to learn. He makes love to her and feels happy and satisfied with the responses he has from her to his lovemaking. But he never knows that the response of the female persona is physical and not genuine, as she never experiences emotional integration with him. Joya Chakravarty tells about the relationship of Kamala Das and her husband stating: “Her husband Exploring the Self: A Note on Kamala Das’s Poetry  87 was interested in sex, she sought companionship – the result was a hollow union.”9 You were pleased with my body’s response, its weather, its usual shallow convulsions ….you embalmed My poor lust with your sweet-bitter juices The female persona feels that her exploration of the Self is obstructed while she expected that her husband would help her. Now it seems to her that her mind has lost its power to think on account of the dictatorial mindset of her husband. She compares her mind to the old playhouse that is in deserted state with all lights put out. There is No more singing, no more a dance, my mind is an old Playhouse with all its lights put out. ‘Composition’ becomes the composing of women in their search for identity. The female persona generalises the subject and unifies women. What I am able to give is only what your wife is qualified to give We are all alike, We women, in our wrappings of hairless skin. Very candidly she accepts that her life is a total failure, as she has not got the ideal for which she always aspires. She expresses uselessnessness of her life: To be frank, I have failed. I feel my age and my Uselessness. The tragedy of life is not death but growth, growth into adult and to have the needs that remains unfulfilled in spite of doing the 88  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets best for their realisation. She is tired and wishes to take rest, may be permanent rest. The sea allures her: All I want now as to take a long walk into the sea and lie there, resting, completely uninvolved. ‘The Conflagration’ becomes a new milestone in her search for identity. While exploring her Self, she explores the collective Self of women. Woman, is this happiness, this lying buried Beneath a man? It’s time again to come alive The world extends a lot beyond his six-foot frame. Kamala Das probably wishes to assert her individuality. If her husband could satisfy his sexual cravings elsewhere, why not she?10 ‘Substitute’ exposes the reality about the sex act that is a physical thing for the man but to the female persona it is not the physical but more than that. Hence, her inner Self that remains hungry searches for the new love in order to realise the ideal one. She reveals the fact very frankly: After that love became a swivel-door, When one went out, another came in. The poem ‘Prisoner’ is the epitome of female persona’s intention of escape from the clutches of the man who has obstructed the path of the Self. Just as a prisoner studies the prison in order that he may escape from there, she also examines very carefully the trappings of his body from where she has to flee. On the surface it seems easy to flee but none comes out of the grip. Body becomes the prison from where the female persona’s soul will flee. Somewhere it is the Self that will come out of the body in order to embrace the ideal lover, may be Ghanshyam through the darkness of death. It is her Self that challenges the man stating the future motive to escape from his body’s snare. Exploring the Self: A Note on Kamala Das’s Poetry  89 As the convict studies His prison’s geography I study the trappings Of your body, dear love, For I must someday find An escape from its snare. Kamala Das expresses her deep despair and disappointment over her marriage with an unfeeling man who proved to be an obstruction on the way of her exploration of the Self. The protector proved to be a betrayer. In ‘Relationship’, she gives an outlet to her feelings. Betray me? Yes, he can, but never physically; Only with words...while My body’s wisdom tells and tells again That is shall find my rest, my sleep, my place And even death nowhere else but here in My betrayer’s arms… ‘In Love’ is not being in love of the female persona who is disgusted with the man who uses her body ignoring her emotional fulfilment in love. The man is concerned only with the physical part that will give him bodily pleasure. The female persona hates this attitude of the man. She states hatefully: Of what does the burning mouth Of sun is burning in today’s Sky, remind me…..oh, yes, his Mouth, and …his limbs like pale and Carnivorous plants reaching Out for me, and the sad lie Of my unending lust She has the feeling of revulsion so much that the burning mouth of the lover burns love and converts it into the heat of lust. The limbs of the man prove to be carnivorous plants that press the female persona’s body to swallow it lustfully. Love has no connection and it makes her dissatisfied and angry. 90  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Where Is room, excuse or even Need for love, for, isn’t each Embrace a complete thing Finished jigsaw…. Her Self is suppressed under the fire of lust that envelops her body. She feels boring at the repletion of the sex act and pays attention to the chanting of corpse bearers Bole, Hari Bol. This makes her aware of the fire that will consume the corpse. Somewhere in her mind, she thinks of funeral fire that will give rest to her disturbed soul, K.R. Srinivas Iyengar rightly points out: “under the Indian sun, although sensuality lures irresistibly, yet it fails to satisfy; feeling and introspection but sound the depths of the oceanic sense if frustration; and the calm of fulfilment eludes forever. Love is crucified in sex, and sex defiles itself and again and again.”11 ‘Jaisurya’ is a journey of the persona’s self that experiences childbirth, a stage to be proud of. Lust has no place during childbirth. She feels proud of being the mother of the son who, being in darkness within her womb, has now come out to the world of light. She says: Out of the mire of a moonless night was He born, Jaisurya, my son…. out of The wrong is born the right and out of night The sun drenched golden day Kamala Das is obsessed with the desire to be loved and to be accepted as she is. Her search for ideal lover remains incomplete. Finally she worships her ideal lover Krishna. In the poem ‘Radha’ she expresses inner feelings: O Krishna, I am melting melting, melting Nothing remains but You ….. From physical to spiritual is the graph that the female persona shows while exploring the Self through love. Her failure in marriage and her unsuccessful sexual relationship with others lead her to Exploring the Self: A Note on Kamala Das’s Poetry  91 utter dissatisfaction. She purges her sexual desire visualising herself as seeker of Lord Krishna’s love. Ghanshyam appears to her in many shapes. The music starts playing in her heart. In Ghanshyam, she says: Ghanshyam, You have like a koel built your Nest in the arbour of my heart My life, until now a sleeping jungle Is at last a stir with music. Her spiritual aspiration comes to the fore as a result of her sexual frustration. She feels that everyman with whom she performed the sexual act is Ghanshyam in disguise. But finally she feels that Ghanshyam is her ideal lover. She merges her Self with the Supreme Self of Ghanshyam. In truth, all the poems of Kamala Das are one poem in as much as they register the voice of a wounded self.12 The Self-bleeds in the poems that are read like “the fever chart of a hopeless case”13 But these poems create an impression of bold, ruthless honesty by exposing passionately the hollow men of all conventional attitudes toward women and by revealing “the real woman within”14 Manisha praises her for raising voice against male domination but is stunned at Kamala Das’s conversion to Islam. The journey of the Self is not towards the broad perspective of uniting the women. The Self-moves backward and is confined to be in purda, a tradition of Islam that never gives equal status to women. Is it a brave task to enter from a bind alley to the other narrow lane? She is surprised at the fact that the poet, who brought a revolution in the world by her frankness, will be so conservative. She further says: Kamala Das, be Surayya or Susan, you will remain woman.15 Though Kamala Das seems to be oscillating between love and lust, she finally finds peace in the love of Ghanshyam. She follows on the footstep of Mira or Radha and her Self longs for the ultimate, the Supreme Self. Her Self makes the male world realise of its importance, denies to be lost in it but aims at the final goal – 92  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets the Supreme Self, the only true lover who will give peace to her wandering and wavering soul. She is tempted to the goal and her Self hopes to reach there by perishing the body. She learns much, gets experiences and makes up her mind in not considering the physical lovers as Krishna though she takes the physical as a step that will lead her to the true love of Krishna. For this she never believed in the institution of marriage. K.R.S. Iyengar sums up Kamala Das’s poetic self: “Kamala Das’s is a fiercely feminine sensibility that dares without inhibitions to articulate the hurts it has received in an intensive largely manmade world.”16 She is successful in her venture of exploring the Self. Bruce King writes: “Her poems are situated neither in the act of sex nor in feelings of love: they are instead involved with the self and its varied, often conflicting emotions, ranging from the desire for security and intimacy to the assertion of the ego, selfdramatisation and feelings of shame and depression.”17 In a very real sense, Kamala Das has given voices to her cousins who are suffering under the male chauvinism. The credit goes to her for making poetry “a powerful medium for self-expression; thereby conforming to a new female literary tradition to liberate the suppressed voice that has been trying through ages to find its own identity.”18 Notes and References 1. Dr. Murli Manohar, “Meet the Writer: Kamal Das”, Poetcrit, January 2003, Vol.XVI, No. 1. 2. C. R. Nambiar, “The Quiddity of Kamala Das”, Modern Indian Poetry in English: Critical Studies, ed. Nila Shah and Promod K. Nayar, New Delhi: Creative Books, 2000, 121. 3. C. R. Nambiar, “The Quiddity of Kamala Das”, Modern Indian Poetry in English: Critical Studies, ed. Nila Shah and Promod K. Nayar, New Delhi: Creative Books, 2000, 122. 4. R. S. Pathak, “Quest For Identity in Indian English Poetry”, Indian English Literature: Marginalised Voices, ed. Avadhesh K. Singh, New Delhi: Creative Books, 2003, 22. 5. Kamala Das, My Story, New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1989, 109. Exploring the Self: A Note on Kamala Das’s Poetry  93 6. Z. F. Molvi, “Kamala Das: Homeless in the City”, Kamala Das: A Critical Spectrum, ed. Rajeshwar Mittapalli and Pier Paolo Piciucco, New Delhi: Atlantic, 2001, 92. 7. Satish Kumar, Kamala Das, Narain’s Series, Agra: Lakshmi Narain Agarwal, 139. 8. Venugopal, C.V. “Kamala Das – The Seeker After Truth” in Living Indian English, ed. Madhusudan Prasad, Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1989, 49. 9. Dr. Joya Chakravarty, “Manifestations of Kamala Das’s Poems in Her Autobiography My Story” Contemporary Indian Writings in English, ed. Jayadipsingh Dodiya, New Delhi: Atlantic, 2001, 04. 10. Ibid. 11. K.R. Srinivas Iyengar, “The New Poets” Indian Writing in English, New Delhi: Sterling, 1985, 677. 12. Dr. Hari Mohan Prasad, “The Erotic and the Ethnic – A Study in the Love Poetry of Kamala Das”, Love and Death in Indian Poetry in English, ed. S.N.A.Rizvi, New Delhi: Doaba House, 1989, 43. 13. K. Indrasen Reddy, “Between the Fire and Hungry Earth: A Note On Kamala Das”, Kamala Das: A Critical Spectrum, ed. Rajeshwar Mittapalli and Pier Paolo Piciucco, New Delhi: Atlantic, 2001, 129. 14. Satish Kumar, “Women Poets”, A Survey of Indian English Poetry, Bareilly: PBD, 2001, 303. 15. Manisha, “Why Was Kamala Das Turned to be a Musalman?” Hum Sabhya Auratein., New Delhi: Samayik Prakashan, 2004, 187. 16. K.R.Srinivas Iyengar, “The New Poets” Indian Writing in English, New Delhi: Sterling, 1985, 680. 17. Bruce King, Modern Indian Poetry in English, Delhi: O.U.P., 1987, 151. 18. George Alexander, “Kamala das: A Revolt against Male Tradition”, The Indian Journal of English Studies, Vol. XL 2002-2003, p.62. 7 Contemporary Abuses and the Need for Edifying Generality: A Study of Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poems Kasthuri Bai I wanted to make sense of the life which lay in fragments before me, I was urged to seek answers of myself, testing my feelings by striking them against the fabric of the poem I knew I must write… Jayanta Mahapatra Mahapatra, a bilingual poet and translator, feels that poetry often suffers from clichéd content resulting in distancing the readers from social commitment and obligations. Attempts have been made, therefore, to contextualise topical events to enable the respondents to face reality with empathy, courage and conviction. “All good art is contemporary” is a well-known critical maxim. But it needs to be balanced by the observation that all art, including contemporary art, is historical. In other words, arts, which are the product of a definite place at a definite point of time, grow through particular experiences in so far as they would chiefly have been distinct if they had emerged in any other place and time. However, the paradox of contemporary art is that one knows either too much or too little of one’s own historical context to approach any work of art in proper perspective. Critics in defence of autonomy and self-explanatory nature of a work of art affirm that it is possible to sever an artistic piece from Contemporary Abuses and the Need for Edifying Generality  95 its umbilical bindings of time and place. But, such an effort disregards the sheer nature of art by inhibiting the readers from identifying their experience with that of the book/poem they are reading, and also preventing them from devoutly listening to a writer, who is a man speaking to men. Works of art “without which men can live, but without which they cannot live well, or live as men” (Tate 113) should promote “participation in communion” (ibid. 121). In a secularised society where the ends justify the means, there are men of letters who like the news-commentators or reporters either transmit or communicate information which elicits a preconditioned response from the people. The multitudinous public, which always pines for what is not on grounds of disassociation of sensibilities and fragmentation of ideas, can neither discover a common experience nor take an intense and immediate share in the ‘existential’ actuality. So the men of letters should reorient the readers to perfer civilisation to barbarism. The distinction between man and machine lies in the ability “to believe in order to know, and to know in order to do” (ibid. 116). While a machine is conditioned to do without knowing, man characterises himself by his discriminating behaviour which emerges through means of communion or participation in time to live beyond time. Hence, it is the foremost duty of a writer “to render the image of man as he is in his time” (ibid. 117). Mahapatra attempts to create “a body of poetry” which has the kind of relationship with his environment and the problem of finding significance in “this time of darkness and lost ones” that is similar to the “major poets of our age” (qtd. in Twenty-five Indian Poets in English, 182). Mahapatra excels in writing ‘indicative’ texts. Poems like “Defeat”, “The Quest”, “Bazaar scene”, “Heroism”, “the Unease of Quite sleep”, “About my favourite things”, and a few other poems in his book of verse, Shadow Space are examples of ‘indicative’ texts. For instance, Mahapatra depicts the drought stricken Kalahandi (a prominent place in his poetry other than Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Puri) in his poem, ‘About my Favourite 96  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Things’ which describes the anguish of the underprivileged people. Thus, he writes in agony: Last December, around Christmas I felt I should go down the drought – stricken kalahandi countryside and watch my eyes fill with flight A tiny straw hut in the fallow fields looked sadly at me. It was to keep out the cold, they said, the four-by-four frail pyramid of straw could easily hold ten men warm through the near zero winter nights. I went in, lay down Caught the odor of sweat and coarse straw. Did all earth smell like that?. (Mahapatra, Shadow Space, 1997: 49) Apart from the thematic significance, words in Mahapatra’s poetry are often endowed with associative force as much as that of a stone dropped into a still pool of water causing ripples of water from the centre into which the stone fell. The mathematical image “the four-by-four frail pyramid of straw”, which easily holds ten men, is in contrast to the colossal pyramids of Egypt which were erected to mummify individual bodies. The image evokes reverberations of associated ideas and emotions. In the study of a work of art, the fact that “what it says how it says it, and why what it says is important to us” (Gardner 526) needs adequate attention. For instance, the structural dissimilarity between the mystery, majesty and the wonder-arousing inmemorability of the Egyptian pyramid, and “a tiny pyramid of straw” in the underdeveloped Kalahandi district of Orissa draws attention to the strength of the poem in the conception and execution of a figure of speech which rests on contrasts and balances of ideas. The very choice of the word ‘Pyramid’ whether it refers to the Egyptian grandeur or the odour of a frail pyramid of coarse straw suggests that all the paths of glory or poverty lead but to the grave. The personal experience of the poet regarding a specific place helps him to see the globe in a grain of sand, for the straw-like life could be a common phenomenon among companions in distress. Therefore he Contemporary Abuses and the Need for Edifying Generality  97 questions: “Did all earth smell like that?” Mahapatra has said: “If contemporary life is no longer what it was, say twenty-five years back, can one expect the same content, the same form, the same substance from contemporary poems” (Mahapatra ACLALS Bulletin/ Newsletter 9-11). Mahapatra is profoundly moved by anarchy which is loosed upon the religious world on account of the multiplicity of scriptural debates, and controversial faith resulting in ... another set of January deaths When a father and his two children were burnt alive (Just because they had another faith) (“For Days Together”) The poem substantiates that the three charred corpses indicate that fanatics are allies of acquiescence in evil. Apart from religious intolerance, another contemporary event which needs to be exorcised is the plight of child labour. Mahapatra like the Romantics regards childhood as a felicitous image of innocence and purity, for it is a period of pure sensations and Joyous affirmation of life. When Jesus was questioned by the disciples about the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens, the Lord answered: Truly I say to you, unless you Turn around and become as young Children you will be by no means enter Into the kingdom of the heavens (Mathew 18: 3) But, “Between the idea/And the reality/between the motion/ And the act/ falls the shadow”. (Eliot The Hollow Men). The innocent and pure child of romantic poetry is seen as the brutalised and exploited victim of poverty, starvation, and human sufferings in Mahapatra’s poem called “Defeat”. Thus he writes: As a child, on my way to school, I watched the fire crackle in the blacksmith’s shop A boy sat smiling, fanning the flames, I did not notice his eyes then, mistry with pain or his hands as he worked with the bellows, a finger broken, sores on his thin wrists. 98  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Mahapatra like Dickens and Lamb takes cognisance of the theme of child labour which serves as a means to protest against the disturbing and dehumanising economic factors in the society. Many a time, one may fumble for words to describe what is good. But, it is proved to be easier for everyone to say what is not good. As in tragedies, which teach people through the magnitude of pity and fear, Mahapatra shows the excesses of ‘hunger’ at the literal and symbolic levels by recalling the true incident from the life of a fisherman who in order to satisfy his hunger for food invites the protagonist, a stranger, to have sexual fulfilment in the company of his fifteen year old daughter. We hear the old man say: ... my daughter, she’s just turned fifteen.... Feel her, I’ll be back soon, your bus leaves at nine. The sky fell on me and a father’s exhausted wile. Long and lean, her years were cold as rubber. She opened her wormy legs wide. I felt the hunger there, the other one, the fish slithering, turning inside (“Hunger”) The poet writes that the incident could easily have happened to him on the poverty-ridden sands of Gopalpur-on-sea, for “the landscape of Gopalpur chose me, and my poem to face perhaps my inner self, to see my own debasement, to realise my utter helplessness against the stubborn starvation light of my country” (qtd in Twenty-five Indian Poets, 182). The sentimental approach that man is created in the image of god is shockingly questioned by Mahapatra. On a propitious occasion, when the gossamer veil of goodness falls away what is perceptible is the dark nativity in every man. It is towards this horrifying matter that Mahapatra sets his journey, and that the myth of lost privileges is a crude fallacy is the destination – discovery of the poet. It is said that throughout the poem, ‘Hunger’, the poet highlights the value of the unravished bride of silence, for neither the young man nor the girl speaks anything, even the factual utterance of the hapless father to his potential customer signifies an ominous silence. Contemporary Abuses and the Need for Edifying Generality  99 Accuracy and suggestive power are the features of effective diction. Equally, while evaluating the efficacy of diction, one has to judge the individual word by the part that it plays in the poem as a whole. So the individual image is valid in so far as it adds to the wholesome effect of the poem in which it occurs. When Jayanta Mahapatra uses the image of “flesh which was heavy on his back” in the opening line of the poem ‘Hunger’ to imply the inherent sexuality which has been unbelievably working on him, it strikes the keynote of the composition. Simultaneously, it reveals to us that the desire to quench the cravings of one’s own flesh seeks illegal avenues of flesh-trade centres where morality is compromised by poverty. On par with the dictation of the flesh-image, we are introduced at the closure of the poem to another image ‘fish’, which so far denoted the profession of the fisherman’s community gets itself transformed into a sexual imagery or a signpost for prostitution covertly suggesting consummation in a subtle way. The essay that describes the views of Mahapatra about writing which “is a satisfying act” also calls it “a rather painful... digging out” (The Dalhousie Review, 63, No.3, 435) and the poem ‘Hunger’ exemplifies the truth. In the observation of Helen Gardener, the historicity of a work of art depends on three factors. The first as already stated refers to the basic belief that space and time contribute to the growth of art. The second factor with reference to the poems which are discussed so far indicates that art grows through the particular experiences of the writer and the last of all is that the individual work of an artist has a historical relation to its author’s other works. Mahapatra’s poems do not fall apart. Contemporaneity is its centre holding the unity of his work. Since the poet intensively relates himself to his province (Orissa) and the nation, the bitter experiences of the anti-national activities in Punjab in the name of Khalistan movement in the year 1980 hurt him beyond measure that he delineates the inhuman set-up which is personified in the procession of the emaciated cows which are being taken toward the municipal slaughter house with 100  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets their feet slipping, their eyes following the vague light into silence. Wet as though with glue, they haunt me through the nights, perhaps equipped with designs to show man his true nature... I pick up the morning newspaper and see how a nation goes on insulting itself with its own web or rhetoric. And remember how some of us poets had participated at the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the Sahitya Akademi in New Delhi and with plagiarised smiles and abstract talk convinced ourselves that in harmony there was no deception. (“A Monsoon Day Fable”). The poem reminds us of Keats’s “Grecian Urn” where the heifer is decorated and led to the green-altar reiterating the intractable truth that the cult of sacrificial offerings (to put it in inoffensive words) or the victor-victim practice (to be brutally frank) be it animals or human beings is the repetitive pattern of the world sans sense and sensibility. Mahapatra is sour about the governing body of the nation which indulges in verbal embellishments and about the man of letters, who in lieu of imposing order upon disorder have been merely gloating over literary acknowledgements and monetary gains with “plagiarised smiles”. The business of art is not to conceal but to reveal. Fancy in this regard can ill-afford to cheat us. Nor can one say: ‘Fled is that music / Do I wake or sleep’ (‘Nightingale’). The artist has to experience the throns of life so that his sweetest songs will tell us the saddest thoughts about humanity. For instance, Mahapatra’s use of ‘Plagiarised smiles’ to refer to poets who are in their comfortzone, asserts that amidst dishonesty even smiles are begged, borrowed or stolen. Mahapatra rejects hackneyed comparisons, and chooses the collocation of the abstract and the concrete to describe strange meanings. Therefore, his language of poetry sounds fresh, compressed energetic and exciting poetry. In the earlier days, poetry was considered to be the representation of life. But, modern poetry reflects life. Mahapatra, who is caught in the whirlpool of time, Contemporary Abuses and the Need for Edifying Generality  101 describes the life of the ‘doldrummers’ in the poem titled ‘The Lost Children of America’ who With their appearance of sibyls and witches Limp and cold with ablutions Of another, separate world We gaze at each other in silence, the lost child and Who knows who is playing a joke on whom? (“The Lost children of America”) Mahapatra’s “Sibyls and Witches” recall Eliot’s Sibyl of Cumae in his epigraph to The Waste Land which presents the theme of death – in life. The heart of a socially obligated poet aches to sit and hear each other’s groan. On the other hand, the high-collared bureaucrats, who are elected to govern the nation, or they who ride the tiger, refuse to dismount from their seat of power. “The maniacal Government building” (“The Return”) and their utter callousness to the sound and fury of the socially neglected people embarrass Jayanta Mahapatra. The poet evokes mournful memories in a few other poems like “The Fifteenth of August”, “Of Independence day”, “Red Roses for Gandhi”. Mahapatra bleeds to see the image of Gandhi being relegated to the background and expresses his regret over the fact that the observance of his birthday has become a mere ritual. The Poem ‘Red Roses for Gandhi’ is occasioned by the immolation of eight students on October 2, 1990, the day of Gandhiji’s birth anniversary. Laying wreaths on Gandhiji’s grave at Rajghat has become an annual feature. Thus, he writes: Those roses tremble in the Prime Minister’s hands now as he steps carefully toward the bitten marble of silent years. The significance of martyrdom is lost upon us, and therefore, with a note of melancholy and pathos, Mahapatra says: Ah day, how your lean and naked face leans on the country where sons and daughters burn in tongues of fire 102  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets The world may perhaps consider Gandhi as a spent force and his ideals as anachronistic, but Gandhi ever inspires confidence in him Thus he writes: The photograph of Gandhi in the new airport lounge is more than forty years old Every time I look into the old man’s eyes, he calmly hands my promise back to me. (“The Fifteenth of August”) “Requiem”, the title of part II of Bare Face, which sings an elegy for the saint-politician focuses on Gandhiji’s belief system assuring us that the one and only way of experiencing peace and harmony of existence is to rededicate oneself to Mahatma’s philosophy and practice. So the poet questions: You toyed with the idea of trying That God would refuse you nothing. What did you cry? Remorse and fasting. Perhaps prayer. It is a world in itself, this ahimsa, with its mysterious shadows lurking under ancient places, that assumes the clear, self-sustaining light of suns: a redefinition of beauty. (XII ‘Requiem’) As an Indian poet writing in English, Mahapatra upholds poetry as an exercise in empathy, a banner-feature of India being corroborated by the writings of Vallalar, a Tamil Saint and Savant, who remarked that he felt deep anguish at the sight of withering plants (‘Vadiya Payirai Kanda Pothellam Vadinen’ (transliteration mine) (Thiruvarutpa). Life has become “a heap of broken images” because the present has forgotten its ancestral glory. Cuttack, a historical city of significance which once had magnificient Barabati Fort, is now seen as a symbol of ‘Vanquished dynasties’ and the River Daya ‘stank with the bodies’ (‘Relationship’) of his ancestors. Equally, none finds high tides in the Bay of Bengal to add to the twilight beauty of Konark. Contemporary Abuses and the Need for Edifying Generality  103 The scene reminds us of the deserted Thames scene in The Waste Land where one sees the reminders of the orgy of pleasure on its banks. But the contrast between Mahapatra and Eliot is, while the River Daya “Stank with the bodies of the ancestors, the Purity and sweetness of the Thames” had been defiled by the “loitering heirs of city directors” and their casual counterparts. To put it in the other way, ‘death’ in Mahapatra is juxtaposed with death-in-life in Eliot. But the resemblance between the past and the present is that degeneration is absolute. Yet, it can be countermanded by regeneration if the present transforms itself into something higher and nobler. Mahapatra feels that an in-depth faith in the power and glory of the ancient history, its heroic myth, and vision can either recharge or reframe man’s search for the roots. The dehumanised happenings in Punjab and the heartrendering Gas Tragedy in Bhopal and the brute massacre at Nellie in Assam bewilder him that the poet like the simple pendulum “tries his utmost to replace the senseless refrain of hate by the amazement to be alive” (Dispossessed Nests, 20).The title (Dispossessed Nests) is an excellent example of the brevity and the compression that a figure of speech can achieve, for it succeeds in helping the readers to visualise human dilemma. However, the poet looks askance at the role of poetry. Thus he states: But what use is a poem, once writing so done? Words looking for what, in the dark of the soul? like the sound of a match striking, then over, I know that much. When all else has failed, the poem’ words are perhaps justified. (‘Last Night the Poem’) Poetry may appear ‘lame’ in his own words. But, it will, certainly, like Prometheus, ignite human life to participate in the homogeneity of human suffering. One may proclaim that art becomes redundant if it is centred around the occurrences of day in and day out, for the media has already been earmarked for the same. But the theory of reinforcement or recapitualisation establishes that the rock-like human mind necessitates the need for more levers to air-lift one to tremble even to think of dare-not acts. 104  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Science which rests on experiments causes knowledge to grow, but art which emerges from experiences causes us to grow (Niblett 59). The growth about human self is to be involved in the chain of mankind at times of adversity. Remedial measures from the observer’s point of view may appear inaccessible, but at least an understanding, that just are the ways of peace, and to justify the same one has to keep oneself good, will dawn on us. Similar to the concept, that ‘charity begins at home’, the good of the world too originates from the good of the individual. The inner harmony and happiness will propel human beings to seek means of restoring outer harmony. In other words, a journey into the properties of one’s own inner being will foster a journey into the self of the world. It is stated that any work of art that brings to focus the total awareness of an enlightened being could be termed as meaningful. Such a work of art either raises fundamental questions as regards existence, or helps us to be aware of our immediate reality. Whether or not a writer has made significant strides on either of these two scores is not always easy to decide. But, it suffices that the work has held our interest, and left us with the feeling that somewhere in our minds we have changed a little or have become profoundly aware of certain issues that surround us. For W.H.Auden, “Poetry makes nothing happen....” But Mahapatra holds a different view that a poet can change his role from being a mere observer to an active participant in recommending the resurrection of Gandhian ideals for the welfare of the state politics. D.H. Laurence makes a decisive statement that the objective of art is not to solve but to declare; the reason being that life is not a mathematical problem for which one can always find a well-knit or step-by-step solution. The complexity or the diverse nature of life is an unending challenge to custodians of art. Yet, writers like Mahapatra focus on the need to sensitise the readers to the frustrating subtleties of life, and every time the writer fails to unravel its mystery, he consoles himself saying that there are miles to go before he sleeps. Writers, therefore, assert that the whole Contemporary Abuses and the Need for Edifying Generality  105 worth of life, lies not in perfection, but in the effort to become perfect; not in accomplishment, but in the strife to accomplish. Poetry can exert ‘experience of release’ (Seamus Heaney) the release being that the prevention of indifference to human sufferings is better than hyperbolic utterances of cure. The use of contemporary events in the poems of Mahapatra is a bone of contention among many critics, for the problem with topical subjects is that the transient prevails over the intransient, and the writing may tend to become documentary in effect and impact. But the moment one links a literary expression to a communicable form of presentation, and associate it with either a latent event or a person, an element of authenticity is given to the creative process. Historic or public events, when treated as metaphors with wider and multiple connotations, do not belong to an age, but to all ages. Mahapatra has brought an exceptional talent, an utter seriousness and lots of industry into the difficult craft of writing situational poetry where he absorbs public events as documents to create exciting poetry which asks moral questions about humanity in the cataclysmic period of decolonisation. References Gardner, Helen, ‘The sceptre and the Torch’ The English Critical Foundation: An Anthology of English Literary Criticism, Vol-II, Eds. Ramaswami S. and V.S. Sethuraman, Madras, Macmillan, 1986. Krishna, Arvind Mehrotra, Ed. Twelve Modern Indian Poets, Calcutta, OUP, 1995. Mahapatra, Jayanta, Close the sky, Ten by Ten, Calcutta, Dialogue Publications, 1971. ........... , A Rain of Rites, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1976. ......... , Waiting, New Delhi, Samakaleen Prakashan, 1975. ......... , Relationship, Greenfield, New York, Greenfield Review Press, 1980. ......... , Life Signs, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1983. ......... , Dispossessed Nests, Jaipur, Nirala Publications, 1986. ......... , Selected Poems, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1987. 106  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets ......... , Temple, Sydney, Dangaroo Press, 1989. ......... , A Whiteness of Bone, New Delhi, Penguin Books, 1992. ......... , The Best of Jayanta Mahapatra, Calicut, Bodhi Books, 1995. ......... , Shadow Space, Kottayam, D.C. Books, 1997. ......... , Bare Face, Kottayam, D.C. Books, 2000. ......... , Face to Face with the contemporary Buletin/Newsletter, IX, April 1981, 9-11. poems, ACLALS Naik, M.K., Dimensions of Indian English Literature, New Delhi, Sterling Publishers, 1984. Niblett, V.R., “Experiment and Experience,” New vistas in English Prose, Ed. Stewart H. King, Madras, Blackie Books, 1991. Paniker, Ayyappa K., ‘The Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra’, Osmania Journal of English Studies: 13:1; 1977: 117-138. Prasad, Madhusudan, “Caught in the Currents of Time: A study of the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra,” Journal of South-Asian Literature, 19: 2: 1984. Ramanan, Mohan, “The Script and the Body: Contemporary Indian Poetry in English and the Colonial Context,” Journal of Indian Writing in English 25: 1-2, 1997. Ramamurthi, K.S., Ed. Twenty-Five Indian poets in English, Madras, Macmillan, 1995. Tate, Allen, “The Man of letters in the Modern World,” American Literature: An Anthology of Prose, Ed. Marudunayagam P. Chennai, Emerald Publishers, 2002. (This paper was published in an edited anthology on Jayanta Mahapatra) 8 Muse as Rebel in Meena Alexander’s The Bird’s Bright Ring C.L. Khatri Meena Alexander is a writer of varied reference. She is a poet, novelist and prose writer. Her chequered life with varied hues is amply reflected in her varied literary interests. She was born in Allahabad in 1951, brought up in Khartoum and had her family home in Kerala where she, along with her family, used to visit every year till she returned to India at the age of 22. She had her education in Khartoum but did her Ph.D from Nottingham University, England. Back home she joined Miranda House, New Delhi for a few months and then J.N.U., New Delhi. From J.N.U. she moved to Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad. Making a quantum jump she joined Hunter College, New York where she is currently teaching. Naturally she got multiple experiences – sweet and sour – but has never lost contact with her roots where she has her moorings. Today’s Alexander is certainly a diasporic writer with pangs of immigration and clash of culture within her. Her passionate involvement with “the issues like immigration and race-relation”1 is vividly articulated in her two autobiographical books: Fault Lines: A Memoir (1993) and The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Post-Colonial Experience (1997). The same first-hand experience of the problems of immigrants in America finds a powerful voice in her second novel Manhattan Music (1997). The diasporic feeling is very much acute and dominant in her poetry and novels of the post 108  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets expatriation period. It makes me wonder if the whole of Alexander is diasporic. Should we call a writer diasporic? Or the term should be confined to a work of art? Is the generalised use of the term for writers settled abroad not facile? Even they have produced novels and poetry that have nothing of diasporic feelings. Meena Alexander has produced poetry collections when she was working in India in which there is hardly any point of diaspora. However, the root of some of her diasporic preoccupations can be traced in her involvement with the issue of exile caused by the ‘dead scripts’ of the colonisers and her protest against it at linguistic level. Her first three poetry collections: The Bird’s Bright Ring (1976), I Root My Name (1977) Without Place (1978) bear ample proof of it. Surprisingly there is an omission of these three works in M.K. Naik’s and Shyamala A. Narayan’s Indian English Literature (19802000): A Critical Survey. It is written that she begins “her poetic career with Stone Roots, (1980), House of a Thousand Doors (1985), River and Bridge (1995).”2 However, she started writing poetry during her student age and her first poem was published in Sudan in Arabic translation. The present paper is an attempt to evaluate the poet’s nagging concern with issues like exile, politics and search for identity in The Birds Bright Ring. They are further developed in her later works as her central concerns. Since she has moved to a diasporic position the same features can be viewed from that angle. However, diasporic feelings, constant transitions to her root, the sense of exile within the homeland and abroad and the sense of being rooted out must have been a part of her growing consciousness. The note of protest is very much there in her vision of exile and approach to counter it. She adopts a distinct and refreshingly new approach to the problem of exile in her prefatory note “Exiled by a Dead Script” in Without Place: For undeniably, the sheer burden of English in this land, could that burden now be weighed, would be found to rest, not in speech from the human mouth but in the dead script, the dying letters of an oppressive bureaucracy and its concomitant Muse as Rebel in Meena Alexander’s The Bird’s Bright Ring  109 educational machine which through their manifold strictures of repetition seek to control the very nature of utterance. English in India is a nowhere language – spatially, it does not belong anywhere and so its poet, as one who would make his very habitation in the language of his most vital speech necessarily grasps himself as exiled. And those who have not raised or sunk their voices to consciousness of exile everywhere bespeak it by virtue of the tongue they use. What does it mean to be exiled? An exile is one who is estranged from place around him, his body cannot appropriate its given landscape.3 (p.VIII) Her approach to counter the threat of exile is really postmodern: In order to make poetry in English in India and yet resolutely refuse exile, language must contort itself to become mimetic of muteness – of their muteness which is appropriated as the poet’s own, under an oppressive order – so poetically subverting the hidden ideology of our contemporary Indian English. For such a language shall always remain a colonising power, till those whom it oppresses steal it for themselves, rupture its syntax till it is capable of naming the very structures of oppression.4 (p.IX) It is in this direction that her muse moves forward. It would be interesting to see how she first rebels against the syntax of poetry prescribed in the ‘the dead script’. She throws all rules to wind and reduces the alien tongue to its bare minimum shreds as if it were a sign language of muteness: L’oiseau Chante avec sa voix Kala blind musician cactus 110  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets man gouge out your eyes to sing Durga purple plum with many heads smile at flowers Leela eyes strike love5 (p.10) The Bird’s Bright Ring, a long poem consisting of 16 untitled units, begins with such stanzas and continues in the same vein. One can clearly see the absence of formal sentence structure and complete disregard to the rules prescribed in English grammar. It is by no means her ignorance but her defiance, her rebellion against the colonial design. As a result of it she comes out in her poems as a champion of Romantic-symbolist poetry. She speaks through symbols and symbols are multilayered. Hence suggestions not exact meanings are generated through an intercourse between the reader and the text. The recurrent symbols provide a kind of cohesion and link to the units and to her thoughts that keep flowing in “a stream of consciousness technique.”6 The recurrent symbols are ‘plum’, ‘bird’, ‘cactus man’ and the recurrent image of ‘mother’. ‘Kala’ is a Hindi word for ‘black’. So the black, ‘blind musician’ and the ‘cactus man’ are representative of evil and dehumanising forces that force men to invoke the goddess who has ‘many heads’ and like a ‘purple plum’, a soft round smooth skinned fruit with a hard seed. The invocation of the mother Durga leads us to the battlefield in the third unit where ‘cactus man’ speaks like a character, He could not see purple plums spilling onto the battle field” (p.11) Muse as Rebel in Meena Alexander’s The Bird’s Bright Ring  111 Here ‘plums’ acquire a different connotation. The irony implies that plums are not spilling in the battlefield because Lord Krishna’s message of love is lost in blindness. The same ‘cactus man’ is the ‘guardian/of the dark gate’ (p.12) in unit IV and ‘the flesh/of plums’ and ‘bones of birds’ suggest death and destruction. Plums also mean eyes sharp and ‘rolling’. She affirms the universal value of the diamond that cannot be burnt. The diamond may be the soul at metaphysical level and the country at physical level. In the next unit we have a Biblical reference of ‘the throne/of the lamb’ emanating ‘a river/of crystal’ that the poet discovers in the womb of the mother. She makes an emotional plea: My mother Brilliant mother he knows I crawled in the pitch of your womb feed me with the rivers of crystal flowing (p.13) The ‘cactus man’ is set in contrast with ‘Brilliant mother’ to reinforce the intensity of the clash and conflict between the coloniser and the colonised. The tone of plea turns into prayer to ‘Mother’ first as a ‘fish’ and then as ‘my bird’. If the ‘fish’ gives her navigation power, the ‘bird’ gives her the power to fly. She wants to be fed with ‘plums pudding’ and ‘rivers of crystal’ and demands the ‘cactus man’. In her attempt to rupture language, her language becomes private symbols, obscure and oblique. What M.K. Naik observes in her later works is true to her first work. Alexander’s reflective poems are far less successful. Lacking a solid grounding in external reality, they tend to be obscured by halfarticulated thought in dangerous league with private significance, resulting in a miasma of vaguely conveyed meaning.7 112  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets The problem of inarticulation lies in the specific form of the genre she adopts and her pursuit of rebel. However, at times she changes the structure of her verse. As in unit VII and XI she is more elaborate in describing her identification with the working class and the have-nots: I sing for all work head bent close against the great red sun who labour tooth nail sinew bone against glass metal paper stone (p.15) All of a sudden she aligns with the Marxist idea of poetry for the proletariat “For song being labour” and chastises the city woman: Woman of Delhi! You do not see how centuries of dream are flowing from your land (p.15) The sun in the poem is a symbol of feudal power and also of the coloniser and ‘plums’ are innocent natives: A frog leaps in the sun it blinds burnt plums (p.16) She also turns nostalgic that in later poetry becomes a diasporic feeling. Time and again she recalls the mother, her care and her desire prompted mainly by her unfulfilled desire. So far the obliquely symbolic reference to the conflict between the ‘cactus man’ and the ‘plums’ turns transparent in unit XI in the description of the British brutality. The image of ‘winter’ creates the right atmosphere in which falls “the shadow of the British soldiers” and “They dragged their guns/ over the slope to the cleft of the Ridge/1857 a cold bad winter and they broke our backs.” (p.19) But the reference to ‘1857 cold winter’ is just a thought, a reflection to the colonial age and she scans the whole age from colonial rule to the Emergency rule India has undergone. It is her Muse as Rebel in Meena Alexander’s The Bird’s Bright Ring  113 acute political consciousness that is triggered off by the imposition of Emergency by Indira Gandhi. The stream of consciousness sets in and she travels back through the dark tunnel of her memory to bring out the relics of time and ease out her complex web of thoughts. The reference to the British tyranny is also aimed at equating the terror let loose during the British rule and the Emergency period. Not only shadows fell that cold hard winter But bruises like down from hidden veins of porphyry as the belly of the mother was torn open (p.20) Since she has no personal experience of pre-independence she adopts the technique of dramatic monologue in which the spirit of the past unravels the mystery of the time to her alone and the reader gets only the poet’s version of the spirit’s account. It is rich in visual images that evoke gory scene: they dragged the artillery down her breathing cheek lined it at the point of Flagstaff Height... Red stones of Kashmere Gate Coarse red mouths of the outer walls covering delicate lips enclosing either of marble pearl of alabaster Rubies richer than veins of porphyry cleaving (p.21) Stone is also a recurrent symbol in the latter part of the poem. Not only its colour, ‘Red stones of Kashmere Gate’, ‘red mouths’, ‘Rubies’, ‘porphyry’, ‘red of tamarahindi’ and ‘the pomegranate’ tell a lot about the blood-bath and brutality but also their hardness suggests coldness and inhumanity of the rulers. 114  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets The moment she loses contact with the spirit, she comes to the present And I looked for the spirit but he had passed away and you my love cut from me with a great distance. (p.23) The voice of the spirit gets metamorphosed into the ‘voice of cobbler/hawker/beggar man/thief ’ who were butchered in the fight between ‘two fierce kingdoms’. The kingdoms imply India and Pakistan and the situation ‘Fragile as the filament of an egg’ reminds us of the trauma of partition associated with the birth of two free nations ‘your birth/an endless devastation.’ She offers a congenital explanation to the cause of ‘the devastation of mortality’ – riot, terrorism and war. She attributes it to its birth, as it was born of a bruised mother. It is called ‘glittering obsidian’ which is a powerful symbol for the explosive national and racial psyche of the two peoples. However, the freedom and the formation of national government gave rise to boundless hopes and aspiration of the people ‘And there shall be no more curse.’ (p.24) But the hope soon belies and the poet finds supple material to sing in lamentation: but the spirit had vanished Only the soil hand remains it opens out its dark bruise and countless tongues make speech (p.24) Evidently Muse finds a potent role of a rebel – a rebel against imperialism, racialism, tyranny of rulers and exploitation of the proletariat in her poetry so much so that song becomes the form of ‘our breathing lamentation’. The recurrent symbols of ‘cactus man’ and ‘plums’ reappear in unit XIII after a gap of three successive units X, XI, XII. Both are in Muse as Rebel in Meena Alexander’s The Bird’s Bright Ring  115 their changed guise. ‘Plums’ are the eyes of the poet, the hands of cactus man are no longer on the neck of the bird and ‘Bright/plums/litter the flowing river’. But all is not well as the ‘Blindness blooms’. Surprisingly what we have next is a news clipping: The Times of India. New Delhi: Tuesday, November 5, 1974 Call for Bihar bandh tomorrow (p.28) How far such inclusion in a poem is poetically acceptable is a matter of debate. It only reaffirms her commitment to rupture the established norms of poetry. With the XIV onwards it is getting clear that she is losing hold of her subject. Unit XV though a moving piece of verse is only a poetic sequel to the news clipping. Patliputra City of Ashoka City without sorrow (p.29) In the next unit she turns her tune and gives the impression of a jigsaw puzzle kind of narrative and the effect gets affected in the obliqueness of suggestions and associations: Spiked music flaring in her veins Red skirts which Sweep the grass (p.30) Maybe it points to the effect of Western culture, maybe something else. But it is inarticulative. However, the reappearance of ‘the plums’ and ‘frail bird’ takes us back to the units before XIV. The bird is a symbol of Muse and of imagination. She asks her muse to take a retrospective course of journey ‘Through a tunnel’: a black hole of music passage of rhythm for poetry (p.31) 116  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets She traces the historic course of the evolution of poetry through the ages that can be illustrated as follows: Shabda-Nada-pitch-svara-sruti-poetry And then the parallel development of life: – Ether-flesh + blood-dark-body- light/bright ring. The philosophic brooding concludes with a fine piece of poetic frill reemphasising the central concern of the poet to expose ‘salt/to the wounds/of/open heaven’ (p.31). It is in the last unit (XVI) that the title words reveal themselves in three fragments ‘bird’ in ‘frail bird’, ‘bright’ in ‘dark body/bright’ and ‘ring’ in ‘sheer ring’. So the title The Bird’s Bright Ring is highly symbolic and has several connotations. The poem partly reveals it and partly conceals it. At one level it reminds us of the attribute of ‘golden bird’ used for India in the past. At another level it may be the attribute for the poet-poet is the bird and poetry is his/her bright ring that enlightens the humanity. The recurrent note in the poem is of protest, of rebellion against the established norms of the linguistic empire, the British Empire and the newly evolved empires of India-democratic and Pakistan-autocratic. In any case their victims are the innocent poor and the poet tries to champion their cause. References 1. Naik, M.K. & Narayan Shyamala A., Indian English Literature 19802000: A Critical Survey, New Delhi, Pencraft International, p. 225. 2. Ibid. p. 194. 3. Alexander Meena, Without Place, Kolkata, Writers workshop, 1978. 4. Ibid. 5. Alexander Meena, The Bird’s Bright Ring, Kolkata, Writers Workshop, (Subsequent references are from this edition), 1976. 6. Kumar Satish, A Survey of Indian English Poetry, Bareilly, Prakash Book Depot, 2001, p.316. 7. Naik & Narayan, Indian English Literature 1980-2000, p. 194. 9 The Mode of Confession in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath and Kamala Das: A Comparative Study Bikram Kumar Mohapatra Confession is not at all a new mode in literature. As it is the disclosure of some sort, writers have disclosed their personal feelings in a blatant and clear manner in their works of art. The psychological documents with Christian metaphysics in Saint Augustine’s confession and the uniqueness of true self in the complex psychological drama of Rousseau’s The Confessions establish the impression that the confessional writings have a potent influence on the history of literature for the psychological outlets of personal feelings. Remarkably enough confessional poetry has a very significant ancient tradition that originates from the poets like Sappho and Catullus. But in modern times confessional poetry gets its official recognition as the term “confessional properly” coined by M.L. Rosenthal while reviewing Robert Lowell’s Life Studies. As it is seen, confessional poetry is an expression of self in psycho-exotic pastime. Robert Phillips Points out: A “confessional art whether poetry or not, is a means of killing the beasts which are within us, those dreadful dragons of dreams and experiences that must be hunted down cornered and exposed in order to be destroyed” (2). In confessional poetry the self is the primary subject, which is treated with utmost frankness and lack of restraint. Hence it 118  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets opposes Eliotic aesthetics of “impersonality”, that influenced several generations of poets. The truth of human nature is rightly portrayed with the subjective experience of man. This happens because “we are living in a great age of autobiography” (Phillips IX). The most intimate aspects of life, areas of experience, which one would instinctively keep from public sight, are openly expressed in poetry. As a matter of fact openness of language ventilates openness of emotion in confessional poetry. Though the confessional poets speak of facts from autobiography, these facts are not presented as a mere case history. Sustaining the authenticity, these poets link up the facts of life with a subtle mythic pattern. So to say the first person singular ‘I’ of confessional poetry is not the factual ‘I’ of the poet but a projection of the Poet’s being into another person. Manje Jaidka rightly observes, “the purpose of this mask is to achieve a degree of objectivity which is not possible if the poet keeps his own self as the center of his poems” (8). The self is used as a poetic symbol around which a personal Mythology is interwoven properly. It is because the confessional poets are aliens who tail to conform to the establishment and don’t make definite statement in terms of traditional and cultural values. This rejection of established norms of judgment springs from psychic disintegration of extreme mental state. Karl Malkoff has suggested that “the work of Lowell, Roethke, Plath, Sexton and others must be placed in the context of not only private, confessional poetry, but of poetry of madness as well” (28). The manic depressive psychosis is the major theme in confessional poetry. The outpourings of thoughts and emotion from such state appear as self-therapy and purgation. However it is an “extremist art” that A. Alvarez refers as it handles the necessity of risk with the “volatile” materials like death, suicide, mental break down, the artist may be vulnerable testing such materials on himself. Thus the confessional poets have created a domain of experience in their poetry where the self is confronted in a destructive landscape of passion and paranoia. The Mode of Confession in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath & Kamala Das 119 In contemporary American poetry a group of poets like Robert Lowell, Theodore Roethke, John Berryman, W.D. Snodgrass, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath have contributed their writings that obviously fall in such confessional trend. In Modern Indian English Poetry also some poets like A.K. Ramanujan, R. Parthasarathi, Nissim Eziekel, Shiv K. Kumar, Jayanta Mohapatra, Kamala Das, etc., display their thoughts and feelings in such a manner that indicatively conjures up on a confessional mode. Among them, the creative outlets of Sylvia Plath and Kamala Das seem alike as they belong to the same category of human being and having the same social and conjugal disfavour. Though they both have come from two different traditions and social background, their suffering is similar to each other. In this context their poetry seems very much similar with opinion and subject matters and also at the same time appears dissimilar to cause of affliction in a different social set up. Sylvia Plath is an acutely sensitive American poet who conjures up a magic spell among the readers of contemporary poetry. In her poetry reality and imagination, love and hate autonomy and dependence, nature and self-interact with each other to produce of comprehensive picture of her complex poetic personality. Though she committed suicide by gas-oven at the pretty young age of 30, the short span of her creativity has a terrible perfection, particularly in the genre of modern confessional poetry. Among her poetic works The Colossus is the only volume that was published during her life time. The other volumes like Crossing the Water, Ariel and Winter Trees and The Collected Poems appeared Posthumously. Considering her whole works critics have divided the phases of her creativity into three different statuses. Her colossus poems appear in primary phase Crossing the Water is traditional and Ariel and Winter Trees in late poetry. The gradual growth of her creativity reflects in her works that Pashupati Jha rightly points out in the book Sylvia Plath, “The poetry of fear”. “The poetry of Regression” and “The poetry of Aggression” in three different headings are for three different and distinct phases of her creativity respectively. 120  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets In The Colossus the poet’s impression of nature is intensified by a sense of futility. The poetic self in Plath is obviously unable to establish a meaningful relationship with nature; thus the poet hovers around her own self, a self that can’t take on an increasing assault of the ugliness and squalor of modern life. The attachment of her poetic self to nature is not only indifferent but also hostile as well. The poem “Water colours of Grant Chester Meadows” outwardly appears as the idyllic picture, of “a country on a nursery plate” where “Droll, vegetarian, the water rat / saws down a reed and swims from his timber grove” and again in a “moony indolence of love” the owl shall stoop from his turret, the rat cry out”. This is the kind of landscape where the beauty is endangered with the conception of a lurking fear. In “A winter ship”, “Hard castle Crags”, and hostile inherent of nature. In “The Burnt-out Spa” she speaks “An old beast ended in this place / A Monster of wood and rusty teeth”. In the concluding lines she says: The steam that hustles us Neither nourishes nor heals (33-34) But in “Point Shirley” She says: I come by Bones, bones only, pawed and tossed I would get from these dry-papped stones. (37-38, 41) The allusion to the primeval world creates an additional sense of owe and dread. The title poem “The Colossus” also gives a picture a picture of ruin of a personal past. The poet’s self is reduced to an ant: Scaling little ladders with glue poets and pails of Lysol I crawl like an ant in mourning Over the weedy acres of your brow To mend the immense skull-plates and clear The bald, white tumuli of your eyes. (11-15) The poem “Eye-mote” serves as a key to understanding Plath’s imaginative arena throughout the Colossus poems. It sets forth a fixed, flat description of that emblematic world of opposites that the The Mode of Confession in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath & Kamala Das 121 poet desires to observe which is more comprehensive than the immediate realistic mode. Her mode of confession lies with selfawareness I dream that I am Oedipus. In “The Stones”, the last piece of the “Poem for a Birthday” series expresses the threat of mental breakdown form a personal point of view. The mode of confession lies with the elemental imagery: This is the city where men are amended I lie on a great anvil, The flat-blue sky circle Flew off like the hat of a doll When I fell out of the light. (1-5) The restlessness of the poet is no longer content with impersonal reconstruction. About the collection of poems Mary Lynn Broe points out: “Her models of the artist-creator and her grasp of the aesthetic process demanded a capacity for psychological integration that she could not manage through-out The Colossus” (79). In her transitional phase of creativity, poems are included in Crossing the Water. The transition means a transition from one set of images to another, from dialectic of self and nature to dialectic of self and history in which mythology continues to play a crucial role. Here the mode of her confession lies with regression. Poems like “Face Lift”, “In Plaster”, “I am vertical”, “Insomaniac”, “Surgeon at 2 am.”, Last words”, “Mirrors”, “An Appearance”, “The Tour”, etc., are considered the best confessional poems of this volume. Her condensed feelings get an outlet in a confessional mode. The typical experience in “Face lift” expresses: Skin doesn’t have roots, it peels away easy as paper. When I grin: the stitches tauten, I grown hackward. (20-21) “In Plaster”, she says: “I am collecting My Strength; one day I shall manage without her/And she’ll perish with emptiness then, and begin to miss me”. And the speaker of the poem, “The Surgeon at 2 am. expresses, “I am the sun, in my White Coat / Gray faces, shuttered by drugs, follow me like flowers”. The feelings that the speaker hold in “I am vertical”, “And I shall be useful when I lie 122  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets down finally” or the blatant expression like “I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions” in “Mirror”, “The smile of ice-boxes annihilates me” (An appearance), “I am bitter? I am overse?” also display the regressive mode of confession that is very much vital in the transitional phase of Plaths poetry. As regression cannot be an answer to overcome fear and external horror the last resort is nearly always aggression. Most of her late poems that are included in the volumes Ariel and Winter Trees express such mode. The recourse to aggression does not appears as abrupt or aesthetically uncalled for. Acting against fear the regression twined into fury, that dominates the poetic mode in the last phase poems like “Three Women”, “The Bee Meeting” “Getting There”, and “Totem’” support such confessional turn. In “Three Women” the speaker is prepared herself for the troublesome future, I have never seen a thing so clear/ I shall not let go / There is no guile or warp in him”. Here the situation indicates that not only pregnancy but also the love that leads to it is student gives birth to a baby girl. Plath develops the fury as the student loathing her pregnancy, grinds her teeth contemplating foeticide: “I should have murdered this, that murders me”. And again it is reflected in the voice of the secretary: Men have used her meanly she will eat them. Eat them, eat them, eat the in the end. It also foreshadows the mood in “Lady Lazarus”. Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air. (82-84) In the poems of bee sequence fury has often been the sequel of fear. Bee in this context regulates the systematic life-structure providing a conception of objective correlative for the terror around her. The cyclic exploration of the self turns out in the poem “Bee Meeting”. In the mind of the protagonist the deep-seated subconscious fear lurks still in her denial of the same: Now I am milkweed silk, the bees will not notice They will not smell my fear, my fear, my fear. (10-11) The Mode of Confession in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath & Kamala Das 123 The mood of aggression is also prominent in “The Rabbit Catcher”. The poems like “Daddy” and “Little Fague” also indicates her personal agony in an emotional range. Pamela J. Annas rightly observes: Sylvia Plath’s poetry images and narrates the various forms that the conflict of self and world within the self can take. To see yourself trapped between sets of mutually exclusive alternatives, neither of which fits no matter how many reconciling images you generate, is to live in a circus hall of mirrors, where the self is distorted, disguised, or shattered into silvers of reflection. But it is the struggle to be whole that engages the poet and empowers the poems (161). Among the modern Indian poets writing in English today, Kamala Das is unique in dealing with a frankness and openness of context in poetry which is very much similar to the American confessional poets like Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. She exploits the mode of confession in order to explore self, confirming the reality, this mode brings out personal doubt, obsession, regret, loneliness and despair, “The poetry never riches a stage of sickness and breakdown but in her morbid moods, Kamala Das comes close to the more pathological states of confessional poetry when she steers clear of self-pity on the one hand, and the exhibitionism on the other, she profoundly moving, and the loneliness and despair come through” (Das: 81). The mode of confession is Das’s poetry is the dramatisation of self; to set it is to brooding over it. It is a device to formalise the process of analysis and adjustment of the problems that come out from the personal world. Rosenthal and Gall rightly observe: “The artistic problem is to make genuine poetry out of the language of untrammeled self-awareness” (393). Most of her problems crop up from her early marriage; she confesses it is her autobiography, My Story. As a sensitive poet Kamala Das Projects the genders role of woman in a male-dominated society raising a force for feminine longings. Her forceful voice against the male tyranny is marked in her poems like “A Relationship”, “Summer in Calcutta”, “An 124  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Introduction”, “Marine Drive”, etc. In the poem “Afterwards” she expresses the secret hope and fears of womankind: Son of my womb, Ugly in loneliness. You walk the world’s bleary eye Like a grit-your cleverness Shall not be your doom As ours was. (1-6) A mother’s concern’s for son reveals an important establishment for womanhood. Along with that Kamala Das speaks of Freedom “I shall someday take/wings, fly around….” A desperate obsession with love is one of the prominent features of Kamala Das’s poetry. In this context she is neither preoccupied with the metaphysical quest of a restless soul, nor with the formulation of any theory of poetry. Invariably she favours the power of love and the appeal of physical body. The failure to arrive at love with satisfaction leads her in the claustrophobic world of the self, the wounded self. In these way poems like “The Freaks”, “The Old Play House”, “An Introduction”, “The Looking Glass” focus the struggle of a wounded self to achieve its own identity. In the poem “An Introduction” she writes: I was child, and later they Told me I grew, for I became tall, my limbs Swelled and one or two places sprouted hair. When I asked for love, not knowing what else to ask For, he drew a youth of sixteen into the Bedroom and closed the door. He did not beat me But my sad woman-body felt so beaten. (23-29) The background of such mode of confession originates, as A.N. Dwivedi observes: As for Kamala Das, the tension of the body issue forth in her poetry from a pressure of her complex family background – she was not properly cared for during her childhood nor well attended to in her married life. (22) The Mode of Confession in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath & Kamala Das 125 Her poetical works like Summer in Calcutta, The Descendants and The Old Playhouse and Other Poems, a collaborated work with Pritish Nandy Tonight, This Savage Rite, etc., contribute a wide range of feelings and expressions in confessional mode. Her poetry deals with love, nature rebellion, split self, suffering, sad and feminism. The diversity of female experience and the variety of subjective categories that it explores, gives women’s literature its unique quality. The female experience differs from person and from one country to other. Though Kamala Das and Sylvia Plath remain separate in different cultural and social set up, their struggle for feminine longings is very much common. American society is considered advanced where Indian society seems to be tradition bound and backward. But in common, these poets speak about feminism and the emancipation of women. So they strongly display the autobiographical elements in their poetry. Plath universalises her private experiences avoiding the complex philosophy. Kamala Das also shows no such sympathy for such awareness. But their mode of confession deals with the autobiographical detail that constitute the famine psychic for every odds and trivialities. Again in most of the time both the poets show their common feelings of nostalgia for the world they live. They remember their grandmother with deep affection. Plant points out in her “Point Shirley”: She collusion of mulish elements And she wore her broom straws to the hub. (17-18) Kamala Das remembers her grandmother’s house for the deep love and understanding she received there. Her “Grandmother’s House” expresses: There is a house now far away Where once I received love. (1-2) Both the poets seem to have an attraction for the traditional role of housewife, mother and grandmother. But when they reach in that status they feel frustrated. On the other hand father figure is controversial in both the poets. Kamala Das seems disgraced with 126  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets the irresponsible attempt of her father is fixing her as the culprit. The suffering that she undergoes in life, she feels her father responsible for that. She gives the impression of lost in “My Grandmother’s House”: My way and beg now at strangers doors to Receive love at least in small change! (15-16) In many instances Plath spewed with the abuse of male dominance. In this case neither she accepts her husband nor her father. In “Daddy”, She says: If I have killed one man I have killed two. (71) She puts them in the status of vampires who such the life blood out of women. Kamala Das seems overt in bodily and sexual experiences. Her dissatisfaction with the fulfilment of bodily and sexual desire in the poem like “The Freaks”: Can this man with Nimble fingertips unleash Nothing more alive than the Skin’s lazy hungers? (9-12) Love is a sexual binding for Das who feels pleasure in the arms of illicit lovers. But Plath is some extent revengeful unlike Das, for the sexual exploitation not in personal level but in general. Plath declares her promise for revenge in Lady Lazarus”. The Legend of Phoenix reflects with Lazarus and both are mixed of and stirred together in the cauldron of suffering and retribution. Plath raises her emotional agony to universal predicament. But on the other hand the poems of Das sustain the tone of deprecation, desperation and self-piety for the reason. Kamala Das depends on masculine vigour for mental and sexual satisfaction but Plath revolts against it. She upholds this idea in the poems like “Daddy”, “The Bee meeting”, “The Stone”, etc. Das is greatly fascinated by the childhood memory, the nostalgia for her place of birth. She recounts it in her poems like “Grandmother’s House”, “A Hot Noon in Malabar”, “The Sunshine Cat”, etc., whereas in Plath, The Mode of Confession in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath & Kamala Das 127 the experience of fear make prominent shadow over her poems relating her childhood days. The imbalance man-woman relationship lurks in their creativity that brings the disillusionment for both the poets. They reflect their unhappiness, distress, agony in their poems looking for happiness. Though for the mode of their confession they are termed as “neurotic” but they raise their poetic voice against the annihilation of feminine personality. They are manifested before others for the establishment of a feminist sensibility that they laid down, not for the individual sake but for the womankind as a whole. References Alvarez, A., The Savage God, London, Whitefield and Nicolson, 1971. Annas, Pamela, A Disturbance in Mirrors, The Poetry of Sylvia Plath, New York, Greenwood Press, 1988. Broe, Marylynn, Protean Poetic, The Poetry of Sylvia Path, Colombia and London, University of Missoury Press, 1980. Das, Kamala, My Story, New Delhi, Sterling Publishers, 1976. Dwivedi, A.N. Kamala Das and her Poetry, Delhi, Doba House, 1983. Jaidka, Manju, Confession And Beyond: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath, Chandigarh. Jha, Pasupati, Sylvia Plath, New Delhi, Creative Publisher, 1991. Malkoff, Karl, Crowell’s Handbook of Contemporary American Poetry, New York, Crowell Company, 1973. Phillips, Robert, The Confessional Poets, Carbondele and Edwardsville: Southern Illionis University Press, 1973. Posenthal, M.L. and Sally M. Gall., The Modern Poetic Sequence: The Genesis of Modern Poetry, New York, OUP, 1983. 10 Reading Arun Kolatkar’s “The Bus” as an Exposition of the Vacillating Duality of Existence Ashes Gupta With poets like Arun Kolatkar, Jayanta Mahapatra, Meena Alexander, to name a few, Indian English Poetry ( smells less of the colonial hangover than ‘Indo-Anglian’) has graduated to the complexities of existence as well as the existential exigencies which are the inevitable products of an age old culture in conflict with a new education (with an obvious Western bias). Past are the days when poets like Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu or Sri Aurobindo could take a cool refuge either in a romantic or a decadent escapade, or find solace in a mystic vision. Even the yearnings of Kamala Das are passé. The postmodern Indian English poet finds himself vacillating between the duality of his inevitable cultural and traditional roots on one hand and his predominantly Westernised education on the other. As a result, the poetic persona is faced with a unique dilemma, refusing resolution, between two opposing value systems generated by these two paradoxical positions. The strategy of disowning one’s own chromosomal or genetically embedded culture and tradition for a newly acquired and more modern culture corresponding to a newer education being rendered impossible, the poet has to continue in a state of unresolved dichotomy. A poet like Arun Kolatkar on his part denies any solution/stasis to this duality which in turn, presents itself as his immediate poetic reality. The Reading Arun Kolatkar’s “The Bus” as an Exposition of the….  129 state of vacillating undecidability and lack of resolution to any single monolithic alternative is definitely a recent trend in Indian English Poetry, though the problematic of a dual and dichotomous existence is itself older. This has ushered in what is popularly termed in critical parlance as postmodernism in Indian English Poetry. Faith, religion, tradition and heritage are set against rationality, logic, science, and scepticism corresponding to the cultural roots and new education respectively. In his poem “The Bus”, taken from the collection of poems titled Jejuri, Kolatkar depicts this dualism symbolically through a double role, that of the pilgrim and the tourist. A close reading of this poem illustrates the hypothesis that this paper seeks to prove. At the very outset, it is necessary to conceptualise how the roles of ‘tourist’ and ‘pilgrim’ differ from each other with reference to the actions that they respectively envisage. A tourist is a secular visitor to a place (which could also be a place of pilgrimage), whose purpose of undertaking the tour is non-religions. A pilgrim on the other hand is primarily a religious visitor, a devotee who undertakes this journey for seeking benevolence or for penance, etc., which are predominantly religious motives. While the tourist seeks aesthetic pleasure and beauty, the pilgrim is in quest of spiritual satisfaction. Both a tourist and a pilgrim could possibly visit the same place which doubles up as a tourist spot and a place of pilgrimage, but will do so with totally different mind sets and motives. For a pilgrim, a pilgrimage to a holy place is expected to trace a movement from a lower level of existence (before pilgrimage) along an ascending gradient denoting improvement and elevation with a spiritual and religious bias. The tour undertaken by a tourist might also trace a similar upward gradient, but that shall be with a predominantly aesthetic and pleasure bias. There is no dilemma as long as both these are kept separate and mutually exclusive. But the Indian English poet in the postmodern situation is faced with the dilemma of having to inhabit both these contradictory positions at the same time. This paradigm of duality is also the axiomatic point on which Kolatkar’s Jejuri poems in general and “The Bus” in particular is based. This paper attempts to decipher the intricate 130  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets fabric of ideas underlying Kolatkar’s “The Bus” from this perspective. A queer blend of sympathy and satire, attachment and detachment, faith and rational skepticism, traditional conventions and mock ritualistic subversions, Kolatkar’s Jejuri is a replica of the complex spatial dimensions that the postmodern Indian English poet inhabits both within and without. Tracing the journey from the stage of initiation to the final stage culminating in the return, this group of poems seems to be apparently similar to Heavensgate by Christopher Okigbo. But whereas Okigbo ends up in a sense of resolution through acceptance, Kolatkar concludes with the same unresolved duality of existence with which he began. Each poem in Jejuri seems to symbolically represent different stages of movement of the poetic persona (portrayed as the protagonist Manohar) in accordance with the rites of the passage. The Bus, the first poem of this collection, is an almost surrealistic account of the poetic persona’s initiation to the journey to Jejuri, a holy town in Maharashtra, made famous by the temple of Khandoba situated there. Arun Kolatkar strikes the conscious reader with a tremendous sense of ambiguity and multivalence in a poem which is cinematographic in its frame like movement both along the physical and mental plane. The outlines of the ramshackle state transport bus are deftly done with a few master strokes: the tarpaulin flaps are buttoned down on the windows of the state transport bus all the way upto Jejuri. The starkly prosaic physical details of the bus is a reminder of the Indian reality and probably indirectly, a sarcastic hint at the miserable state of post-independence government undertakings and still more, at the Indian populace whose sense of proprietorship of everything that is state owned amounts to a general tendency towards their destruction and mutilation. The interior and exterior of this tarpaulin shrouded bus provide the realistic setting for the poem. The bus itself obliquely (if not farfetchedly) seems to be like a deadening habit, a stale convention which exists only because it Reading Arun Kolatkar’s “The Bus” as an Exposition of the….  131 has to, in a continuous state of flux between the place of initiation and destination, in spite of all its dilapidation. The bus is therefore, not just a vehicle, it’s a plane of existence in reality in which the protagonist Manohar and the spectacled old man, or the tourist and the pilgrim, or the two dual states of the poetic persona come face to the face with each other in a confrontation denying restoration. The use of “up” in the last line is an indicator not only towards the physical elevation which leads to Jejuri (situated on a hill), but also probably, in a half-sceptical manner, typical of the poetic persona torn between the contradictory roles of the tourist and pilgrim, of the mental/spiritual elevation which such a journey is expected to facilitate. Providing the feeling of two cameras, one placed within the bus to capture the interior of the bus and the character’s inscape (to use Hopkins’s coinage), and the other registering the outward journey of the bus against the landscape and skyscape in crane and aerial shots, Kolatkar integrates, or rather, effectively fuses the axiomatic idea and its treatment in his poem. In a curiously inimitable move, Kolatkar stations not only the poetic persona within the bus with his elbow on the window against the flapping corner of the tarpaulin, but also the reader by the use of the word “your” in the lines: A cold wind keeps whipping and slapping a corner of the tarpaulin at your elbow. And this assimilative and integrative strategy stretches through the length of the poem so that the reader himself is unnerved by the sudden realisation that he too is a perpetual inhabitant of such a duality of existence, a victim of the split personality like the poet. The next stanza comes alive with such usages as “roaring road” light spilling out from the internally illuminated bus into the otherwise dark external landscape in a beautiful picture cinematographic in its visual effect. The desperation of Manohar (read the poetic persona/ the reader) searching for signs of daybreak reflects on the torturous and painful nature of the journey 132  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets already suggested by the words “whipping” and slapping in the fourth and fifth line respectively. The pain and suffering that a passenger undergoes during a state transport bus ride seems to be suggestive of penance and the cult of self-torture for purification in a cynically subversive way. Kolatkar provides the reader with a visual representation of this dichotomous duality of existence in the next lines. The poetic persona integrated with the reader in “you”, now finds his own split personality torn between being a tourist and a pilgrim: in a pair of glasses on an old man’s nose. But a broad generalisation is hinted at by the end of the stanza when the poet continues is all the countryside you get to see. We are made to ask whether the poet is obliquely hinting that the same state of vacillation between old culture and new education, faith and rationality is true for all educated modern Indians and the country as a whole. With all his acquired knowledge, science and rationality, the poetic persona as well as the reader, and at the same time the tourist self of the character seem to undertake a continuous forward movement beyond the boundaries of age old convention, faith, culture, tradition and ritualism symbolically represented by the caste mark between the old man’s eyebrows. It is here that the character of the old man as co-passenger representing the believing, ritualistic, casteist average Indian as ‘pilgrim’ suggests itself to the reader as a probable denotation. If “progress” for a country like India is defined as a movement forward and beyond such age old retarding factors as casteism, communalism, superstition and so on, then the poet seems to be sarcastically suggesting that it remains a poster reality since these are deeply embedded in the psyche of the swearing and believing Indian masses. The ‘mark’ remains and is never smudged off. It only reinforces the divide between the educated, rationale, minority Indian-the ‘class’, and the believing, Reading Arun Kolatkar’s “The Bus” as an Exposition of the….  133 faithful yet majority Indian-the ‘mass’. The former is ineffectual in reaching the destination beyond the caste mark probably because he himself is a victim of the duality of existence, with one part of his psyche believing and the other denying, thus constantly shuttling between the tourist and the pilgrim states. Ironically the latter or the mass is free from such vacillation and is truly a pilgrim and a devotee. For the old man/the pilgrim, his faith in Khandoba, Jejuri and the pilgrimage is as true and unfaltering as the caste mark on his temple. Then quietly breaks the first daylight, captured by the camera outside. The old man’s glasses are lighted up with a ray of light entering through an eye-like slit in the tarpaulin. Another neatly “sawed” ray of light highlights the driver’s right temple with a tender touch. And all these are done with cinematographic precision. The bus seems to change direction; and so does the poem. The dawn breaks, the sun rises, but contrary to the clichéd and stereotyped suggestion of a new beginning of hope (aka Hindi mainstream cinema), it is only a prolongation of the same unresolved dichotomy denying closure, an extension of the disturbing vacillation which unnerves the poet and the reader alike. Dawn breaks in an inevitable natural order of occurrence but does not usher in the expected or anticipated turn towards any simplistic or reductionist solution of this dichotomous duality. The poet too realises this and it provides the postmodernist tinge to Arun Kolatkar’s poetic perception. The poem changes direction, not towards any resolution, but towards an acknowledgement of the idea that a postmodern Indian English poet like Kolatkar has to live with this sense of duality, or rather, keeps it alive as a reality in his poetry. The problematic of coexistence of the rationalist and the believer, the skeptic and the ritualist, the tourist and the pilgrim within the same person (here the poet and the protagonist Manohar, as well as the reader) is reinforced when Kolatkar writes: 134  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets At the end of the bumpy ride with your own face on either side when you get off the bus you don’t step inside the old man’s head. In spite of everything, the poetic persona fails to break the ice throughout the journey. The bumpy ride with all its torture and pain ends up with the split in the poetic persona remaining intact reinforced in an unresolved duality as does the caste mark between the old man’s eyebrows. The inability of the educated, rational and sceptical postmodern Indian, the “class” to communicate, to argue and convince the “mass”, is shockingly depicted in the last line. The tragic blockage of intelligence and the futile lack of communication could not be better presented. The concept of “progress” as a continuous movement, towards a destination just beyond the caste mark between his eyebrows, is negated and rendered invalid with the realisation: you don’t step inside the old man’s head. This puts too careful scrutiny the very notion of “progress” in the context of post-independence India. The obvious question raised is whether “progress” is a mere slogan or a caption with a cosmetic effect and greater epithelial ineffectuality. The poetic persona or Manohar, or the reader realises that the old man’s mental set up cannot be altered. In India, the divide between mass and class subsists as a perennial reality. This paper was a modest attempt at reading Kolatkar’s “The Bus” as an exposition of the poets vacillating duality of existence. Within all limitations of my own scholarship which often ran the risk of being farfetched and over imaginative, the effort was at revealing the intricate fabric of interwoven thoughts and ideas which collided, blended, reacted and contradicted in an unending sequence of permutations and combinations to create this unique poetic experience. In a typically postmodern vein Kolatkar resists any closure in “The Bus”, thus allowing ambiguity and his vacillating duality a free play. “The Bus” truly awakens the readers’ skeptical mind by triggering off: A few questions knocking about in your head. Reading Arun Kolatkar’s “The Bus” as an Exposition of the….  135 References 1. Iyengar, K.R. Srinivasa, 2003, Indian Writing in English, Delhi, Sterling Pub. Pvt. Ltd. 2. Naik, M.K., 1999, A History of Indian English Literature, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. 3. Okigbo, Christopher, c.1972, Heavensgate, n.p. n.pag. 4. Paniker, K. Ayappa, 1991, Modern Indian Poetry in English, Delhi, Sahitya Akademi, p. 89-95. 5. Peeradina, Saleem, 1987, Ed. Contemporary Indian Poetry in English: An Assessment and Selection, Madras, Macmillan India Ltd. 6. R, Parthasarathy, 1992, Ed. Ten Twentieth-Century Indian Poets, Delhi, OUP. 11 “Not to Die of Life/We have Art”: A Study of O. P. Bhatnagar’s Art in His Poetry D.C. Chambial All art is the ex-pression of life in forms of truth and beauty; or rather, it is the reflection of some truth and beauty which are in the world, but which remain unnoticed until brought to our attention by some sensitive human soul. W.J. Long O.P. Bhatnagar was one of the major contemporary poets writing when he passed away in 2001. His poetry has secured a permanent niche for him on the Parnassus of Indian English poetry by giving it a new dimension. He has written seven books of poetry: Thought Poems (1976), Feeling Fossils (1977), Angles of Retreat (1979), Oneric Visions (1980), Shadows in Flashlights (1984), The Audible Landscape (1988) and Cooling Flames of Darkness (2001). His thoughts as expressed in his poems are radical and deserve an explication with reference to his art, which, according to him, is a substitute for life. Art eternalises life. In the present article my objective is to study his short and less discussed poems from his first book, Thought Poems. This evaluation of his art is based on a close study of the text. The first poem, “The Crowded Metaphor” (3)*, of this book is based on the comparison between two situations or states of mind: loneliness and crowded or chaotic state when it is not possible to find any moment of solitude. The development of thought has four “Not to Die of Life/We have Art”  137 stages: one, loneliness; two, crowded state preferred to a state of artificial calm; three, a state of artificial calm contrasted with cacophony; four, crowded state better than loneliness. Let us now examine how the poet develops from the raw materials of “loneliness” and “crowd” a beautiful work of art. The first part Loneliness has an ego Which inflates emptiness To struggle with silences Beyond the shadows of restless calm. (ll. 1-4) personifies abstract “loneliness” and argues that it has an “ego”. In fact, it is a situation of an individual encountering loneliness. In this situation one has none but oneself to converse with. Now one’s thought-pattern continues undisturbed. This thought is not snapped by any external factor, in its stead, it is prolonged. This uninterrupted prolonging of thought becomes an “ego” in the process. This ego, in turn, “inflates emptiness”. It is nothing but the prolonged “loneliness” which now becomes threatening. This “emptiness” is juxtaposed with “silences” and is in a state of “struggle” which goes “Beyond the shadows of restless calm.” In this opening part of the poem, the poet employs six abstract nouns: ‘loneliness’, ‘ego’, ‘emptiness’, ‘silences’, ‘shadows’, and ‘calm’; two verbs: ‘inflates’ and ‘struggle’; and ‘restless’ as the only adjective. In the poet’s thought-pattern abstract states put on concrete forms by yoking them with words of individual volition exhibiting active antagonism as in “struggle” and “restless” and of space showing dimension as in “inflate”. Thus “loneliness”, a word related to sentient and moral power showing social affection, and “crowd”, which represents existence in indeterminate number, have been artistically enjoined. The second part reads: The streets like a crowded metaphor Are better than the lonely ones To tell the powdered tranquility It’s worth and warmth. (ll. 5-8) 138  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Here the poet compares busy streets, using the simile of “crowded metaphor”, with secluded ones and contends that the former are better than the latter because of their artificiallity. The key-word, used in this part, to convey artificiality is “powdered” which qualifies the noun “tranquility”. Powder is an artificial material and it means to beautify oneself. Here it retains its lexical meaning as something artificial used to add some positive attribute to the word, which it qualifies. The “powdered tranquillity” of the second part is in direct contrast with the “restless calm” of the first part due to their “powdered” and “restless” states of existence. Therefore, the “worth and warmth” of “powdered tranquillity”, because of its artificiality, stand debunked. Transformation in their states continues as the thought progresses. The “powdered tranquillity” changes to “hollow serenity” in the third part: When hollow serenity saunters The much trafficked roads Greying visions mooned by suns (ll. 9-11). With the help of adverbial clause of time in “When hollow serenity saunters/ The much trafficked roads”, he brings the readers to face the result of its grey “visions mooned by suns”. The sun and the moon are the two natural sources of light. But the fact that the moon reflects the light received from the sun brings home the fact to readers about the artificial illumination of the moon. When seen in its total impact the artificial repose, “hollow serenity”, is in direct contrast with reality of the “much trafficked roads”. The “visions” emerging in the mind of the persona are inflated to disproportionate dimensions and become “grey” leaving behind their green or pink colours. The visions of inflated emptiness, begun in the first part, begin to lose their size, strength and lustre and become effete, wizened and grey. The fourth part: Crowds, by the chaotic repose Of their indifferent counterpoise, Displace and resolve What loneliness complicates And shuns. (ll. 12-17) “Not to Die of Life/We have Art”  139 highlights the significance of reality over artificiality. “Crowds” as opposed to seclusion or “loneliness” are real and true. They do not conceal anything, hence they have the capacity to “Displace and resolve/ What loneliness complicates/ And shuns.” It is always better and easier to face reality because that helps reach solutions. Imagined situations don’t take one anywhere. When we look at the poem as a whole, we find that part one and part three throw light on secluded artificiality; part two and part four on reality. The thought has been developed in alternate parts and skillfully harmonised in the end to reveal truth about life itself. From the artificiality of life in “The Crowded Metaphor” the poet moves to incertitude in “Round and Round”. The very title of the poem, “Round and Round” (5), points towards a movement in a circle, like an O, with in definite starting and ending points. Or one can start from any point and terminate anywhere one likes. Another possibility is of an endless movement, once one has entered the circular path without reaching some specific point or goal. To illustrate this concept of aimless human endeavours, the poet, first cites an example with the help of a concrete image drawn from religion: devotees going around a temple with a hope to find God. However the poet believes that such movements can’t take these devotees a whit nearer to God. The next two lines, the second half of the first stanza, moves away from the concrete imagery of the first half to abstract imagery and points out the futility of contemplation on any idea over and again without arriving at some concrete thought. The poet argues: We may go round and round a temple Yet never be around God We may go round and round an idea Yet never be around thought. (ll. 1-4) The second stanza of the poem has poetry and God inextricably mingled together. The first half of this stanza, Poetry is meaning Like a deity enshrined Words upon words the edifice built (ll. 5-7) 140  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets tries to explain poetry with the help of a simile, “Like a deity enshrined”, in a temple around which the devotees go. Poetry, according to the poet, is an “edifice built” with the help of “words upon words”. This imposing structure or mental picture has inherent meaning much in the same proportion as an idol of a deity placed in a temple. It is the human faith that gives relevance to it. Those who have strong faith perceive the presence of God in the idol and those who have no faith for them this idol is no more than a stone, insensitive and lifeless. Similarly, a poem has a meaning for the poet who has composed it and one who is capable of transporting oneself to the imaginative level of the poet to merge, in imagination, with him and perceive the whole thing, the whole idea, from the same level of ecstasy. The second half of this stanza ends in rhetorical questions: What is the idea? Where is God? Who will tell what the artist sought? (ll. 8-10) As the “idea” and “God” remain unexplored, so does the artist’s objective. The sense of a moot point begun in the title continues line after line till the end of the poem. The beauty of the poem lies in the suspension of the conclusion line after line until it transcends the poem and the reader continues to move “round and round” in search of its “meaning”. This continuity in the process of inexplicable exploration imparts it its true beauty and herein lies the true art. The satirical tone comes to the fore. R.K. Singh also observes, “The poet’s deep study of the degeneration of morals, social values, makes clear his critical insight and satirical undertone.” The ambience of ever going on process in “Round and Round” leads to prove the masked identity of man in ‘Un-Kind’. “Un-Kind” (7), like “Round and Round”, is another ten-lined poem. The poet helps the reader by giving the meaning of this word as “not of the kind” and saves him (the reader) from straying away from the true contextual meaning – the real intention of the poet while composing this poem. The poet’s thesis is to differentiate man from a snake. The very proposition irritates the reader’s mind. For “Not to Die of Life/We have Art”  141 any common reader the difference is quite apparent in their physical appearances. But the poet perceives snakes in human form as well and that has necessitated this kind of distinction. The poet begins this poem by focussing on “love” of man and “poison” of snake: What makes a snake a snake Is poison. What makes a man a man Is love. (ll. 1-4) “Love” is a human emotive attribute and “poison”, the attribute of the snake under the category of prospective volition as categorised by Roget in his Thesaurus. The second part of the poem consists of only two lines. Here he comes down heavily on man for not loving other men and women, his fellow beings, as human beings. He says: We love not our kind To the community of snakes unbind. (ll. 5-6) This lack of human emotive attribute towards other human beings alienates and distances man from man and leaves men free to associate them with snakes. The poet, in this part, substitutes the first person plural pronoun “we” for the common noun “man” signifying mankind. This change helps to make the idea more emphatic. The last part, We are like deserters Fallen out of creed Unable to breed snakes From our bonds unfreed. (ll. 7-10) consists of four lines and gives new definition to man by comparing him with “deserters” in a simile “like deserters”. The noun “deserter” used here connotes “leaving someone without help or support, especially in a wrong or a cruel way”. The poet contends that now man (the haves) has turned into a deserter so far as his fellow human beings (the have-nots) are concerned. This 142  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets newly acquired attribute antagonises him from his primeval and natural propensity of love and brands him as “Fallen out of creed”. This quality of man having no love for fellow beings becomes the “bond unfreed” and keeps him chained to his newly acquired attribute of hate and jealousy. The poet uses four words: “unkind”, “unbind”, “unable”, and “unfreed” by prefixing “un” to the root words: “kind”, “bind”, “able”, and “freed” to reverse their meanings. Thus the poem emerges as a satire against man for his hypocrisy, cruelty, hatred and jealousy towards other human beings and man becomes “UnKind” (not of the kind). God created man in His own image with love as the archetypal human emotion enshrined in his heart. With the help of this logic, the poet proves that man, devoid of this attribute, is not his true kind. “Fish Pond” (8) seems to have been inspired by the idiom, “a fish out of water”. The poet begins his argument by saying that It’s one thing to say That I feel like a fish out of water But another to reason by it. (ll. 1-3) In these lines the poet sets before himself the task of making a distinction between the statement on the one hand and to use that statement as logic to prove something. This contradiction is inherent in the character of man as the poet argues, For natural man is a long way misnomer From the partings mirrored by the wise Homer. (ll. 4-5) as pointed out by Homer, the Greek poet and philosopher. In order to prove his point of view logically, the poet asks the reader, “Is man as static as a fish?” and he tries to answer in both these possibilities: If yes, then history is a smug record of fakery. If not, then culture needn’t be a sworded slavery.” (ll. 7-8) The question is quite obvious but the use of the word “static”, an adjective, takes this comparison beyond the apparent “Not to Die of Life/We have Art”  143 dimensions. Fish is never static. Using “static” as an oxymoron, the poet has, with his powerful rationality, proved two arguments: one, so far as spatial movement is concerned man can never be in a continuous motion as a fish is in water; two, when the physical movement of a fish is compared to the ever agile mind of man, he is like a fish. Then, the answer is “yes” as well as “no”. Here lies the strength of the argument which takes readers through its labyrinths and leaves them there to find an exit. When the first answer is taken to be true then history becomes “a smug record of fakery”, which history by virtue of its very nature can’t be. When the second answer is scrutinised for its validity, the, “culture needn’t be a sworded slavery”. Culture in which several ideas, conventions, traditions, and rituals are followed ruthlessly is explained by the phrase “sworded slavery”. But, the adjunct “needn’t” reverses its meaning completely. Both, history and culture are each other’s complement and cannot exist without the other. Concentrating on the environs of fish and man, the poet contends that “the environs of a fish are outside it” and that of “a man within” and then refers to natural phenomenon, in a farfetched conceit. Look at the comparison: Moon reflects what the sun is Oyster hides what the water is not. (ll. 12-13) Scientific knowledge tells us that the moon is a part of the sun and its light is also the reflected light of the sun. While the first line dwells on similitude, the next line harbours on contrast. An oyster hides pearl within while living in water. But, the pearl and the water have no similarity at all. The next two lines, Wise fish deep for the pearl And fools shallow catch at the liquid moon. (ll. 14-15) are proverbial in their meaning. In order to get close to the truth one has to strive very hard and those who put in less labour are seldom near it. With this argument, of course, at an imaginative level, the poet forces the reader to find an answer to the question: 144  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Say then, if, in any idiomatic barter You still feel like a fish out of water? (ll. 16-17) The use of “still”, as an adverb, in the seventeenth line above with the apparent emphasis on it, the poet, like Kate Keller in All My Sons, intends to hammer out the answer in negative, thereby proving the futility of the idiom in reality. “The Eclipse” (10) describes in very simple words the moon eclipse. It is in the form of an apostrophe. The moon addresses the sun. They have been personified by allowing them the attributes of “thinking” and “pride”. “Thinking” is associated with intellectual activity and “pride” is related to the sentiment and moral power. Both fall within the category of animal attributes in general and human attributes in particular. This poem has thirteen lines and can easily be divided into three parts so far as though development is concerned. The first part has only three lines: You are my light Glow and illumination And am called a moon. (ll. 1-3) In these lines the moon addresses the sun and tells that her (the moon’s) light, glow and illumination are borrowed from him (the sun). She, because of these attributes of light, is visible and is known as “moon”. The second part consists of five lines. She says that sometimes because of some disturbance even this consolation is robbed and her very existence is jeopardised. In her words: But sometime Something disturbs this consolation Darkening my being And leaving me to a thin existence Of an arch. (ll. 4-8) The third part again consists of five lines. In this part the moon alleges the sun for threatening its very existence: “Not to Die of Life/We have Art”  145 It’s your pride That moving on its own axis Makes an eliptical orb And robing me in its shadow Robs me of my existence. (ll. 9-13) According to the moon this situation comes because of the sun’s arrogance for being the sole possessor of light. She owes her light to him. Thus, the sun acquires dominating role; the moon has to remain his subordinate. In order to show his authority, the sun, while moving in an elliptical orb, robs her in his shadow. But we, the readers, know it for certain that it, in fact, is not the shadow of the sun but that of the earth which obstructs the light coming from the sun to the moon. In this poem, the poet wants to show that even objects of nature have their own ego, their pride and a desire to show authority. The pride and authority wielded by the sun, and helplessness and complete dependence of the moon have been juxtaposed to show that this kind of arrangement exists not only in human society but also in nature as well. Such scheme or order binds the whole universe. Authority and subservience complement each other. One cannot exist without the other. ‘The Lines’ (10) another poem on the same page has only seven lines and for the purpose of our analysis can be divided into two parts of three and four lines respectively. The poet borrows the title from geometry and utilises it to explain the theme of human fate. In the first part, the poet argues that when two lines are laid on the surface of the earth, these have the potentiality to carry hundreds of people to their destinations. The lines read: Two lines on earth laid Do hundreds of people carry To destinations on demand. (ll. 1-3) The highly condensed thought of the lines first poses some problem in comprehending the idea and the reader wonders how two lines can carry people to their destinations on demand. Then 146  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets the words “carry” and “people” come to the reader’s help. The “two lines” connote the lines of the rail track running parallel to each other. On these lines run the trains. These trains have definite destinations in the form of their routes. So the people, who have to go from one place to other, travel in these trains and reach their destinations. Thus it is not the lines but the trains that carry people. The poet has made use of synecdoche to condense and transform a plain statement into a beautiful poetic idea. The word “lines” and imagery used in the first half serve the poet’s purpose to link it with the second and make the poem look more organic. The lines, in the second part, refer to the lines on the palm of an individual. In palmistry, the palmist studies these lines to know the future of the individual. In other words, these lines tell the course of individual’s life. This leads to the similarity of purpose in the lines of the first half and those of the second part that in both the cases people/individuals have a journey to perform and reach some destination. Thereafter similarity ends and dissimilarity begins. The points of contrast in the “lines” of the two parts are: one, the lines in the first part are only two, whereas in the second, numerous; two, the lines in the first part are parallel and in the second, circumbendibus; and three, the “lines” in the first part take people to destinations of their demand while the people in the second have no choice – their course of life is predetermined as coded in the lines of their hands. The poet writes: But your lines on a palm A shunting yard form Forever sorting out the right van From the disposals of the pent up trains. (ll. 4-7) In these lines the poet continues to draw imagery from railway. He compares the lines on palm to railway lines in a shunting yard. The concrete, material imagery has been pressed into service to convey the abstract and obscure human fate. The disposal of “pent up trains” in a “shunting yard” is controlled by human beings; the disposal of human fate is beyond their control. Now the idea attains “Not to Die of Life/We have Art”  147 maturity and the poem becomes a contrast between the Omnipotent Who controls the human fate and man, who controls the railway system. It is the controlling authority that is important both in the man-made system and the God-made system. The “lines” emerge as powerful symbols of life. In “The Tragic Hero” (18), the poet seems to have in his mind Aristotle’s criteria of an ideal tragic hero as “one of those in the enjoyment of great reputation and prosperity…” and “whose misfortune, however is sought upon him not by vice and depravity but by some error of judgement” (Chap. III). The poet defines him as “otherwise a nobleman/ By his own folly faces a fall.” Aristotle in his discourse on “Poetics” talks about an ideal hero for tragedy that was the most significant mode of art during his times. Bhatnagar’s hero does not suffer because of “some error of judgement” but because of his adamant nature to adhere to “values”. In the context of modern “tragic hero”, his love for “values” becomes his “error of judgement” leads him to his suffering. The values, both human and ethical, have been relegated to insignificance. People these days do not believe in any kind of age old moral “values”. Their values have changed. They cherish now those values that satisfy their materialistic and sensual lust. Their parameters have been circumscribed to their own gratification. One who holds on to age old values is branded “a diseased man” and derided. The word “diseased”, as an adjective, means affected with disease, abnormal or disordered. The most suitable meaning that this usage connotes here is abnormal. This word has been most appropriately used to convey what the people think of a “lover of values”. Such a person remains aloof bearing the burden of his “values” very much like a person suffering from a fatal disease. His position is no better than that of a person who suffers from a contagious disease and is “Put away in an isolation ward” lest the disease should contract other persons. The contemporaries of “The Tragic Hero” dread these “values” and don’t want to be associated with them. Such a person becomes the victim of his on ideals and morality and is left to consume 148  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets … himself ideal by ideal Writing in helpless pity His own epitaph. (ll. 6-8) Such a person, in a value loving society, should be honoured and worshipped as a model. But, it is his irony of fate that he becomes a “tragic hero”. The poet, in this poem, explodes the antimorality of the modern man satirically. One cannot but agree with Dr. H.L. Agnihotri that the “poet ruefully admits that lust for power, progress and success runs counter to living by ideals and values.” In a nutshell, in Thought Poems, O.P. Bhatnagar is a careful and cautious poet. These poems have been deeply meditated upon before being written and very skilfully crafted. Here the poet emerges as an artist who knows his art well and sets an example for those who are interested in the art of writing poetry. The present article highlights his commitment to well-crafted poetry and one is bound to echo his words: “Not to die of life/ We have art”. His art emancipates his poetry from the fear of passing into oblivion and he is to live ever young in his poetry in the sheen of ever watchful light of the scholarly minds looking for “crane white” specimens of pure poetry beckoning from afar like a lighthouse in the wide and deep sea of Indian Poetry in English.*** References 1. O.P. Bhatnagar, Thought Poems, Aligarh, Skylark Publications, 1976. The number after the poem, in the text, indicates the page number in the book. 2. G.P. Baghmar, The Vision and the Voice: Studies in the Poetry of OP Bhatnagar (Vols. I & II), Nagpur, Viswa Bharati Prakashan, 1987. 3. William J. Long, English Literature (Indian rpt.), 1977, New Delhi, Kalyani Publishers, 1998. 12 The Voice of Rain: A Study of the Poems of Bidhu Padhi Pradip Kumar Patra And I would say we are only faced with a silence which words have brought us ultimately to: all the words we thought were grand exercises of imagination, fusing the imaginary with reality. This silence is not just a stock character of mystery or a knowledge, a knowledge that is always provisional. Nor is it some kind of wound that one would wait for it to heal. Maybe we owe words this silence we need in the end. For after the words have been said, one asks: will poetry continue to exile us from life by words we no longer have the right to share? Or is it that we will only know how to use words, when, as in the Book of Job 13: 13, Job says: Let me have silence, and I will speak …? (Jayanta Mahapatra, “Large Words, a Small Silence”, ed. S.Panja, Many Indians, Many Literatures, Delhi, Worldview, 2001, p. 22-23.) Bibhu Padhi is a poet with his background in Orissa in general and as a teacher of English in particular who spent a large part of his teaching career in the P.G. department of English, Ravenshaw Autonomous College, Cuttack, S.C.S. Vollege, Puri and numerous other government colleges. I knew him as a poet during those days, back in the 1990’s when I had completed my M.A. and M.Phil. in English and was doing my Ph.D. at Ravenshaw. The college campus during those days was a poetry by itself. It compelled me to be a 150  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets small-scale poet. I was influenced by his poetry published in various journals. I was enthralled more by his treatment of memory and his use of the ‘locales’ in his poems. A calm and quiet man with a broad smile on his face he takes life as it is. As a poet he is a close observer of every-thing around him and as a teacher, I know, he was erudite, friendly, lovable and never complained against anything or anybody. My reading of his poetry gives me the immediate impression that his poetic sensibility and emotion are deeply rooted in the soil of Orissa. Besides, his study of English literature has taught him to be precise and articulative. His poem “Listening Through the Rain” expresses his precise attitude towards Cuttack city with all its ordinary aspects of raindrenched reality where delicately nestles a memory. The poet doesn’t romanticise the whole thing, yet the poet shows an underlying music supported by a shadow of memory. It is raining in Cuttack once again. The rain that arrives so gently that it can scarcely be heard through my son’s dream songs, the harsh sound of motor cars crowding the road. Once, on one such afternoon in July, your limp voice drifted into my room through the rain. Today the rains are once again here, and I can almost remember your sweet voice through my son’s loud singing, through the humming sound of motor cars crowding the foul road and, beyond all this, through the damp sound of a faraway afternoon rain in the July of one distant, echoing year. (11) The Voice of Rain: A Study of the Poems of Bidhu Padhi  151 Padhi nicely amalgamates reality, memory and dream in the above poem. Rain acts as a medium. It activates Padhi’s emotion. Cuttack is an old city which more than thousand-year-old, speaks through its history, legend and mythology. The poem shows that Padhi is not just associated with the external reality of Cuttack, he is rather concerned with its inner reality. Its inner reality consists of congestion because of old planning, a mighty history, a mix of tradition and modernity and the cultural background full of diversity. Hence, the poem reflects Padhi’s growing up, his ideas, convictions and realisations and his sense of divine/spiritual (through the rain) as well as terrestrial. He seems to be moving from past to present and from present to future. Cuttack for Padhi is not just a present, it rather upholds a living past. The present that goes along is never in conflict with the past. Cuttack city moves along time and space in conformity with the past and the present. Hence, the poem, “Listening through the Rain” is an honest attempt of Padhi to transcend the realty and establish a world of memory and vision. For him every-thing that is sweet and beautiful is memorable no doubt, everything sad that is felt deep in the heart is also memorable. Rain is a catalyst, it transforms everything to a beauty. The poem “June Rain” explores the underlying move of human emotion. Almost all the poems of Padhi has the background of Orissa in general and Cuttack city in particular. How well the blood reacts to the earth’s pre-monsoon smell – rushing in every possible direction aimlessly, leaping about the place as these bare-bodied children do under the year’s first rain. How does one hold such blood in order, separate what goes into the heart from what issues from its remotest corner? 152  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets From outside, everything looks fine, as though long-trained to remain so; the hand moving in a perfect sweep to the eye so it might wipe off what the eyes cannot see and yet long for; the lips making just those words that are right for the occasion; the head bent sideways, as if in appreciation of all that is meant to matter here, hereafter. But somewhere, at some point where according to some perilous law blood meets blood, something appears to be missing – a word unspoken, maybe unheard. As I watch the steady rain fall, the sound of the blood can be heard on the rooftops and down there among the dancing feet of children in the rain. Something remains absent amid these sounds and movements, something very near to what couldn’t be said or carried in the blood. (35-36) In “Listening through the Rain” a loss is depicted by the poet. It may be a personal loss of Padhi, a loved one, who takes the form of memory. A similar echo is also found in the poem, “June Rain”. So far as this loss is concerned, although Padhi begins from personal level, he doesn’t remain confined to it. He transcends it and goes over to a loss which might be racial: it might be the memorable past or the valuable tradition of Orissa which have given way to modernity. Cuttack is a city of history, tradition and values. At an impersonal level Padhi is pained at the loss of tradition. He who has spent large part of his life in Cuttack city, just cannot take in the unhealthy change. His personal life converges with the The Voice of Rain: A Study of the Poems of Bidhu Padhi  153 historical and traditional life of Cuttack city like that of Saleem Sinai of Midnight’s Children. The June rain is not just a dull natural activity. There is memory associated with it. Although people are indifferent to it, as a sensible poet Padhi brings in its trail a lot of sweet memory. When the June rain comes he awakes instinctively and emotionally. Here it is significant to note that the cycle of season has undergone a lot of change in the last decade because of environmental degradation and rupture in ozone layer. Padhi definitely laments at such loss. There was a time when summer had its beauty and the rain following it was exhilarating; it used to give immense delight to the people. But later, extreme heat and the resultant death of the people in sun-stroke have given a shock to the collective psyche of the people of Orissa. If we study “June Rain” we’re lost in it and the poem becomes an immense source of delight. The reader ultimately has the impression that Padhi lives a realistic world. It is not imaginary. If our lifestyle has changed and we no longer live a life of reminiscence and natural bliss, we cannot look upon the latter as an imaginary life. Padhi lives a creative life which is a site of enthusiasm, jest for life and spirit. Hence, for him life and poetry are one. Poetry for him is just an extension of life and life for him is a basis of poetry. His poem “A Day of Rain”, is not only a portrait of life during a heavy down-pour in Cuttack city but also depicts how it captures the mind of the poet even in the absence of his knowledge. It wouldn’t stop even for a minute. The beautiful shower thins for a while before it realises that we are preparing to go out in the rain, and rushes down with renewed anger. I sit on the verandah and watch the roof leaking at the places where we left the cracks open; the walls slowly show up the old stains. 154  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets The road is flooded, and while a truck passes, the manager of the small restaurant in front of our house shouts and waves his hands to slow down its speed, so that the flooding water may not invade his low-lying floor. The lights fade, night gathers among the increasing rain. As I lie down on my bed, waiting for sleep, the rain seems to be everywhere, at all times, even during our skilful absences. (23) Rain is so integral to Cuttack city. Life in Cuttack city cannot escape it. What is significant in this poem is that Padhi treats rain in a detached manner. It gives the impression that rain is just a part of life. An outsider may be perturbed at the stagnation of rain water in Cuttack city, but not Padhi and many like him. Everybody in Cuttack understands that chaotic situation with rain water is because of the old city planning. Besides, rain contributes to the sweet memory of the people of Cuttack. It’s a great delight to have the experience of rain in the spring. Looking at the rain and clouds through the leaves and the flowers of the big trees of Cuttack is an aesthetic experience. The scene of rain in the river-bed of Mahanadi and on the historic river-bank of Kathajodi which encircle Cuttack city is wonderful. Hence, Padhi’s ‘skilful absences’ comprises more of the good memories than sorrowful memories. In the poetic world of Padhi, it is felt, there are more of compromises than protest. In “Waiting for Rain” one finds the painting of humanity in Orissa. The focus in the poem is not just the rain-starved humanity, but the life with all its endurance and an enthusiasm to live completely, not just to give up. Life here is a journey towards the Holy Grail, where there is absolute faith and peace, after selfmortification. Last year it was the flood, and they looked for dry earth. They cannot complain, and the gods or the government wouldn’t listen. Each time a prayer is made, the earth and the sky smile and don’t seem to believe. The Voice of Rain: A Study of the Poems of Bidhu Padhi  155 Where have all the right words gone? To which chosen people or promised land? The dry earth mocks itself everywhere. The trees that stand with loud and bare branches, must have once been quiet with leaves. Women and children walk long stretches of dry land looking for water; their bare and broken feet know that even a whole year’s wandering couldn’t take them anywhere near a land wet with rain. The prayers and the dance of the naked bodies continue under the punctual sun. I don’t disbelieve what they say or do, but it doesn’t matter. My own prayers have never reached the ears of a god who is eager to listen and act; I’m yet to learn how to arrange my words in an order acceptable to men or god. On the far horizon in the north, behind a solitary tree, a cloud remains entangled among ancient branches, hardly caring to know that there is a land here, waiting for rain. (47-48) Padhi focuses two aspects of life in Orissa: life in summer as well as in rain. Life during the rain forms the background of the poem. While portraying the life during the summer, it appears, Padhi has a good sense of observation of life in the bottom of Orissa like Jayanta Mahapatra. Mahapatra is a good painter of life of summer in Orissa in his poem, “A Mask”. Maybe it is summer again. The sunlight grows harsher. The faces of rice are stony, its fists seem clenched all the time. 156  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Women move around carrying children in their arms with a sad, vacant stillness. I return from an aimless walk, and watch from the window: the bus fills, turns, moves away, a man’s laugh disturbs me, my mind is blank. Hunger lends each one a mask, and it smells of trapped beasts. (41) Padhi portrays the summer life with all its details with particular focus on women and children. Because, it is after all, the women and children who are the worst sufferers. Padhi carries the effect of the summer to the farthest extent through women and children. Mahapatra also adds to the greater intensity of summer through women and children. But Mahapatra’s symbolic maturity and precision is greater than Padhi. That’s why he reaches the highest point of effect through the symbolic expressions: ‘the faces of the rice are stony’ and ‘…it smells trapped beasts’. The tone of both the poets is consistent, never fluctuating. What is very common about them is their presentation of the present in relation to the lost past. The tone of quest for the said loss is recurrent in their poems. Padhi, however, maintains clarity both of tone and theme in his poetry. He truly represents Orissa both of past and present and shows the spirit of Orissa which is the guiding-force of Oriya life. Padhi’s poems, otherwise, are a kind of reconstruction of Oriya life. It appears, he just collects the splintered shreds of Oriya life in ruin, constructs it, gives it a soul and presents it to the readers to recognise their own forgotten self and identity. Notes 1. Mahapatra, Jayanta, Random Descent, Bhubaneswar, Third Eye, 2005. 2. Padhi, Bibhu, A Wound Elsewhere, Calcutta, Rupa, 1992. 13 Rediscovering D.H. Lawrence: A Reading of Bibhu Padhi’s Living with Lorenzo Binod Mishra In an age of the hype and hoopla of various technological devices, reading of poetry seems to be on the low. There have been various instances of writing poems on occasions such as birth, death, rejuvenation and separation but writing poems on a particular person just to imagine a reappearance of one’s loved one, to enjoy his company and reveal and satisfy the expectations of one’s lifetime and that too only in imagination is something rare. Bibhu Padhi, an Indian poet committed to literature and most ardently to poetry exhibits his rare insight of imagination to discover the unextinguished desires of the great artist D.H. Lawrence whose influence can be found in many works of Padhi. A Professor of English at Ravenshaw College, Cuttack (India), Bibhu Padhi’s poems, translations, articles and book-reviews have found place in many international periodicals apart from Indian journals of repute. Starting his poetic journey with Going to the Temple, Padhi has in his kit A Wound Elsewhere, Lines from a Legend, Painting the House and Living with Lorenzo (2003). He is also credited with writing D.H.Lawrence: Modes of Fictional Style, a much talked of book to help the scholars busy in undergoing research on the writings of Lawrence. Padhi’s greatness as a poet lies in the simplicity of expression, use of subtle language without impairing the meaning and the poetic flow. His writing can claim to be different from the contemporary writers and poets of India in the 158  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets sense that we rarely come across something in his writing which can be called artificiality and verbosity to obfuscate his pure intention. The natural flow of his verse ensures spontaneity, which the veterans of poetry call a pre-requisite quality. The present paper is an attempt to discover the many hidden ambitions of D.H. Lawrence, primarily based on Padhi’s imagination. The figment of thought that Padhi wishes to fulfil and wants his mentor to help in his vocation does not seem a fancy but a ladder to reach the reality. Living with Lorenzo, a collection of 14 poems appears to be a biography which the Indian poet wanted Lawrence’s biographers to scribble than to write something in colourful language to afflict the departed novelist who strongly believed any relation based on blood to be more powerful than one founded on the dictates of the society. Lorenzo is another name of Lawrence. His close relatives and friends often used to call him with this sobriquet. The anthology begins with a poem named “Celebrations” where Padhi represents Lawrence’s notion of celebration of any event as an outward show full of pomposity and falsity of expression. Most of the celebrations are full of flattered emotions and flamboyant coinages. The words uttered on such occasions do not come from the depth of our hearts but are cemented only on our lips. Padhi is quite confident of Lawrence’s likes and dislikes and feels a compassion for the great novelist who hated to be called what he really was not. Padhi is at a loss to understand why we are not able to express the flow of our hearts and what impedes us from appreciating and depreciating the worth of a person or an object in their original state. One feels touched to the core to read the purity and innocence prevalent in the following lines: And I wonder why I, who have been So cruelly separated from you By time and your scholar’s pride of place Shouldn’t say what I want to say, 1 Will you not forgive me on this? Rediscovering D.H. Lawrence  159 Padhi does not find fault with an author revising his work of art till he himself is satisfied with the dish he wants to serve to the society. He shows his concern with the uncompromising and ideal notion of Birkin in Women in Love and is not sure whether Birkin won his ways or turned volte-face to follow the dictates of society as well as to avoid from any social imbalance. The poet feels one with Lawrence and he grows familiar with his fad and fancy. He is over confident that no one except the poet can understand the pangs and plights and as a result they cannot follow the simple message. Bibhu Padhi, following in the footsteps of the great artist and the novelist, raises some very genuine questions, which the materialistic world of today is faced with. The celebration of various events and occasions entail a significant amount to the economy of an individual as well as of a nation. The modern ways of living and loving are confined to the decorative structure and dilapidated content. Our morbid fascination towards glorification of what is not later becomes the qualms of conscience. The real reverberations of the heart get back-seated and we become blind to the basic issues of life. The ignorance of individual in his lifetime and immortalising him with infinite tributes reveals our doubleedged attitude. What Padhi states in the last stanza is not only a reminder of our fragile philosophy but also a realisation of our all past frailties: Do celebrations matter? Can our stiff mouthless words Return to you what we had taken away while you were here A little more than half a century ago? The poem “Of Stories and People” reflects the poet’s disillusionment with the repetitive pattern of life. The history of mankind is an exercise in futility and most of us are the mediums to perform the same action with different labels. All of us continue to nurse an illusion, which we believe ‘to be true for all time.’ We have nothing, which we can call our own and feel proud of under the 160  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets impression of it being something, which is unitary. The poet takes a dig at our lifestyle by saying: We exist Among nouns, qualifiers, verbs. Our real self is veiled and we never tend to improve unless the public eye becomes harsh. We are the characters of stories that repeat themselves and their actions waiting for carbon to reproduce many such stories with changed nomenclatures. The content in a new garb and receptive keeps modern world busy, interpreting the deeds and misdeeds. We can trace the poet’s aversion for certain modern day calling, which teaches people to serve vapid things in a sapid wrapper. The poet emphasises much on carbon and says that as compared to human being, it sticks to its identity more since it only produces what is given to it. Things once recorded through carbon stand as they are and they appear, To remind us yet again of what you meant In a language that all of us might understand And then feel sorry for what we earlier missed. The lines remind us of P.B. Shelly who too said, We look before and after, And pine for what is not: Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; 2 Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. (To a Skylark) The loss of integrity makes the poet wish for something, which is ‘limitless’. The notion of a unitary, exemplary experience comes only once – the time when we see, touch, taste and smell something for the first time. Any object or a person accommodates or disseminates its identity in its integrity, its undividedness. Names are only the facilitators in today’s world and an added convenience to recognise a particular object or a person. These are mere referents and with some attribute or the other they keep substituting each Rediscovering D.H. Lawrence  161 other. Another interpretation of the poem can also be traced as stories and people to be a repository of synonyms, which are only the near meanings and not the actual meaning nor the ideal ones to substitute. Those who are aware of this realisation can feel how eagerly the carbon waits to reproduce the so-called new conspectus (repetitive actions) of mankind. The poem Dreams is Padhi’s acute realisation of how despite their departure the reminiscences of great artists remain alive and stamped on the mind of their readers. The poet, a great acolyte of Lawrence, makes it public that he is possessed by the dreams and desires of the great artist who has become a passion and no tick of the clock ever misses the influence left by his absence. The run of Time cannot obstruct an individual to think and be as he wishes. The units of time cannot be barriers to the choice of individuals. It is only the idle and the empty minds that give names to what does not come under their limited knowledge of propriety or decorum. Padhi likes to follow in the footsteps of Lawrence, the great influence of his times and paying scant attention to the reactions of his surroundings and defying all set rules, the poet feels some moments of relief: Following merely Our wish to be, need to be, but are always Far from, and therefore nurture So fondly those inhumanly Ill-subscribed dreams: yours, his, ours. Dreams are the demonstrations of our unfulfilled desires and they keep reverberating in the moments of rest to reconcile with their past without any recuperation. In the poem “Journeys”, Padhi though, expressing his deep concern with Lawrence’s loitering’s in life, becomes quite metaphysical and makes his readers aware of the metaphysical anguish most of us have inside us. The poet sympathetically situates the sauntering of Lawrence who was never at peace with himself. The urge to be as free as birds and leaves, to make one’s own flights, to experience the ecstasy of the smells flavors and vivacity of 162  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets different sorts symbolises the individual’s deep agony. The mobility of the poet reflects his unwavering faith in the extension of experience imbued with knowledge to taste the forbidden mores and codes of society. His frail body fallible to diseases deterred him not his itinerary of Europe, Australia, Ceylon, India and America. The larger implication of the poem lies in the fact that most of us are the alien citizens of a known world where the place/land is a transitory shelter, which we keep considering our own. Life is an unknown journey and we are the known travellers approaching towards an unknown destination. The stay of mankind being ephemeral on this earth, we should attempt to accommodate and enrich ourselves with all sorts of experiences so that the heart may not regret for having missed any experience. Since places remain and body departs, Padhi consoles with the wanderings of Lawrence in the following lines: Places are not made For these bodies, these minds. Padhi in this poem hints at Lawrence’s ‘savage pilgrimage’, which he continued after his association with Frieda. One may also explore Lawrence’s travels an escapade from the prying eyes of public and his own conflicting emotions. It may here be noted that Freida, like Lawrence was free spirited but bored with her present life. In the poem With Lorenzo in New Mexico, the poet once again wishes to be with his mentor in New Mexico. He imagines how painfully one has to sever his ties with the world one considers replete with the warmth and spontaneity of one’s land and people. The journey of life dwells in the heart and mind. The heart longs for things neglected and mind struggles hard to reconcile. Time, which is all-powerful, doesn’t have a readymade solution for all contortions and complexities. The spawning human relationships and our commitments make us forego the requirements of time, which devours everything. Rediscovering D.H. Lawrence  163 Padhi wishes if he could spend some time with Lorenzo who seems to sink into a cold. He regrets not to have the opportunity of sharing the sublimities of the great artist Lawrence. His only consolation lies in the fact that he could abide by Lorenzo and accompany him on some short walks and partake his captivating smile for the devious routes of Time can never be predicted. Padhi in the poem “On Reading Yet Another Biography” hints at Lawrence’s dissatisfaction with the world he lived in. His writings were harshly criticised because of his candid expression and frank experience in many books. Not a critic’s favourite writer, Lawrence found the birds, flowers and grass to be more in their hue and fads. Padhi is of the opinion that Lawrence’s biographers had been very adverse to him and didn’t attempt to find some sparks in the great artist that Lawrence was. Taking his side, Padhi feels the great poet and novelist sketched in many colours and his biographies only included dates, places, meeting and departure skulking the real substance of his writing. He makes Lawrence’s biographers aware of their useless toil in adding another story to the one that was wrong since the beginning. But his confidence and his esteem in the poet seem unfixed. His faith in the spiraling knowledge of Lawrence is unflinching and he beautifully transcribes the consciousness of Lawrence whom Padhi thinks to rise from the ashes and say: All that I have said and that you believe to be wrong anyway, I had known this with the birds And flowers and the grass under our feet. Padhi is painfully aware of the fact that Lawrence’s writings have not been analysed properly and the biographers have misinterpreted and given undue meanings bringing unacceptable references. Lawrence’s needless travelling and his instable mental conditions too could not stop his detractors from reading and meaning more than the writer’s pen spilled. Padhi sympathises with Lawrence’s struggle, which continued from the beginning to the end, and finding no difference between the two, he wishes the great 164  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets novelist to have sumptuous sleep. What makes Padhi’s tribute to the poet memorable is the philosophy in these lines: The beginning and the end Are one and the same. When I end, I turn back to the beginning to see. What you could’ve done to the world, in spite of its Pride of remaining what it has been from its beginning. These lines not only reflect the strains and struggle the great D.H Lawrence came across but is true of all mankind. The cyclic pattern of life takes everything in its stride and makes us pine for what we have lost. The true essence of life is a complete chaos followed by a void where we shun all noises and realise the voice of the eternal silence. In yet another poem, “Revising Lives”, Padhi grows more contemplative and expresses his grave concern over the biographer’s biopsy of Lawrence’s text one after another. Though dissatisfied with the revision of text, the Indian poet wonders at numerous revisions. Text after text brings new interpretation of the writer’s lines and adds to some new meaning. What the poet intends to unravel is the fact that there is nothing such as permanent in life. The diversity of life is demonstrated in the search for knowledge. The urge to know and let others know evolves out of the desire to discover new lands and acquiring new identity. Human psyche has many new worlds preserved within and their emanation does not impede the growth. The poet believes that change is inevitable and human beings take a cue from Nature to change for betterment. Padhi visualises how we make unnecessary evaluation of an object or a person and later regret when we experience its worth or worthlessness the moment we come into its contact. Life is a continual process of making and remaking, committing mistakes and confessing them, besides an equation to balance the incongruities. Perfection, which symbolises death is a misnomer. Padhi’s realisation in the following lines adumbrates the undeniable Rediscovering D.H. Lawrence  165 fact of all humans striving to make their opusculum the bellesletters for the future generation: But then, lives change just as climates do, throughout the year, each day of the passing year. Today I know better. I look forward to your reappearance in order to revise your textual lives, our lives once again, rewrite whole lives The poem apart from raising certain metaphysical issues, also invites the critical attention of the readers and scholar critics making deliberations on the relationship between the text and the author and the interpretation of text without the intervention of author’s own beliefs and identity. “The End of One Wish, the Beginning of Another” reflects Lawrence’s conflicting loyalties and his profound expectations of love in return. Padhi picks up a thread from Lawrence’s one of the most acclaimed novels, Women in Love, and raises questions over an ideal way of living our life based on principles much in contrast with the happenings of the present times. Through the medium of Gerald and Birkin, the poet sympathises with Lawrence and asks: Why do you have to wish you were With Gerald all your life, Birkin? – now that He is dead and with him has gone Everything except the image of his memory? Gerald and Birkin are the two male characters who are quite affable and maintain a cordial relation with each other. They fall in love with Gudrun and Ursula respectively. Birkin gets frustrated since his expectation of commitment from Ursula is not responded well. The effervescence of love between two independent individuals much in contrast with the present happenings of society receives a severe jolt. The relationship of Birkin and Ursula 166  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets culminates only when the two relent and comprehend the subtleties without affecting each other’s individuality and commitment. Padhi understands Lawrence’s philosophy in a vein that allows relations to shape through heart and situate in mind. Mind is the root of all conflicts and useless confabulations. It clouds the purity of all emotions that emanate from the heart. The simplicities of heart cannot withstand the arrogance of mind and there issues a clash. The wisdom of the heart believes in discovering new lands and expanding our waves beyond repair and rejuvenation. One is reminded of what Lawrence himself wrote in one of his letters: My great religion is a belief in the blood, the flesh, as being wiser than the intellect. We can go wrong in our minds. But what our blood feels and believes and says is always true. The intellect is only a bit and a bridle. What do I care about knowledge? All I want is to answer my blood, direct, without fribbling intervention of mind, or moral or what not. I conceive a man’s body as a kind of flame, like a candle flame, forever upright and flowing: and the intellect is just the light that is shed on to the things around.3 Bibhu Padhi is so charged with the obsession of being with D.H. Lawrence that he not only defends the great writer from the onslaughts of his critics but also imagines of enjoying a day with him on the beaches of Puri. The poem “A Day with You at Puri-onsea” is a reflection of the poet’s longed and dreamt of association with him where Padhi and Lawrence could bask in the yellow tint of the sun and the novelist’s frail body would invigorate. This serenity of the seaside and the feng shui would make Lorenzo’s untrimmed beard shine against the granular light making him look at the younger face of the poet. The poet blandishes Lorenzo to enter into a camaraderie, which others could only envy, and not to be a part of the chicanery as that of the friendly relations of characters in his famous novel Women in Love. But Padhi recounts the human limitations and the utter failure to make a proper estimate of one’s personality. The poet finds himself a dwarf before the multifaceted countenance of D.H. Rediscovering D.H. Lawrence  167 Lawrence. The cobwebs of the world have bolted the conscience of mankind and the poet as a representative can only record: I cannot but weep For you, your failures even during your small life, my very own rains falling far inside me, almost telling me this business of judging you is none of my business. In course of rejuvenating sub rosa with Lawrence, Padhi pleads for a predilection to let the hand of the veteran artist in his own and lacerate his heart. The poet wants Lawrence to tell him the resting place of his unfulfilled desires, his unquenched emotions. Padhi is confident that his Lorenzo would accept the poet’s wish and grant him the benediction of a true friendship. The feeling of such a friendship provides the poet with the fulfilment of his longing to be a true devotee and an acolyte of D.H.Lawrence. One can find Padhi’s honesty and his mea culpa the way he swells with his imagination in the following lines: Then tell me where the wish hid, which bush or tree, and wouldn’t let itself be out like a friend indeed like every dear wish should be – totally itself, all the while yours, Never trying to trick you into Its own whims and fancies. Padhi is full of admiration for the great Lawrence who withstood the ravages of time. The indifference of the world to the artist never posed any hindrance rather it provided him with the stimulus to pierce the night and land towards a new dawn. Time has the quality to give and take whatever little we are blest with. The valiant individual never dodges the responsibilities and the uneasiness but faces it with equanimity. Time stands as a liminal figure in the background of all our deeds and misdeeds. Padhi, like the famous British poet, Andrew Marvell makes us all aware of the fact that human beings appear as kaput before the might of Time. Making us all eye-witnesses, Padhi says: 168  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets I’m not sure you are aware Of time’s endless perspiration To end lives, honest precious lives. The poet’s friendship with Lorenzo will conquer the nitty gritty of time and instead of being an object of mockery and ‘ a horde of helpless, waiting lives’ he wants to surpass the wings of time. And that perhaps is possible in a state of blessedness, of oblivion where, time is stilled by our needs, silenced by our incorruptible faith in ourselves. The last poem “Yet Another Wish for Lorenzo” offers a consolation to the great novelist, painter, poet and the artist all that D.H. Lawrence stood to Padhi. The poem, a real tribute to the great artist rejects the poet’s notion of bringing Lawrence back to this mundane earth. This earth, which appears to all of us a paradise, has nothing meaningful and permanent to offer. It is only the common people who stay on the earth to derive pleasure from the bounties. The earthly places are the different lists of names only to provide a temporary change to let people live a life of illusion. In fact, the earth does not belong to the geniuses like Lawrence who may suffer insult and injuries. The poet wishes his mentor never to return to this earth to suffer any further humiliation rather to live amidst the luxuries of elixir where one can attain the peace of mind and rest blissfully. Padhi in the following lines shows not only his own weariness but also guards Lorenzo to be careful while making another choice of coming to this earth. The realisation of the meaninglessness of life and purposelessness reflects the awareness of mankind’s spiritual journey: If you choose to leave Your place once again, ever, Never return to this earth’s mistakenly mythic glory, meaningless time. Padhi’s realisation reminds us of the sad picture of modern day life as depicted by Matthew Arnold in Dover Beach: Rediscovering D.H. Lawrence  169 for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, 4 Where ignorant armies clash by night. (Dover Beach) Living with Lorenzo, inspired by D.H.Lawrence and dedicated to readers and critics of Lawrence (as the poet proffers it “To my fellow Lawrencians” also brings to light Padhi’s essential qualities of a poet who has his eyes and ears open for the sweet and somber music of humanity. Making Lawrence his confidant, Padhi also addresses the common people’s confrontation between their self and society. He holds an edge over his fellow poets in the use of their words, style and association with readers. Padhi’s interactive style projects him as an enchanter from whose verses flow like magical spells. His peep in the past, his love for Nature, economy of words and his simplicity bring him close to his reader’s heart. Padhi appears to belong to such a group of poets who believe poetry as not mere rhyming of lines but rhyming of ideas that emanate freely carving out their niche among the day-today activities of life. The lines of his poems mean much even in isolation. Though a magician of free verse like T.S. Eliot, Padhi’s lines condescend less to too much of references. We can find the poet growing philosophical at times in lines such as: The beginning and the end Are one and the same. (“On Reading yet Another Biography of yours”) So many things. So little. Nothing. (“What This Night Has to Tell About you”) How quietly time has cut across Our simple lives, our years Of expectations and compromise. (“Thinking of Time”) 170  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets It seemed no place was yours. (“Journeys”) Each small thing is part Of the sun and the wind. (“Dance Sketch”) But his philosophy seems much in consonance with his readers’ understanding, causing them less strain in unveiling the poet’s imagination. One of the most striking qualities of Padhi lies in his rich and profound imagination when he sketches lean trees bending into one another in an act of love embracing during nights to avoid the envious eyes of mankind. Such an imagination is not commonly found in modern day poets for whom poetry is utter realisation of split and damages, collapse and construction in a world fighting for mere survival. Poetry for Padhi means more than survival and it is survival with a cause – the cause to live a life not with a choked feeling but with the ability and the chivalry to express what the heart longs for, the body feels and the spirit cleanses. His poems offer a universal appeal in as much as it renders his nostalgic propensities and brings to fore his deep reverence for his culture and the legacy of past revered in the form of the five elements, viz., earth, water, fire, sky and wind. What William Stafford says in his comments on Padhi’s first collection, Going to the Temple, is true not only in the context of this particular collection but is true of Padhi’s poetic art interspersed in other works too in a variety of ways: For Bibhu Padhi life enjoys a promise between the outer world and the self, and his poems reach across that space we all feel 5 when we pause and reflect on what our lives mean…. Thus Living with Lorenzo depicts in glowing words Lawrence’s view of the world as understood by Bibhu Padhi. The poet is a medium between the real object and its experience. Whether the world of the great novelist had a place for all these experiences or not, the poet has made it a living experience though on the basis of his own imagination and scattered writings available. The readers, in course of knowing about Lawrence also come to know much about the poet, who in some way or the other seems to develop a sort of disinterestedness with the common and everyday activities which make infinite noises and signify scant attention. Padhi’s selection of words, his interactive method, and concern for the Rediscovering D.H. Lawrence  171 voice of the voiceless, his thirst for unraveling the complexities of experience in the most lucid manner bring him in the front gallery of many Indian poets read and cited with profound respect. What Virginia Hyde says in his appraisal of Living with Lorenzo is not an exaggeration but a realisation which all of us may come across our reading of the book: Padhi’s Lawrence is mature enough to be weighed down in his journeys in an inhospitable world, but he is also faimiliar and more approachable because of that in graceful multivalenced lines we witness a new Lawrence’s towering presence – his resistance to absence in the face of human vulnerability – all as intuited and turned into art and “a friendship that defied time 6 and space by his fellow poet”. And poetry, in reality, is the quintessence of all such obedience and defiance of time scattered in the inner corridors of human existence. Bibhu Padhi’s Living with Lorenzo aptly scores a point over many writings on D.H. Lawrence, to whom the world was ‘one colossal madness, falsity, a stupendous assertion of not-being’. Sudeep Sen considers Living with Lorenzo as one of his favourite in his fairly unbiased review of the book saying; The 14-poem sequence that forms Living with Lorenzo is one of my favourites among Padhi’s more recent work. These poems are stunning, and they are admirable for their wise simplicity and 7 depth. References 1. Padhi, Bibhu, Living with Lorenzo, 2003, Cuttack, Peacock Books, (All subsequent lines of poem quoted from this edition.) 2. Shelley, P.B., To a Skylark. 3. Collected letters of D.H. Lawrence qtd. In The Art of D.H. Lawrence by Keith Sagar. 4. Arnold, Matthew, Dover Beach. 5. Stafford, William in his comments on Going to the Temple. 6. Hyde, Virginia in his comments on Living with Lorenzo 7. Sudeep Sen, Three Journeys in Literary Review, The Hindu, December 5, 2004. 14 Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate: A Versified Slice of Modern Life N. Sharada Iyer Despite continuing attack on Indian poets their place in modern Indian culture is recognised. Their poetry is part of the modernisation that includes urbanisation, industrialisation, mobility, independence, social change, increased industrialisation, national and international transportation network, mass education and the resulting paradox that as an independent national culture emerges it also participates in the modern usually Westernised world. Unlike many of the colonial clerks and the bourgeoise who attempted to imitate the British, there is no authentic mentality for the poet except that of the modern world and its concerns, which they may express or criticise of which they are a part, as are an increasing number of Indian. More significant than the individual poet is the rapidly with which Indian English poetry has become a self-sustaining tradition with recognisable models, periods and influences. A.K. Ramanujan, R.Parthasarathy, Daruwalla, Mahapatra, Kamala Das, Vikram Seth and De Souza are among those who have moved poetry in new dimensions. The poets have a wider variety, voices, perspectives from and subject matter. The American influences on Indian poetry became significant in mid 1960s when Daruwalla, Shiv K. Kumar and others began to look for less formal. The man alone in a hostile world, with a sense of opposition, cynicism and ironies of life are to be found in Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate: A Versified Slice of Modern Life  173 American literature. The voice seems closer to the experience of the senses and openness. Narrative becomes an experience. The open associational poetry with its surprising attitude, prominence of such themes as guilt, sexuality, ambition, memories, past rebellion, conflict, shame, childhood, love and the assertion of an articulate but fractured self are part of the confessional mode that started in America during the early 50s and spread internationally by 60s. The most outstanding of these modern Indian English poets is Vikram Seth, who has exhibit that Indian poetry in English is thriving as never before. Though enrolled at Stanford to earn his Ph.D. in Economics, he soon became a Wallace Stregner Fellow in creative writing. During this period he studied classical Chinese poetry and different languages at Nanjing University China. Seth mentions he had never had any passion for economics, “I felt a bit of regret that I didn’t finish my Ph.D. I’m interested in it but it’s not a passion the way writing is”. Seth published eight notable works-six collection of poetry and two novels. During the period before and after he published his first novel he contributed poetic work for more than a decade. His first Mapping (1981) is a bright young man’s attempt at self-scrutiny, the mapping of his diverse selves” the despondent, witty / calm and uncalm, lost in self-doubt or pity” Mapping records his dual feeling of nostalgia for India during his stay abroad as a student and his continued attraction for “the note of the other bird / The nightingale the wren”. Many of the poems in the first volume are of youthful restlessness, or concern, rebellion and ambivalent feeling towards family especially his father with whom he seems to have strong disagreement “I had few memories of your love / or kindness even speech”. In Departure Lounge he attempts to understand what was there about his father’s past that drove them apart. Orphaned at two, you are away From Bauji at fifteen The tin shack, the Mussourie store Hunger, the freezing rain 174  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Nothing could split the shell of hate and pride You would have rather died Than face the uneasy ease again Unsure of tenderness Where you most craved it, did it grow Too anguished to express Mama says you cried The day Bauji died. In Departure Lounge the baffling complexities of the love hate relationship between father and son are delicately probed. The poem with a foreign setting is perhaps a preparation for the writing of the Golden Gate. Even in this collection Seth has a feel for language and rhythm which is one of his strong points of his verses. Vikram Seth came into prominence with The Humble Administration (1981) which won him The Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Asia. Each of the three section of the poem is represented by a tree which is symbolic of a different country in which Seth lived Wutong (China), Neem (India) and Live Oak (America) some of the poem reflect Seth’s loneliness, sense of being continuously on the move and the various fears and anxieties which close to the surface awaiting to burst “They have left me the quiet gift of fearing/I am consumed by fear, chilling and searing”. Homeless begins with “I envy those / who have a house of their own.” The poetic upon which Seth’s highly original poetry is based can be found in Ceasing upon Midnight and Unclaimed. His meandering memories like those of the poets of the great odes range to foreign lands and the exotic, but instead of wishing to die like a romantic in ecstacy from such rich experience, he is shielded by sleep, by common sense and the traditional rule of poetry from selfdestructive introspection. Unclaimed proclaims the value of living on the surface of life, enjoy what the moment has to offer, while avoiding depths of emotions and entangling complexities. To make love with a stranger is the best There is no riddle no test. Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate: A Versified Slice of Modern Life  175 Seth’s acceptance of an delight in exile combined with a highly self-conscious poetic form and prosody results in surprising original poetry like most good art it is very much of its time – form is a defence against self-destructiveness. Such nao-formalism is one kind of post-modernism as is the tongue in cheek low pressure pop are style and plot of Seth’s narrative in verse about young love in San Francisco, Golden Gate, which is not only similar to American song and film but also a part of a literary tradition which includes Byron which has been called by some critics as Byronsque. The Golden Gate (1986) is a novel composed entirely of rhyming tentrameter sonnet – 690 of them to be precise – describing the life of a young professional of San Francisco in their quest to find friendship, love and life, betrayal, strife, sex, politics. It is a bitter love story, wickedly funny novel of madness and an unsentimental meditation on morality and the nuclear abysses. Always witty – still profound – the book paints a truthful picture of our dreadful comic time. A splendid achievement equally convincing in its exhilaration and its sadness. The entire work more than three hundred pages written in delightfully rhyming verse is a pleasure to read and is extremely difficult to put down. While the idea of a novel in verse may be initially putting off, readers of this tour de force are in for a treat. Using the sonnet from throughput and varying his language for lyrical elegance Seth’s tale of four Californian Yuppies is as fully dimensional as a good novel and twice as diverting. In this witty compressed style he gives fully delineated characters, John, a Silicon Valley executive, seeking solace in meaningful amatory relationship, his friend and former lover Janet, an artist and musician in a rancous rock band, Liz, a vivacious, Stanford law graduate whose parents produce superior Californian wine, her brother Ed, floundering between sin and religion and John’s past pal Phil abandoned by his wife and left with his son, his moral vision and his scientific career at Lungless Lab, a scene of anti-nuclear protests and rallies. It is an engaging story of pangs and passions of love interlaced with serious ruminations and homosexuality, religion and the future of the earth in the atomic age and some comic sallies on feline behaviour, bumper sticker response 176  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets to personal ads and other facets of the contemporary scenes as refracted through the Californian life style. Inspired by the marvelous shift meter of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, Seth performs imaginative acrobatics, jests, quips and puns delivering his social commentary with spirit and verve. In spite of some passages where he veers towards the mandlin and bathetic-Seth’s experience is a resounding success. It was one of the most highly praised book of 1986. One of the most common thing that link people together is a common language Golden Gate is written in the universal language of human emotions, reading this book is an experience of life in current times. The book bears the warmth and touch of humanity that identifies Seth’s inimitable style of writing. The plot is simple and straight forward lucidly composed in a sequel of sonnets. The main protagonist John, is a successful engineer, good looking healthy, self-made, self-possessed but isolated, lonely and depressed person. He craves for a family that will put an end to his loneliness. His life has grown duller since he left college. He is initially seen as caught in the kelp of loneliness – a lonely dispirited man with irregular, moronic sentimentality due to his likeness node, having no spouse or sibling, though he is engaged in constant change of partners, the changing relationship being almost like a game of musical chair. At the age of 26, he finds himself asking ….. If I died, who’d be sad? Who’d weep. Who’d gloat. Who would be glad Would anybody. As it pained him He turned from this dispirited theme To ruminations less extreme (1.1) John feels a cold cast of self-pity envelop heir. No family Cushions his solitude, or rather His mother’s dead his English father Retired in his native Kent Rarely responds to letters sent (If rarely) by his transatlantic Offspring. (1.6) Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate: A Versified Slice of Modern Life  177 John’s former flame Janet Hayakawa advices him to advertise for a partner, that is how he meets Elizabeth Dorati. They are happy for a time, but quarrel over a pet cat and drift apart. Elizabeth marries John’s best friend Phil, while Janet dies in a car accident John now suddenly realise that it was Jane he truly loved and he can hear her voice, can almost hear her saying. I’m with you John. You’re not alone Trust me, my friend, there is the phone (13.52) One of the major themes of the verse novel is a search for love as an antidote to loneliness Trilling comments “Today if we are to believe our fiction, the individual is not only isolated from society, he is isolated from everyone he knows, even his own love partner. The connection between people breaks and man lives alone in marriage, if friendship, in business, in non-business”. (2) Elizabeth Dorati deserting him to marry Philip, his best friend, aggravates his sense of loneliness and gives him a sense of injured pride, renders him more lonely and his life more painful them before. Naturally he turns his attention to Janet who is no doubt disturbed by John’s condition and help him, but her too busy artist’s life leaves time for nothing more than sympathy. The final blow comes when Janet dies in car accident. Thus Janet death completes the process oh John’s isolation. Phil, tells Liz If there is something we could do The fact is, he’s so isolated By all this pain and bitterness There’s not much we can do I guess. (13.43) John is lonely alienated and lost sans love, Emptiness leads to nothing but emptiness, Apart from this theme of loneliness and alienation, the themes that have found focus are homo-sexuality, nuclear insanity, the disintegration of family in America. Linguistically and thematically setting and characters make it an American novel. Even the language is not Indian, Peeradina says that he hardly finds any traces of Indianness in Golden Gate, whose idiom is transparently American, more immediately Californian. 178  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets There are people like John who do not succeed even in female love, and relationships, but there are people like Philip who believe that homo-sexuality and hetro-sexuality are not substitutes but are complementary to each other. He has relationship with Ed. He does not merely justify but glorifies homosexuality. He breaks out of the totemic world of his ancestors, and enters the rational world of science where sexual experience is freed from religious taboos. To Phil earthly body beauty does not exist for mere contemplation. Ed condemns homosexuality on biblical terms. His views are coloured by religion. He considers it both a disease and a sin. It is not the fear of social condemnation and judicial punishment but religious contamination. But the irony is Ed’s religion does not square well with his homo-sexual activities. It is always followed by confession in the Church which ease the pricking of his relentless conscience. His sense of guilt drives him from long periods of sexual indulgence to renunciations. To Ed he has to trust the decision of his faith and not his own volition. Thus one day Phil is gagged with sacramental text. Gradually the affair goes defunct, Phil states the end of it. I loved a woman and was dropped I loved a man and that also flopped. (11.20) The Phil-Ed affair is representative of the prevalence of homosexuality in California especially San Francisco. Towne discusses the prevalence of this way of American life. It is one of the major themes in modern literature, giving rise to gay literature. Seth’s work may be classified as a gay work because a large part of it is devoted to Phil-Ed affair. Phil is rewarded with Elizabeth and later a new addition in the family, whereas John begins and ends as a lonely man. The argument, between Phil and Ed on homosexuality vividly portrays changing values and morals and the world that is transcient as their view. Seth has succeeded in using his poetry in every direction – description, narration, dialogue and even sermonic lectures on nuclear madness and appeal for disarmament which is one of the important themes of the novel. Phil, who works in the Lungless Lab Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate: A Versified Slice of Modern Life  179 which manufactures bombs forsakes a lucrative job to keep up with his anti-nuclear programme which forms an important theme of the novel. It reflects the changing face of modern youth about the world and the threat to the environment. The disastrous consequence of nuclear weapon is driven home albeit in a refreshing manner. Phil, Elizabeth, Father O’Hara join anti-nuclear demonstration give lectures and voice their fear of the liquidation of man from the earth. They argue there is no victory, no survival, no defence, no place to hide in this exhaustive fraticide that threatens all culture all civilisations. They agree with President Reagan “A nuclear war can be won and must never be fought. The solution suggested is nonviolence and peaceful co-existence.” The book is a lyrical composition on the theme of love, in various forms degrees and dimensions. Although both love and its definition are elusive, yet it is the Golden Gate to happiness. Love is all inclusive, lust, concern, respect, trust, understanding, care, friendship. The Golden Gate elaborates this multidimensional emotion both in its histrocity and contemporariness. Love is reaching out between man and man and its simplest symbol is bridge. Such bridges need to exist is obvious but they do not, or they are too fragile to support spiritual oneness. They tragedy of life is they collapse so easily since man is not as patient as Whitman’s Spider who launches forth Filament Out of itself Ever reeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them Till the bridge you will need be Formed, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossanmer thread you Filing catch somewhere, O my soul. (3) Such a bridge were commonly built between individuals of both sexes among the literati of the Renaissance. In fact they constitute the central corpus of literature of the golden age creating a living myth of the perfectability of man and the respectability of love, but Vikram Seth adds a touch of scars when the modern 180  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Petrach and Laura meet (John Brown and Elizabeth Dorati) through an advertisement on a winter Sunday, bedded on Thursday parted before the summer is over-no eternity to live through. Seth’s irony and delicate satire paradies and veil, the expression of old fashioned sentimentality and affection very much like the sheet of summer fog which hides the bridge even from these who are actually standing on it. The moister, Keener October air has rinsed away The whispering mist with crisp intensity And over the opaque immensity A deliquescent wash of blue Reveals the bridge, long lost to view In summer’s quilt of joy: the towers High built, red gold, with their long span The most majestic spun by man – Whose tread of steel through mist and showers, Wind, spray, and the momentous roar Of ocean storms, link shore to shore. (9.28) The bridges as an emblem of fortified love stands revealed majestic and strong. If there were no Golden Gate to breach this fearsome solitude, it would be necessary to invent one. The book deals with man’s blind love for an invisible God and his edicts (Ed and his Bible), man’s concern for his fellowmen and the universe he lives in (O’ Hara, Elizabeth and Phil’s crusade against nuclear weapons), paternal love (John Brown and his transatlantic father contrasted with Phil Weiss and Paul, maternal love shown by Mrs. Dorati contrasted with Claire’s heartlessness, romantic love – Liz Dorati and John, Phil, Friendship affection and respect born for the partner and generosity of mind and selfless devotion shown by Janet who having lived through 1942 has learnt forbearance and magnanimity. There is also the parallel world of cats in which degrees of possession determine their final loss and gain. The plot of the novel charts the progress of all these characters from rigidly and mistrust Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate: A Versified Slice of Modern Life  181 and selfishness towards the greater ambience of courtesy, kindness, concern and care showing that this too is part of love. In life’s brief game to be a winner A man must have … O yes, above All else, of course, someone to love (6.13) By the end of the novel most of them have traversed the Golden Gate Bridge and grown. The protagonist who had mourned I am young, employed, healthy, ambitious Sound, solvent, self-made, self-possessed But all my symptoms are pernicious The Dove-Jones of my heart’s depressed The sunflower of my youth is wilting The tower of my dream is tilting The zoom lens of my zest is blurred The drama of my life absured What is the root of my neurosis? I jog, eat, brewer’s yeast each day And yet I feel life slip away – I wait your sapient diagnosis I die! I faint! I fail! I sink! “You need a lover, John, I think (1.23) John accepts Janets get well formula and trades his hatred for friendship, accepts the invitation to be the god father to Phil and Elizabeth’s child, and Phil gradually overcoming his homosexual affair accepts heterosexual domesticity and does not agonies over his former wife Claire’s betrayal and duplicity. The American women like Elizabeth who are emancipated, saved themselves from the dreary life of a housewife. They are women who have discovered their strength in various field. But despite God’s plenty; they still feel lonely and isolated. The concept of a family has no meaning to them. But it is the concept of a large family that is an answer to narrow vision, the novels shows Phil and Elizabeth enjoying the happiness of a large family with chuck, paul, an orphan boy, cats, and the new addition to their family. 182  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Seth calls upon Saint Francis, the Saint of love and the patron saint of the beloved city to ‘look down’ and ‘solace the sorrows of the town’ with its ‘Siren screams of power and wealth. ‘Silicon Valley is really an ‘Ulcer alley’ ... Silicon Valley Lures to ambition’s ulcer alley Young graduates with siren screams of power and wealth beyond their dreams Ejects the lax, and drives the driven Burning their candles at both ends Labour is lauded, leisure riven John Kneel. S. bare headed and unshod Before the chip, a jealous God (1.9) Patron of your beloved city O San Francisco, saint of love Co-suffer in searing pity of All our griefs…………… ………………….. solace the sorrows of your town (13.4) The loveliest city in the world ‘light pearled fog fringed San Francisco has become a living body with a dying soul. The Golden Gate Bridge is in imminent danger of falling down. The rigid code of the sonnet form was therefore one way in which the poet could point ironically to the breakdown in the twentieth century of earlier social and moral values, causing Seth’s didactic slip to show. The objective correlative of this ethos this waste land-is the answering machine, practical impersonal and heartless but paradoxically attached to the telephone – man’s instrument for reaching out. Advertising for love is not demeaning in this ‘meat market’ of goats and monkeys. Golden Gate is an astonishing experiment for a modern poet to undertake. It is a novel in verse on the model of Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. Set in California, with all the characters American, is a unique example in Indian English Poetry. Vikram Seth has turned the verse fearing into admiring acolytes, and proving that a novel can be successfully written in a sonnet form. Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate: A Versified Slice of Modern Life  183 New Yorkers called it ‘almost Maudlin’, throughout the reading of this poetic novel-like poetic drama, it is the architectural beauty of the sonnet form that dominates the writing, just as the structure of the Golden Gate Bridge towers over the Western Gateway to America. Significantly and symbolically both are marvels of engineering skill – one in language and the other in steel. Both are construction of a bye gone age and both being put to contemporary use. Carrying like the suspension bridge, which carries its burden on virtually no visible means of support, this novel in sonnet sequence also conveys its subtle meaning with no help either from its skeletal story of its unremarkable characters. The traditional sonnet from is no binding to Seth, in fact the freedom of the poetic sea is apparent in everyone of the nearly 600 sonnets. Its 13 chapters with an average of 45 sonnets – neither obtrude nor hinder the reader, but reveals the highest quality of poetry Seth makes the sonnet whisper, laugh, harangue, romance agonise, with equal ease. His handling of the iambic tetrameter is masterly and fulfils his desire to prevent it from ‘demeaned’ and ‘peter’. Why, asks a friend, attempt tetrameter? Because it once was noble, yet Capers, before the proud pentameter Tyrant of English. I regret To see this marvelous swift meter Demean its heritage, and peter Into mere Hudibrastic tricks Unapostolic knacks and knicks (5.4) The use of a number of monosyllables, words, including the name of his characters not only makes it lively but more life-like. The verse and the story support each other, and the sequence of sonnets enhances the flow, rather than hamper it. A variety of topics ranging from diet for pets, the method of pickling olives, to an invocation to St. Francis, are handled with equal veracity. The characters speak in ordinary language that makes it easy to identify them. The humour woven into the book makes it an absolute delight, and revealing of tongue in cheek satirist who perceives the 184  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets comical angle in even the most tension-ridden situation. Seth makes his present felt, each sonnet gives the feeling of a fascinatinating journey along with him, a feeling that persists long after the book is finished. The story begins in September and ends around November of the following year, exquisite word painting marks the passage of months. If the novel had been in prose the reader would not have taken the music of the lines for granted. Seth carefully keeps the narrative going balancing epic, similes, joyous alliterative lines and snappy with mundane happenings weekend jaunts consisting of breakfast and house warming parties, ballet performances, games of chess and tennis mark the passage of time while regular reference to passing days of the week, months and season fulfill the narrators obligations. Seth’s role is that of the omniscient narrator, but one rarely meets him in person. He plays the friendly ballades, strumming his guitar to tell us a tale announcing his presence only at the beginning or the end of a chapter after only to span time and space. Seth has a brilliant style where ordinary words, events and people stand up and portray emotions in delicate detail. His wit and word play apart it is an absorbing story of love and loss, justifying Rushdie’s comment “Seth is perhaps the most erudite Indian writer in English of the post-colonial period”. The bookmaker one reflect about the current trends observed in society regarding life, the world, relationships, family, friends, love and much more. In this respect it strikes a paralled with Elizabeth Barett Browning’s brilliant classic Aurora Leigh where the main protagonist questions on individual freedom, role in society, making one feel that idealism is an integral part of all great poetry. It must be admitted that the Golden Gate is a spectacular technical triumph. The sonnet a form used by some of the greatest English poets is not easy to handle and to employ it for long sequence of more than five hundred unit with consistent competence must be hailed as a rare feat for a modern poet. Realising the attitude of the critics, he himself has explained his use of the sonnet. Unit 5 of the book open with a party hosted by Thomas Cook, who asks him Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate: A Versified Slice of Modern Life  185 “Dear fellow What’s your next work? ” A novel.... “Great! We hope that you, dear Mr.Seth –” “... In verse” I added, He turned yellow “How marvelously quaint,” he said And subsequently cut me dead (5.1) Professor, publisher, and critic Each voiced his doubts.... ……………….. Driveling in rhyme’s all very well The question is, does spittle sell? Since staggering home in deep depression My will’s grown weak.... My heart is sore My lyre is dumb.... (5.2) How do I justify this stanza? These Feminine rhyme? My wrinkled muse? This whole passe’ extravaganza? ………………. The truth is, I can’t justify it But as no shroud of critical terms Can save my corpse from boring worms I may as well have fun and try it. If it works, good; and it not, well A theory won’t postpone its knell (5.3) Writing in verse was an astonishing experiment. Infusing it with charm, elegance and wit, made it a unique artistic feat. Seth has gone as far as can be imagined towards ease of diction, and at its best his stanza’s seem an entirely natural medium, through which he moves from page to page with effortless fluency. Indeed a technical triumph, proving that the sonnet from is capable of sustained sequentially, speed elegance, wit and depth of insight, earning him high praise “... there is no one more deserving of the word ‘genius’ that Vikram Seth. His book …………is, in a word, brilliant” (4). 186  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets References 1. 2. 3. 4. Seth Vikram, The Golden Gate, OUP, 1986. Further quotes pertain to this edition. Trilling Diana, The Image of Women in Contemporary Literature, R.J. Lifton ed., The Women in America, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1965, p. 61. Whitman Walt, Leaves of Grass, Eureka Pub. House, Delhi, 62 p.351. Sunday, Calcutta. 15 Chambial’s Poetry: A Spring of Enlightening Visions Sujaat Hussain D. C. Chambial’s books, namely This Promising Age and Other Poems, Broken Images, The Cargoes of the Bleeding Hearts, Perceptions, Gyrating Hawks & Sinking Roads and Before the Petals Unfold, convey things of permanence and of universal significance. These books contain almost 204 poems that present the author’s true knowledge and perception of the life which reflect the object of permanence and enduring significance. It captures truth, utility, unity and beauty. It has taken a shape with a special creative urge to communicate of worth salvation to the world. His ideas, philosophy, symbols and imagination stimulate thought that impart an idea that Chambial is a great poet. Widely acclaimed and admired, in the form of perspicacity of perspicuous personality, Chambial has already been honoured with various national and international accolades. The most noteworthy is that students of Indian English poetry have shown interest in his poetry and about half a dozen of them have already studied for M. Phil. and Ph.D. degrees while others are engaged in doing research. Consistent fervour and persistent devotion of Chambial for cultivating congenial atmosphere of poetry and generous attitude of inculcating keen desire of becoming a poet in hundreds of learned people through his Poetcrit, an international bi-annual journal of literary criticism and contemporary poetry must be admired. Poetcrit in particular and Chambial in general have played significant role. 188  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets We can say that they have become an integral part of Indian English poetry. Definitely, Poetcrit deserves immense commendation for the noble services. His poetry gives a view of life. When we enter into the world of his poetry we are inclined to believe that it is entirely a composite intellectual formulation. He is a poet who dreams harmony, happiness and prosperity through the soul of his poetry and permeates peace for all, shuns devils, hatred and violence in the divine garden of universal love. His views, words, mind, art and heart are exquisitely and subtly yoked together for the manifestation of his creative lovers. “The creation of beauty is Art” and this rightly goes with Chambial who has the capacity to create it. “Behold Her Atop the Tree”, “A Terrible Storm”, “A Triangle”, “Transformation” and “A Nude” are exemplary of its kind, its lyrics are like fingers caressing souls, delightful movements from top to toe and contain memorable music. The vowels and consonants are artistically ordered as to compose a music of its own, without the aid of a musical instrument. The poem, “Beautiful Beyond”, is excellent for using rhyme scheme wherein we find “floor-door”, “hill- chill”, “greeds-deeds” and “trace-face” that produce music and show his penchant for words. It suits the eyes and the ears. “On This day” (CP 12) is almost a classic and a symbol of the prevalent scenario in the country. Structure, meaning and significance of this great poem should be discussed thoroughly by the Indian critic. It’s a masterpiece of innovative poetic design and an entirely new and original kind of poetic technique. It reflects the gloomy state of mind of Chambial caused by irreparable damages done to his motherland. He prays: Lord! Come and entice our politicians (like your Gopikas or the pied-piper of Hamlin) and teach them a lesson in ethics – Chambial’s Poetry: A Spring of Enlightening Visions  189 when they get to rape the nation next time in the name of serving people. Human definition seems lost as these lines speak volumes itself: And they peep into the deep well Full of mire and stench That alienate man from man. All these things happen for the lust for power as “men and women born white as pearls,/onnocent as lambs”. When the desire of lust grips the mind and cripples the heart it “makes them bloodthirsty;/turn into wolves and hyenas”. Further, the poet prays and supplicates: “Save them! Save their souls!/ badly need protection/at this hour of lust and covetousness.” This poem is written in extremely simple style. Not only are the words simple, but the sentence-structure is also perfectly easy to follow. There is no complexity of any kind in the poem. Nor can we doubt the sincerity with regard to the feelings which the write has expressed in the poem. By virtue of its intense feelings, its brevity, its simplicity, and its spontaneity, “On This Day” is one of the best creations that enlighten human beings who are engaged in ignoble and disgraced deeds. The modern poetry is marked with amalgam of words which are taken from other languages. T.S. Eliot has used words such as Ganga, Himavant, Da, Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata and Shantih to suit his ideas that he wanted to propound in the poem, The Waste Land. Likewise Chambial uses words “Nainam chhindanti shastrani,/nainam dahati paavkaah,/paritraanaaya Saadhoonaam/ Vinaashaaya cha duskritaam” to attain his desired object with the buttress of mystic approach. These references have been extracted from the holy book, The Gita. He has used the word “soul” to make his poem eternal because body is perishable but soul cannot be pierced by weapons nor can it be consumed by fire. Such message makes the poem eternal. 190  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets “Testimony” and “The Burning Land” unfold scene and catastrophic situation that has been created by superpower by its evil designs. When he would have composed these poems, superpower of the world would have been before him. He seems brave and bold because to move tongue and use pen according to the will annoys superpower. Chambial potentials of the guts to utter the truth, setting aside emotions, mundane glory, worldly wings, borders and religion, colour and creed, keep his hands on the heart which enables to purgates the soul and crease the conscience. There is a criticism of the modern demonic developed deeds of the world in which we live in. Instead of working for the welfare of human beings people focus their attention and use energy and capabilities just “To satiate inner urge … fired life!” (CP 76). What is the use of being a “super-scientist in a super-lab”? It appears that super-man has created amazingly and scornfully “Sighs of wind,/ showers of rain-tears/ called in testimony:/ It’re YOU!” The poet shows indignation and lays emphasis by the use of capital letters YOU. At the same time the use of sign of exclamation multiplies shocks of being “superpower” with such heinous deeds. The contents and coherent fluency in ex-pression of “The Burning Land” attracts the attention of the readers at once. He bares hollow claims of prosperity in the style and manner: There she sits by the thin, lean riverside, dangles her legs in the cold water and suckles her child her bare breasts. (CP 77) The poet visualises the holocaust that happened in the Second World War of 1945: In the west a light several million times brighter and hotter than the one at Nagasaki and Hiroshima burns all bones. (CP 78) Chambial’s Poetry: A Spring of Enlightening Visions  191 Chambial describes in such a way that the heart in the chamber begins to sink: The fire breaks up, All is turned to naught. Birds and vessels clatter, Forests and deserts batter, With lightning and thunder The black clouds peep from over the Himalayas. (CP 78) Words like fire, naught, batter, lightning, thunder, black clouds, cry, pyres, and burns all bones cause fear, tear, terror, horror and ruin. It has left indelible scars on the forehead of the “developed” as Chambial says that “The wind tries in vain/to balm the wounded hearts.” This poem reflects his accountability as it blesses longevity, attains eternity and shines as the sun for guiding the way and to flow crystal water to make civilised, highly qualified, technically equipped, scientifically developed and financially sound to make them holy for the emergence of immaculate images. “To Woman” is a clarion call to the women of the present time. Gone are the days when women were kept within four walls. Chambial infuses spirit by saying volcanic line “dead are slaves” that reminds them of their strength, agility and asks them to rise and seize their rights: stand strong for space to settle score for atrocities heaped on you on the sea of oppr’ssion. (CP 47) The words “atrocities and oppr’ssion” reflect that the heart of the poet bleeds and they have been victims of cruelty. There is a sound call which can turn the table in their favour: Rise woman, rise It is time to come out from the harem and the kitchen 192  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets to break the barriers. The poet uses mythical and legendry references “Savitri” and Lakshmibai” the Queen of Jhansi, to inspire them as to how they could conquer and protect themselves. They can get rid of miseries. The need of the hour is to “be Bhawani to ring the knell”. Bhawani refers to the goddess Durga/Kali, the symbol of strength and killer of enemies of humanity like the Mahishasur. It connotes that the women have to show their killing instinct to put an end to their oppressors and oppression. Chambial believes in harmony. There should not be any discrimination of caste or religion. In the poem, “Dance in Harmony”, Chambial uses “black snake” as a symbol. Black snake is considered the most poisonous. When it transforms into petals and blossom with exotic beauty then there is no doubt that people with round caps (Muslims), sacred threads (Hindus), and crosses (Christians) unite. He aspires to see people: Sit together in mosques, temples, churches sans any walls and fences in rapture enjoy the words of God. (CP 134) for, God is one; it is the people who have named and divided the God according to their religions. Man is born innocent, ignorant of any religion but it is the man who chains him in religion. Men have been blessed with sense. Sense provides sensibilities. Sensibility disciplines men. Where there is discipline, there is peace, harmony, prosperity and happiness. It symbolises presence of Almighty. Come forward; forget the apple of discord that divides man from man. “Let’s, let’s all … dance in harmony/to this call Supreme!” Almighty watches from heaven and feels satisfaction on His art and skill for being their creator. Chambial’s theory of poetry has unique feature. In his view, “a work of art is like a diamond. It shows different lights when seen from varied angles and herein lies its beauty and worth. A work, which is mono-dimensional, lacks this quality. I believe in the ‘plusignation’ theory of poetry suggested by Philip Wheel right (The Chambial’s Poetry: A Spring of Enlightening Visions  193 Burning Tree, 1952) as an alternative to William Empson’s ‘Ambiguity’ (Seven Types of Ambiguity, 1930)” (Prefatorial Note). It is so suggestible and applicable that the present poets should adopt this theory and make the world beautiful and worth living by creating/writing multidimensional poems. Chambial uses a few words. He keeps his poems short, so that they do not bore the reader and the association of his ideas doesn’t turn to prose. Poems entitled “Submission”, “Fog”, “Full of Hyacinths”, and “Evolution” are very short poems and among them is “Evolution”, the shortest in his kitty, as it is of six lines containing 12 words. Words are limited but the meaning therein is vast: it encompasses the whole cycle of creation and destruction of the universe, nay, the cosmos itself. His books are precious contribution to the contemporary Indian English poetry because of sublime thought, intense feeling and fabulous imagination. Astonishing four strong scintillating beams of this poem are the thought which the poet brings to bear upon the subject, the feeling which his subject arouses, the faculty of strong and intense vision and the element of composition and pellucidity of language. It deals with human life and action. His realm of poetry is a combination of melody and melancholy, amalgam of romanticism and lyricism, blending of war and peace, reflect rays of love and hatred, invaluable suggestion of happiness and prosperity, a platform of intellectual thought and passionate feelings, a shade that provides calm to the mind and a scorching sun that purgates the soul. Poetry has a unique value in brightening and strengthening life. As a tonic that invigorates the withered soul of an individual in his unceasing struggle in his materialistic world, as a soul, as a product of sheer beauty for perennial delight, and as a beacon to what is transcendent, poetry has a function which can be discharged buy nothing else in the world. Without it the soul of man would have lost something of its lily. 194  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Writing poetry is a way of life to some or a pleasant occasional pastime to others. But the habit of poetry has something in common with the habit of good wishes to Chambial. In his poetry he wishes blessings of love, peace, happiness, prosperity, harmony and what is good and useful to human beings. His poems are replete with such examples. The book, in which he has put together all his poems, is a real showcase of his time, bad people corrupted by power, greed and forgetfulness of their own purpose and worth of creation. He has carved out an interesting niche for himself in the domain of Indian English poetry. We sincerely hope that the reader will find in them a connecting thread, which is man’s ultimate desire for freedom and awakening. Each and every poem possesses potentials of guiding force, highlights crises with solution, and thus redeems us. References Chambial, D.C., Collected Poems: 1979-2004, Maranda: Poetcrit Publications, 2004. The book has been abbreviated to CP in the text and is followed by page numbers. 16 (Re-)Placing the Canon in a Post-Colonial Space: A Study of the Poetry of Indian Diaspora Jaydeep Sarangi The postcolonial literature in English has emerged as the paradigmatic dissidence – an alternative voice against the accepted colonial repression. E. Boehmer (1995:04) claims that ‘colonial’ “need not always signify texts rigidly associated with the colonial power.” He draws attention to the fact that the colonial texts often betrayed the anxieties of ‘empire’, which stands for the traditional colonial construct. There is a paradigm shift in attitude when one looks at it through sceptical glasses. New texts have come out with radically subversive gusto and interpretative autonomy against the orthodoxical orientation and politico-military evasion. The formation of canon is a melting concept under the changing parameters, like power dynamics, social forces, militaristic oppression and geo-spatial shift of the diaspora. A canon formation results in a self-reflexive account of cultural nationalism. The new slogan of postcolonial literary practice rests in transgression of the received boundaries of literariness – “indecorous mixing of western genres with local context” (Gandhi:150). I do have strong personal objection to use the term, ‘indecorous’ as the adjective – I would prefer the term, ‘creative’ in the said context. How can a native assertion be described as ‘indecorous’? For the choice of the ‘global code’ as the language of 196  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets artistic expression does have profound socio-cultural resonance in literatures of different countries. The postcolonial counter-textuality in canon formation is built on the concept of nation-ness as engendered within the strong anti-colonial grammar – a consciousness to restore the ‘other’. For most of the universities in India the section/group/paper on Indian Poetry in English Consists of Derozio, Toru Dutta, Auravinda, Sarojini Naidu, Nissim Ezekiel, A.K. Ramanujan, R.Parthasarathi, Jayanta Mahapatra, Keki Daruwalla, Kamala Das and Arun Kolatkar. Meena Alexander and Vikram Seth figure (part of UG/PG syllabi of Indian Universities) as the representative poets of the Indian diaspora. We may ask the essential question – who holds the canon? How is it formed? Indian poetry in English has two broad-based pockets – Bombay and New Delhi, two centres of Indian economy, administration and literary journals. We cannot deny the role of the Central Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. Faithful commitment from the scholars can re-set the elite list with appropriate representation based on merit. A broad-based study may reveal that some names in the canon are preferred over the deserving others due to their metro origin, connections with ‘big-names’ and academic sponsorships through journals/magazines. Judicious selection from a large list of poets should be the order of the day. Rabi Swain, a critic of Jayanta Mahapatra, claims that the present scenario of Indian poetry in English “is perhaps in its saddest phase now” (Chandrabhaga 11, 2005:53). We have reasons to differ with Dr. Swain and claim that Indian poetry in English matches with the ‘best’ in the West. Bibhu Padhi is a glaring example. He is the author of Going to the Temple, A Wound Elsewhere, Lines From A Legend, Painting the House, and Games the Heart Must Play: a trilogy of Love Poems and Living With Lorenzo, a chapbook of 14 poems on D. H. Lawrence. Choosing a Place and Stories of the Night are in press. William Stafford, James Merrill, X.J. Kennedy, Philip Appleman and many reputed authors/scholars/editors of the West have the highest accolade for him. Possibly, Padhi introduces (Re-)Placing the Canon in a Post-Colonial Space  197 the psychological inwardness in Indian poetry in English. His lucid and engaging poems are written in beguiling simplicity: The stones diffuse into space and sea wind Dissolve into the air that we breath As I decide to go back from its absence of speech to a safer time and place, I find its grief attack all my objective defences, all my mere observation. (from “Konarka”) A strange sense of loss pervades Padhi’s poems. Inwardlooking and at the same time deeply rooted in cultural and interpersonal realities, his poems speak to us in their own inexplicable intensity. The well-known American poet, the late William Stafford, summarises his early poetry: “[Padhi’s poetry] is a human journey, a journey that dignifies the reader and enriches all who follow the way. For Bibhu Padhi life enjoys a promise between the outer world and the self, and his poems reach across that space we all feel when we pause and reflect what our lives mean … all that surrounds us is ready for the adventure and trust that accompany us on our journey. A worldwide realisation comes alive … we are together; we share weaknesses and strengths; and a generous spirit finds rewards everywhere.” Padhi remains one of the leading poets of contemporary India. It is strange to note that he is yet to be included in the canon framed for the university system. The idea of new literatures emerges from the inability of European literature to deal with the varied cultural mappings in postcolonial writing. The political and linguistic monocentrism of the colonial enterprise gives way for cultural cringe. As a consequence of this, the identifiable strong parallel literature from the erstwhile-colonised countries projecting the local consciousness takes over the space provided to it. The notion of national space has been redefined by the diaspora. It is multifaceted, uncentred, polyphonic and pluralistic in sentiment. In this limited scope of the paper I would restrict myself only with three significant poets of 198  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Indian diaspora and I make strong claim for including them in the received canon of Indian English Literature. Shanta Acharya, born in Orissa, has lived in England for about 25 years. Her three books are Not This, Not That (1994), Numbering Our Days’ Illusions (1993) Looking In, Looking Out (2005). Her poetry reflects the diasporic aesthetics, which reinforces the emptiness (for indigene cultural root) experiencing the exile (imposed) in the space determined for ‘identity’: We travel not to explore another country but to return home refreshed, bearing gifts rejuvenating our lives. (“Somewhere, Something”) The metaphors and symbols of representations in her poems connect her essential fragmentation of exile identity with the suspended feeling for home. Her diasporic voice is studded superimposing blocks of images: Our lives airports from which we fly forth days the journeys we make, Past the continents we leave behind We hope shattering our future. (“Somewhere, Something”) In her poem, “My Good Luck Home”, Ganesha is but one of several gifts of fetishes from around the world in her poem: Even Ganesha travels with me in my handbag To help me overcome obstacles in my adopted home. Looking In, Looking Out is full of images related to the themes of ‘looking in, looking out’ – the inner and the outer world of experiences. Lakshmi Holsmstrom (Kavya Bharati 16, Jan. 2004) has all praise for Shanta Acharya and comments, “…a cosmopolitan woman very certain and at ease in an international scene, comfortable about living alone in a big and busy metropolis.” (Re-)Placing the Canon in a Post-Colonial Space  199 Saleem Peeradina has published three volumes of poetry – First Offence (1990), Group Portrait (1998) and Meditations on Desire (2003). If we track the poet’s career through a period of over two decades, Saleem Peeradina has been selective in writing. Some of the themes of Peeradina’s poems are: the suffering humanity, love and its various forms, family/social life of man and the process of poetic creation. The intensity of feeling and a close observation of things around characterise many of his poems, which are free from any overt intellectualism, so common and obtrusive these days. First Offence is divided into three broad sections: Bandra, Still Life and Another Life. Varied themes different sections are put together with meticulous care. Ironic overtone of First Offence reminds us the school of T.S.Eliot (Dasgupta: 166): O Mother we are in fever lie by our side, soothe us mother… The use of illness as a ‘conceit’ seems to be rather unusual for a postcolonial poet as it is combined with the sense of space-bound displacement. Peeradina’s second book, Group Portrait, hovers around the poet’s private past and the shared interpersonal relationships: the lady is often the eldest child and the little ones bristling with womanly designs. Meditations on Desire is a departure from Peeradina’s other works. In the prefatory remarks to the anthology the poet makes clear that the poet is to write a new type of poetry: Meditations on Desire takes its cue from the tradition of classical and medieval devotional poetry in India, blends enroute with Urdu romantic lyrics, and finds a kindred voice in Ronald Barthes. 200  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Peeradina’s poems reflect the linguistic polarities and binaries as part of the sociolingustic discourse: Pyjamas, her fingers hit the bulge Of a toilet bag…. (“Inside Story”) The cultural hybridity is the hallmark of diasporic identity, which is free to move the sense of agony and angst mark Peeradina’s poems. Intelligence and promise burn brightly in Saleem Peeradina: She’s getting the scoop on my life, my guts spilling all over the table! And we’ve hardly met! (IS) In spite of a few repetitions and overlaps in themes, his poems offer delightful and provocative reading. Tabish Khair, born in Ranchi in 1966, did his MA from Gaya, his hometown in Bihar, worked as a reporter for the Times of India and immigrated to Denmark, where he completed his Ph.D. from Copenhagen University. He is currently an associate professor at Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. He has published widely in India, England, USA and Denmark. His poems have appeared in The Guardian, the Independent, New Left Review, P.N. Review, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, London Magazine, Wasafiri, etc., and his poetry has been widely translated and anthologised. He is the author, among other books, of the study Babu Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2001), the much-acclaimed poetry collection, Where Parallel Lines Meet (Penguin, 2000) and the novel, The Bus Stopped (Picador, 2004), which was short-listed for the prestigious Encore Award in the UK. His prizes and honours include the All India Poetry Prize and honorary fellowship of the Hong Kong Baptist University. Mathematically speaking, parallel lines meet at infinity. But his poetry collection, Where Parallel Lines Meet argues that infinity is not out there but in the human heart. The logic may fall on the line of abstract. Hence, the implicit statement is that parallel lines meet in the human heart. In other words, we can reconcile our differences (Re-)Placing the Canon in a Post-Colonial Space  201 only by a sympathetic effort and that reason (maths/ parallel lines) has to be combined with emotion/feeling (heart). His poems convey multiple outsider perspectives with an insider’s poise. The pace, flexibility and the intensity convey a dramatic effect in the whole texture all in its own. At times, Khair employs an inventive formalness: The moment has come but will she learn to see Beyond the play of shadows and similarities? Will she in this temple of the gods of air Learn to speak the thought she’s come to fear(.) (“As the Beauty of a Shinning Mirror is Marred by Breathing or is it”) In an impressively crafted poem, “Stone: Or the Cousin’s Tale” Khair gives us a possible world and territory bordering on life. His richly cultivated style and expressive elegance are marked by the Indianised English (which is a sociolinguistic reality for him): Distance and dollars have made the dupatta disappear, But you stay in place behind a table of rubber-bands and clips, Fake mahogany it is…. The ‘glocal’ (global+ local) language, the local colour of the global language (code) of Tabish Khair is a part of his sociolinguistic identity. Lingustic hybridity (to express the native social context) is a decisive marker of the decolonising process. Diasporic poets carry a space of pleasures of subjectivity related to nationalism. They experience the cultural plentitude and the social displacement. For Tabish Khair, Kabir remains an all-time favourite. He learns many of his dohas by heart. Of course, Kabir is also a symbolic figure in today’s political Indian. With writers such as Shanta Acharya, Saleem Peeradina and Tabish Khair the poetry of Indian diaspora has come of age. 202  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets References 1. Boehmer, E., Colonial and Postcolonial Literature, OUP, Oxford. 2. Dasgupta, Sanjukta, “A Poet’s Route Map,” Kavya Bharati, 16, Jan. 2004. 3. Gandhi, Leela, Postcolonial Theory, OUP, New Delhi, 1998. 4. Holsmstrom Lakshmi, Kavya Bharati, 16, Jan. 2004. 17 Reflecting Life Through Poetic Mirror: A Note on R.C. Shukla’s Poetry Sudhir K. Arora A fusion of more of Hardy and less of Browning, Dr. R. C. Shukla is a key luminary in the poetic constellation of the current new creativity. Rhythm and cadence, of which his poetry is endowed with, are the very traditional properties that he has inherited as a part of the familial lineage. Hailed from the northern India, he is worshipping the Muse continuously from the last few years without caring for the recognition as Lord Krishna and Buddha are always haunting his head and heart respectively. God-gifted traits of keen observation and catholicity of vision make him see the invisible thing and decipher the un-deciphered pages, the result of which is that his poetic mirror reflects the reflection of life in varied forms, the forms which remain unobserved by the average looker on watching the drama of life. This is the quality of Dr. Shukla’s poetic mirror that is appreciated and recognised by the critics like R.S. Tiwari, Promod K. Nayar, Dr. N.P. Singh, Dr. S.N. Pandey, Dr. Sushma Sharma, etc., who search for the universal nature of his Muse. With his poetic talent he makes the particular general and the general particular in such a manner that everyone who goes through his poems feels himself somewhere more or less in the predicament of life. The poetic mirror reflects so many images that every reader looks into the Shukla’s mirror and very honestly it reflects the reflection of the viewers. Following Wordsworth’s ‘A poet is a man 204  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets speaking to man’, Dr. Shukla’s concern is “to avoid unintelligibility 1 which is the most serious aberration a poet can be charged for.” He wishes to be plain in expression as it is clear from his statement that “I identify the poetic process with communication rather than 2 expression.” His poetry has deceptive simplicity as it is charged with thoughts but it is not so unintelligible as requires the feats of the mental gymnast like Eliot. Giving a new dimension to poetic process, he has stated in the foreword of The Parrot Shrieks, “Writing has never been considered a spiritual exercise but the truth is that poetry ennobles, poetry that 3 purges is indeed nothing less than the consequence of meditation.” It seems that in his poetic process, he is oscillating between Wordsworth and Eliot. Eliot’s unintelligibility and mental gymnast never appeal him. Wordsworth’s “Poetry is spontaneous overflow 4 of powerful feelings” never convinces him. He is convinced only when his understanding convinces the particular sentiment. No poem can be emotionally experienced without being intellectually assimilated. As he writes: “I seldom write a poem under emotional imbalance as such a poet, is bound to be hazy; I write only when 5 the sentiment has been properly explained by my understanding.” He is proud of being a poet as is reflected here. “I am proud that Nature has chosen me for a privilege / Not easily given to man” (12, Depth and Despair). Dr. Shukla writes about the subject matter of his poetry. “The subject matter of my poetry, in general, is the harshness of man’s 6 lot, the anxiety and the pain that lie at the heart of life.” His poems 7 contain “vignettes of the experience of life.” Life manifests itself in his poetry in different shades. The body of his poetry consists of the physical, the concrete and the soul, the abstract. The soul of his poems lies in the depiction of Life, Time, Love, Death and Hope while the body consists of the man and woman relationship and the byproducts of this relationship that includes woman’s despairing degeneration, man’s obsession, materialism, insensitiveness and above all the pain out of the death of moral values. Reflecting Life Through Poetic Mirror  205 The Muse of Shukla offers fresh and varied picture of life with shades – dark as well as light – but the linings of dark shades are more on his poetic canvas. R.S. Tiwari comments: “The poet seems to have no fascination from life as experiences have made him 8 pessimistic.” The poet is more reflective than spontaneous in the depiction of life. The reader makes a futile search for laughter in his poetry as it is, in the words of Tiwari, “often, rather always, pensive and reflective. Sun-down has obsessed his psyche more than sun’s dawn. He seldom smiles, not to speak of laughing. The vast panorama of life appears to him covered with dark clouds, seldom 9 yielding to beams of light.” For the poet life is a drama of five acts that includes birth, childhood, youth, age and death. The thing that keeps a man alive is the yearning. He asks the question and then answers himself. “Is yearning the only feature of life / Yes / What else does a man do except yearn?” (70, Depth and Despair). Hardy is dominating his head as he thinks that suffering is the fate of human being. “It is our helplessness / That we are brought here to suffer” (78, Depth and Despair). For him even the most successful life is unsuccessful as it ends in “Despair, dejection and disappointment”. The man with a strong will survives because “Life at many stations / Is an examination of our will / Misery tests our sufferance and prosperity balance” (11, A Belated Appearance). The poet in Shukla believes that illusions are the life blood of life and without them none can live as they make the life worth living and hopeful whether they may not be translated into reality. “The fact is that we live by illusions / And the illusions live / Until we die / until we are liberated to live again / To live in a manner / Known to none” (92, My Poems Laugh). The theme of Death is natural for a thoughtful and sober poet like Shukla who never passes a day without thinking of death and for whom the graveyards can teach a man more than the scriptures. To him, Death becomes the most reliable guardian who comes to man “as rains in the desert” and takes “…our soul to the Supreme Judge’s court / Who through a very judicious trial / Gives to us what we deserve” (96, Depth and Despair). Like the metaphysical 206  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets poets, he also considers soul more important than body. It is death that kills the body to release the soul because “Death has nothing to do with the frame / The divine engineer can make numberless at His will / He is interested in the soul, His part” (60, My Poems Laugh). Nobody knows what happens after death. It is a riddle yet to be solved. It is true that death makes an end of many problems of life. How philosophically the poet states: “Death is the answer to many puzzling issues / And is itself a question unanswered” (76, A Belated Appearance). It is surprising that the poet defends suicide and for this he gives reasons to convince the reader. The right to suicide is as necessary as the right to live. His plea is: “Just as the strong people enjoy / The right to live / The poor and the depressed / Must have the right to die” because in his opinion “Merely breathing is not life / Constant humiliation and dishonour / Cannot and should not be / Allowed to be the destiny of man” (108, Depth and Despair). Life and Death are the two extremes between which man’s life is oscillating. The poet raises a question saying: “If death is truth / What is life? / A fancy, a dream, an illusion”. He himself explains the relation of Life and Death as mother and daughter. How clearly and practically he convinces the reader with his advice: “Life is a daughter / While death her mother / The mother comes / And takes the daughter away / It’s a matter between the two / Why should we bother who is who?” (77, A Belated Appearance). The charge that the poet in Shukla is pessimistic is partially true as his poetry has the rain in the clouds of despair. “A hope was born / In the house of despair” (16, The Parrot Shrieks). He himself refutes the charges levelled against him by people who call him eccentric. “My own dear people branded me a pessimist / Which I am not / The different torrents and storms / Disloyalties and treacheries / Have made me insensitive to joy” (118, Depth and Despair). The Browning is still alive in him. The enthusiasm “I was ever a fighter” of Browning colours his lines: “I fought so many battles in my life / And always won / With the weapon of my will” (77, My Poems Laugh) He knows that “Man cannot live without Reflecting Life Through Poetic Mirror  207 hope” (66, Depth and Despair) He bears the sorrows ungrudgingly “In the hope that / Joy shall surely dawn tomorrow / Joy which I earn / And never borrow” (29, Darkness at Dawn). Time is the abstract theme of his poetry. Like Shakespeare, he believes: “Nothing on this earth / Can forever last” (54, Depth and Despair). It is really an irony that the man plans for the hundred years while Time can snatches him in the form of death. He says: “Man’s predicament that / He plans for his future and knows not / He can any time go” (31, A Belated Appearance). Often it happens that man while making a plan neglects Time considering it as a defaulter. “We plan as if / Time is a defaulter / And will do nothing until the account is cleared” (28, My Poems Laugh). The poet in Shukla gives a very practical advice saying: “Time is nobody’s friend you must know / Even the most indispensable thing is spurned” (83, Depth and Despair). Hence it is time that plays the game of hide and seek with man sometimes hiding in the dark cave of death and sometimes appears in the invisible form before him on the hill of life. It is also charged against the poet in Shukla that he is an atheist but Tiwari defends him saying: “Basically Shukla’s poet is a Theist, a believer in God, the Final Truth, never subject to change.”10 The lines like “It’s strange / How, when God is there / Are people so callously punished for the truth” (119, Depth and Despair) make the people criticise him for being an atheist. But the poet considers himself as the part of God. He is indebted to God and calls all to bow before God. “As such / Let us all bow to Him / Who generates and destroys / From the blades of grass to the mighty mountains / To no man’s gain and to no man’s loss” (112, Depth and Despair). However he becomes agnostic in head with theist in his heart. As he says: “One within me is a Buddhist / And one an atheist / Still one other is afraid of God” (129, Depth and Despair). He tries to become a theist but finally has some doubts that makes him an agnostic. “A theist I try to become / When face to face with an atheist / But agnosticism ultimately / Is the ground on which I stand” (52, Depth and Despair). 208  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Time is the wheel on which the relation of man with woman rotates. The poet in Shukla has observed for years the conduct and psychology of many men and women. There is no exaggeration in calling him a woman psychologist who knows every aspect of her personality. The poet raises a question whether woman is the only aim of man. He himself replies: “Can a woman be a man’s goal / No / She cannot be, she should not be” (72, Depth and Despair). In the Foreword of The Parrot Shrieks, he writes: “Since woman is the most significant symbolic from of ‘Maya’, the man who is in serious relationship with her ultimately lives in the world, enjoys it but is 11 prepared to renounce it too.” The poet advises man to be afraid of such woman as is sexually starved. It is his belief that “Such a woman can never belong to one”. He calls her “a whore without name” because “She tames persons more skillfully / Than we tame animals” (91, Depth and Despair). To live without future is indeed terrible. The poet presents the case of a man who has lost his future on account of a woman. “A very wicked woman / Has kidnapped my projects / And my entire exercise moves around the apprehension / Whether my future will be released or not” (114, Depth and Despair). The poet reflects the vein of Donne who asks for a futile search for a faithful woman. Here the poet does not believe in the faithfulness of woman in love. He has still doubts regarding this kind of love. “Woman’s genuine love is / A rarity to be found / If she imparts it to you / Means your unusual lot / Or some unintelligible wile” (65, A Belated Appearance). But it does not mean that he is a misogynist. Rather “he is”, Dr. Sushma Sharma writes while defending him on this issue, “a great admirer of woman and considers her role in human life as much more significant than that of man. As a matter of fact, he seems to ridicule the weakness of man for woman and the 12 ridiculous obsequiousness with which he approaches the woman.” He is positive and believes in the traditional qualities of woman. He recommends for Indianness in woman. It is the Indian woman who is the image of patience. The man is fortunate if he has a woman who instils patience and revitalises his spirit. His positive attitude towards woman can be seen here. “Woman, the caretaker of life / Reflecting Life Through Poetic Mirror  209 Also knowing what her religion is / Is a field fertile / She yields hopes, consolations / And manages faith living on the hills” (24, The Parrot Shrieks). The poet in “Exegesis” of Darkness at Dawn writes, “I have come to believe that love as an idea is more beautiful that it is as a 13 performance.” It is the physical that leads to spiritual. Love never begins with the spirit rather it begins with the body. In the ‘Prefatory Note’ of The Parrot Shrieks, he expresses the concept saying: “Love never begins with the spirit and contrary to prevalent practice, never 14 ends at the flesh.” Though he echoes the negative feeling as love always gives birth to pain. He believes “The sentiment known as love / Is a land of despair” (27, Depth and Despair). Today man is attracted toward “billowed bosoms and fleshy hips” but such love will collapse because “Love is not love if / The identification of goals is missing / It is more feigned than real” (16, A Belated Appearance). The sentiment love is holy in itself and “The lovers themselves are priests” (86, My Poems Laugh). It is the magic of love that all the questions cease and there remains only love and nothing but love. “In love / The partners enter a space / Where, after a duration / Questions cease / And answers convert verbs into nouns / Adjectives glorify Pronouns / And the grammar of syntax become silent” (122, The Parrot Shrieks). Tiwari writes about his love in his poetry. “Love does not shine in Shukla’s poetry with its usual, accustomed luster. It is always robed in a garment of thought and 15 seriousness.” But he is also the high priest of romantic love and can express the same in the romantic vein. “My eyes are my support / Through which / I aspire to drink you again and again / The desire that has an end is no desire at all (13, The Parrot Shrieks). Besides these, his poetry also mirrors the contemporary face of life that is painted with the material cosmetic. People are worshipping the new God, the Capital who wants that “The weak and poor must die” (107, Depth and Despair). Feelings do not move the heart as man has become quite insensitive. How pathetic these lines are: “A Very young man lying crushed by a vehicle / And the people standing there / Were enquiry from one another / About the 210  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets wine shop / At a short distance from there” (142, Depth and Despair). He hates the idea of taking revenge and the moral depravity of the present scenario makes him so dejected that he likes to be like animals as “Disloyalty is unknown to them / They do not betray like men / And so remain placid and at peace” (84, Depth and Despair). Like a teacher the poet in Shukla advises man, “Let a person explore himself / Examine critically his wants” (49, A Belated Appearance). He believes: “Life is not made to fight / But to love” (84, My Poems Laugh). The technical aspect is the strength of his poetry. The very first thing that the reader observes in his poetry is its musical quality. It seems Dr. Shukla has musical ears. That is why in his poetry, the amalgamation of rhythm and cadence, which is often ignored in the current practice, is beautifully maintained in his poems. He chooses the meaningful words and musical words which directly appeal to the heart and the head. It seems that the statement of Frost that “after all, there must be a cadence, a rhythm, to all that is to be 16 poetry at all” inspires Shukla. Sometimes even simplicity becomes obscurity. That is the quality Dr. Shukla has learnt from Frost who seems to be simple on the surface but very difficult to explain. Hence, Shukla’s simplicity is also deceptive like Frost. The following lines can be cited for the deceptive simplicity and for the musical strains. “Earth is a fit place to live / But there is a fitter place to go / We have to reap our harvest / Before we are allowed to sow” (132, Depth and Despair). G.Venkataramani writes about his verse: “His verse acts as visual impression by the sensuous density of images, it has an auditory appeal and there may be the joy of vocalising the lines if it has euphony musicality in its phrase– structure.”17 As Shukla is deeply thoughtful, the reader has to stop at the stops marked by ‘but’ ‘if ’ ‘because’, etc., that hinder the speed of the readers’ pleasure as he has to keep his heart, head, ears and eyes alert because of these speed breakers. He often makes us think with ‘why’ ‘what’ ‘when’. The technique of ‘I’ and ‘you’ always remains successful in communicating the ideas and hence, Shukla has very successfully exploited this technique. Dr. R.S. Tiwari notices the use of cannot which is ‘cannot’ in practice. Reflecting Life Through Poetic Mirror  211 Dr. Shukla is also a past master of similes and metaphors. The telling effect of similes can be notices in these examples. “My present / like the sacred body of a woman / Remained intangible (17, The Parrot Shrieks, 2) and “our tensions are sharper than a knife (84, Depth and Despair). His metaphors are equally effective. “Patience is not the name of ocean / It is a river with limits / A day that wanes / A night that sleeps” (49, My Poems Laugh). It seems that the Muse is pouring the urn filled with images over the head of the poet in Shukla who is articulating expressing them with his pen. Promod K. Nayar writes: “Shukla is fond of the horticultural feminine and there are numerous images of woman as fertile fields, flowers, orchards and others.”18 His images resemble the Metaphysical poets, as in spite of being far-fetched they are within understanding. Some examples are here to prove his stand. “Many times / The sand enjoys / When the traveller shrieks” (99, The Parrot Shrieks) “A razor he had / To cut his throat / A butcher within / Himself a goat” (6, Darkness at Dawn). “An amenable son is a green, fresh lawn / And a good daughter a very pleasing park” (176, Depth and Despair). The poet’s scholarship is well reflected in his poems that are the proofs of his knowledge in history, geography, Religion, myth, philosophy and psychology. His style is suitable according to the themes that he is dealing. “The most astounding feature of his 19 poetry is its transparent style.” So far as his diction is concerned, it is poetically pure. He has properly used proper words with proper motive to evoke proper response in reader. His diction is astonishingly chaste. His verse is in verse libre but is traditional as it has rhythm and cadence often missed in the modern verse. To sum up, the poet in Shukla is insightful and keen observer of life as nothing escapes from his experienced eyes. What he observers, is expressed in an equally thoughtful manner and in this respect he has an affinity with the metaphysical poets like Donne and Andrew Marvell. The fusion of thought and expression is skilfully maintained in his poems and it reflects an association of sensibility. Praising his poetry, G. Venkataraman writes: “Dr. 212  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Shukla’s poetry is superb, because he goes inside himself and 20 discovers the motive that bids him write.” What strikes me most in Shukla’s poetry is its variety that attracts every reader who satisfies himself by searching the image that suits his nature and temperament. It seems that the poet goes into the psyche of man and takes out what is appropriate and communicable. He never allows his personality to intrude while making observation and investigations. His poems are the outcome of his experiments in life. That is why he has successfully mirrored the dark as well as the fair face of life without being partial. Let me agree with R.S.Tiwari. “Though Dr. Shukla has made a ‘belated appearance’ in the world of Modern Indian Creativity in English, he bids fair to carve out a 21 permanent niche in the glorious Temple of the Muses.” Notes and References 1. 2. 3. 4. R.C. Shukla, “Exegesis”, Darkness at Dawn. Ibid. R.C.Shukla, “Foreword”, The Parrot Shrieks 2, p.9. G. Venkatarraman, Darkness at Dawn, p. IV. 5. 6. 7. R.C.Shukla, “Exegesis”, Darkness at Dawn. Ibid. R.C.Shukla, “Preface”, My Poems Laugh, p. VII. 8. R.S. Tiwari, “R.C.Shukla: A Reflective Poet”, Current Indian Creativity in English, Jaipur, Book Enclave, 2003, 126. 9. Ibid., 113. 10. Ibid., 120. 11. R.C. Shukla, “Foreword”, The Parrot Shrieks 2, p.9. 12. Dr. Sushma Sharma, “The Nature of R.C.Shukla’s Poetry, Poetcrit, XIX, 1, January, 2006, p. 63. 13. R.C. Shukla, “Exegesis”, Darkness at Dawn. 14. R.C. Shukla, “Prefatory Note,” The Parrot Shrieks, p.12. 15. R.S. Tiwari, op.cit., 125. 16. Lawrence Thomson, Robert Frost, The Years of Triumph 1815-1938, New York, Holt Rinehart and Winston, 68. 17. G. Venkatarraman, op.cit., p. III Reflecting Life Through Poetic Mirror  213 18. Promod K. Nayar, The Google Theme: New Poetry 2002-2003, Chandrabhaga 9/2004, p. 84. 19. S.N. Pandey, “Exploring Reality With Difference”, Vikram Journal of English Studies, edited by B.G.Tondon, Volume 1, 1993, p.83. 20. G. Venkatarraman, op.cit., p. IV. 21. R.S. Tiwari, op.cit., 127. The texts from which excerpts are taken: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Darkness At Dawn (1990), The Kambuja International, Thanjavur. A Belated Appearance (2000), Writers Workshop, Kolkata. My Poems Laugh (2001), Writers Forum, Ranchi. Depth and Despair (2001), Writers Workshop, Kolkata. The Parrot Shrieks (2003), Writers Workshop, Kolkata. The Parrot Shrieks 2 (2005), Writers Workshop, Kolkata. 18 Postcolonial Inflections in Three Contemporary Indian English Poets Sutanuka Ghosh Roy More than three-quarters of the population in today’s world in one way or another have had their lives moulded by the experience of colonialism. Postcolonial literature offers one of the reliable ways in which these new perceptions are articulated. It is in the writings of the postcolonial authors that the everyday truths experienced by colonised people have been most intensely encrypted and remain profoundly prominent. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, postcolonialism comes into the foreground as a critical concept. However one can trace the roots of postcolonial thinking in the 19th century itself. Even in the postcolonial readings of this century there lies a clear demarcation between the ‘Western countries’ and ‘other countries’. In the 19th century, the colonial expansion covered almost ‘nine-tenths of the entire land surface of the globe’ (Young, 2). Various European anthropologists endorsed the Westerns as a superior race. The rest of the third world non- European people were considered ‘inferior’, the ‘other’. Promod Nayar, while classifying the distinguishing features of postcolonial literature, writes that ‘anti-colonial literature thematis[e] the problems of colonialism [,] […] captur[e] the cultural and social impact of colonial rule in native, non-Western societies [,] [..] [are] interested in how native societies responded to Western cultural presence, [..] [and are] essentially case studies of cultural colonialism, native identity, and anti-colonial resistance’ (36). Colonial and imperial rule was legitimised by anthropological theories which increasingly Postcolonial Inflections in Three Contemporary Indian English Poets  215 portrayed the peoples of the colonised world as inferior, childlike, or feminine, incapable of looking after themselves (despite having done so perfectly well for millennia) and requiring the paternal rule of the West for their own best interests (today they are deemed to require ‘development’) (Young, 2). Even when most of the colonies achieved political independence in the 20th century, a process of ‘othering’ is inherent in the structure of thought. The outcome is expressed in a chain of oppositions such as Europe and ‘others’. This again is a world hegemonised by the first terms in the oppositional sets. We are to remember that hegemony presupposes the repression of ‘others’. As a consequence, the paternal (read West) voice silences ‘other’ voices. One enters into a kind of temporality that subsumes other temporalities. Franz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961) remains a seminal text in this context. The term ‘postcolonialism’ is a loose term so to say. It resonates with all the doubts and complexities of the various cultural experiences it involves. The prefix ‘post’ usually means ‘after’ both in terms of time or order. It may also mean ‘behind’. Bhabha is however not ready to accept the jargon of our times like – postmodernity, postcoloniality, postfeminism as a periodising concept. He says, It does not lie in the popular use of the ‘post’ to indicate sequentiality---after-feminism; or polarity---anti-modernism. These terms that insistently gesture to the beyond, only embody its restless and revisionary energy if they transform the present into an expandedand ex-centric site of experience and empowerment. (4). Taking into account all these divergent views about postcolonialism, we have to accept that the term ‘postcolonial’ is the most appropriate and convenient way of embracing various literary responses. Postcolonial identity depends upon colonialism. Ania Loomba argues, It has been suggested that it is more helpful to think of postcolonialism not just as coming literally after colonialism and signifying its demise, but more flexibly as the contestation of colonial domination and the legacies of colonialism. (Loomba, 12). 216  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Postcolonial literature addresses questions of identity, history, gender, ethnicity, and language. It answers the various challenges presented by decolonisation, also the transition to political independence, and post-independent complexities. It is inclusive of the literature of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean Islands. The divergent experiences of the people of Canada, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Nigeria are also expressed in postcolonial literature. It resituates, and at the same time ‘enters upon open-ended counter-hegemonic negotiations and cultural practices that might prove to be active components of historical transformations’ (Hitchcock, 1993, 2). Thus postcolonial literature evaluates everything from the view of the colonised population. Now coming to postcolonial poetry what is postcolonial poetry? Does it have similarities with the postcolonial novel, postcolonial theory, and other related genres? How do we interpret postcolonial poetry? In plain terms, ‘postcolonial poetry’ means poetry written by non-European peoples both after decolonisation and in the immediate period leading up to it, poetry that deals with, issues of living in the spaces between Western colonialism and nonEuropean cultures. II In this essay, we are going to discuss selected works of three contemporary Indian English poets – Sanjukta Dasgupta, Gopal Lahiri, and Jaydeep Sarangi. The primary aim is to foreground the postcolonial inflections in their works. The poetry of Sanjukta Dasgupta is a rich source of postcolonial studies. Postcolonialism is an unmistakable feature in her poetry collection Sita’s Sisters that we have taken up for discussion in this essay. We are to remember that, The postcolonial text is always a complex and hybridised formation. It is in adequate to read it either as a reconstruction of pure traditional values or simply foreign and intrusive. The reconstruction of ‘pure’ cultural values is always conducted within a radically alerted dynamic of power relations (Ashcroft et al, 109110). Postcolonial Inflections in Three Contemporary Indian English Poets  217 Long ago Helene Cixous in The Laugh of the Medusa, wrote “Woman must put herself into the text – as into the world and into history – by her own movement.’’ (875-93). Dasgupta in Sita’s Sisters puts her poetic persona into the text, crafts poetry about resilience and spirit in the face of tragedy, but unlike other poetry in the genre, Sita’s Sisters does not hammer it in. In the Preamble to Sita’s Sisters the poet writes, “In selecting Sita’s Sisters as the title poem of my sixth volume of poetry, I feel the battle for gender equality and gender justice will have to go on, in a resolute and concerted manner, till the battle is won, no matter how long it may take. After all, not unlike a man, a woman can be destroyed but not defeated”. The title itself is a reconstruction of ‘pure’ Indian cultural values and there is laced with dynamic power relations. In the first four poems of the collection – “Sita’s Sisters”, “Sita’s lament”, “Sita and the Golden Deer” and “Sita Meets Lakshmi” facts are stated, emotions are carefully restrained without any drama. Dasgupta writes, Sita’s sisters shut their eyes Sita’s sisters had eyeless holes Sita’s sisters cried out to their mother earth “Remember our sister Sita’s suicide, Innocent Sita’s traumatic trials O mother rescue us as you rescued Sita” (“Sita’s Sisters”.14). There is no seething rage – but quiet fortitude. There is no crying or cursing, no self-pity or palpable frustration. Despite the calculated restraint, the horror is stark in Sita’s voice, Shunning further exhibitions of pristine, pious purity I have now entered my mother’s healing bosom To be a queen had been traumatic and beyond all reason! (“Sita’s Lament” 16) There is dignity even in the face of apathy. All of which is conveyed succinctly through a powerful language. Even when Sita complains: 218  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets But Luva Kusha long for their father Ram is their hero, their role model Me, Sita, their devoted mother I could never be their role model (“Sita’s Lament” 16). The hegemonic society has used the trope of golden deer to bait innumerable hapless women. Sita though the champion of women’s rights criticises herself when it comes to her obsession for the golden deer which is beyond what is ordained by Mother Nature. Further, she is the quintessential philosopher who ponders over the logic of the perennial subjection of woman as a means to an end – Helen, Sita, Draupadi, or the unborn female foetus – the list is long. Male authors of the world’s patriarchal epics blame The bewitching femme fatales who seem bereft of shame But the heroes insist they need such beauties as their brides In the killing fields and theatres of war, like trophies By their sides. (“Sita and the Golden Deer” 18). Sita’s spirited riposte to women of substance is to realise that deification is but a patriarchal ploy at comprehending, nay taming woman’s enigmatic blend of beauty that is kept beyond bounds with the armour of knowledge and power. Dasgupta thus attempts not just a radical displacement of the focus of the poem from patriarchal/chauvinistic social ethos but catapults the text on a universal eco-feminist plane by proclaiming through it the ‘Sitaness’ of her sisters – “Rita, Mita, Arpita, Sumita, Rinita/Lolita, Bonita, Anita, Sunita, Sucheta” (13). Sita and her sisters transcend all space-time bounds; as one recognises the all too relevant efforts at gender sensitisation and valid probe of the patriarchal politics of deification. The poet urges her readers “to read these poems as texts of resistance and resilience, confidently gesturing towards inevitable social change”. Dasgupta is noticeably free from either the Bloomean ‘anxiety of influence’ or the hallowed epic device of invoking a muse, she Postcolonial Inflections in Three Contemporary Indian English Poets  219 shows subaltern agency through a radically subversive reading of accepted facts from the female point of view, armed with the neohistoricist tool that at once destroys periodicity through assimilation from what is called ‘a timeless history’. We thus have a Sita who dwells alike in the corridors of power, in our households, streets, and calls centres, in the victimhood of a Nirbhaya, in the helpless tears and hidden fears of the poor or even in the innumerable single mothers who battle for legal rights and social acceptance of their children! The twenty-first century Sita, as Dasgupta writes, is “… not Lakshmi Bound/ I am Lakshmi Unbound” (“Sita Meets Lakshmi”19). That this is no romantic demagoguery but the poet’s exhortation of womanhood to reassess in the light of Sita their steely resolve is made clear. As a postcolonial poem “Who Killed the Little Tribal Girl”? deals with decolonisation and reclaiming history. “Who Killed the Little Tribal Girl”? a voice of protest and resistance shows how patriarchy, which is an embedded social structure, tries to legitimise gender violence and how the ancestry of such legitimising may undeniably be found in the ancient epic forms that Dasgupta here tries to interrogate. This little tribal girl remains as a sharp reminder of the place as well as space, within the narrative, of the incarceration of helpless tribal kids/women who have practically no recourse to anything which is called humanity. Even after the formal decolonisation, the tribal/dalit life world represents a space outside the nation. She contends that her country is still a colony, both in terms of significance and behavior. Independence did not touch the lives of these subaltern subjects. They said, “these unruly tribal kids She must have been killed by a pack of wild dogs These filthy low-caste pests are such scums They claim our land and blame us when they die!”(73). Another postcolonial feature that we can mention is the cultural metamorphoses in society reflected in the text as the “transplantation of names, mixing of languages, diversification of tastes which developed during the Empire” (Boehmer, 234). One 220  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets should always remember that the postcolonial text is generally hybridity. As we go through the poem we find that Dasgupta concentrates on how the colonised subalterns are typically placed in the fringes. She has in her short poem inverted the process by bringing the outside in. Colonised/tribals have retorted to the colonial legacy by ‘writing back’. She bled, screamed and cried The eight year old girl Just couldn’t understand What adult sport this was That was pinning, ripping and killing her (73) The poor tribals, the adivasis have made an effort to pen their histories, their legacies. The poem further retells of the indigenous tribal traditions, it also alters the focus of the narrative from the periphery to the centre as the subaltern girl is far from being marginalised in the poem, she inhabits a place in the centre, making the work an extremely potential postcolonial text. The poem “Protest” speaks of a silent presence where one feels nude, defenceless, with a grim cordon of fear “and not a single voice rises in protest” (76). Sita/ Dasgupta in this collection of poetry virtually overturns the Aristotelian definition of catharsis as pity and fear inspired by the odious fate of ‘one like ourselves’; rather she posits herself as indelible and through her ideal, fosters a bond of solidarity for all her sisters across the spectrum of space and time. The skirmishes take place across cleavages in the pyramids of power, class, and commitment too. Gopal Lahiri in his poem “Seasons will not be quiet anymore” attempts to strip away the traditional perspective and examine what the national identity might be for a postcolonial subject. There are moments in our lives which, give us paradise – red tulips in the foothills of Kashmir, longings are in the soaking eyes, most subtle of the tears tap on its red button, Postcolonial Inflections in Three Contemporary Indian English Poets  221 Seasons will not be quiet anymore the wound and anguish are making their black scripts on the stone wall, cider leaves kiss death on the mouth the cold winds and dark birds exchange the nightmares. The focus from the smaller periphery of the family to society itself is further embodied in the construction of the nation-state. One of Lahiri’s recent poems “Our Stories” becomes a justification or rather a self-justification by objectifying the symptomatic changes in the man-woman relationship that have made their inroads into Indian society. They are unmistakably postcolonial by nature. He writes, Let us go near the Ganges, you and I Find a corner near the ghat and talk about life. What may happen to us? Another important postcolonial feature of the poem is the engagement of language which poses a perpetual challenge for postcolonial writers. In this short poem, Lahiri establishes the cultural specificity of language through the use of certain Bengali words like – ‘ghat’ (he uses it as an equivalent of English ‘bank’).These postcolonial poets have extended the atlas of poetry by infusing modern and contemporary poetry with indigenous metaphors and vocabulary. This fusion Lahiri’s poetry collection Tidal Interlude (2015) drifts the readers with emotional waves and the readers feel as if with the tide. He is such a poet who brings in a new perspective to the waves of life, trying to soak up the moment. Poems like “Secret Code”, “Water”, “My Space” are the reflections of an accomplished poet, who weaves a beautiful web of temporal spaces in contrasting shades of light and darkness. The poet deftly traverses a wide range of experiences and emotions. The lyrical quality and subjectivity in these poems foreground how the postcolonial lyric appreciates the concept of a bounded self while simultaneously restructuring boundaries. At times it moves beyond subjectivity and identity 222  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets formation the lyrical nature of Lahiri’s poetry can be read as a critique of the modern chaos rather than self-expression. Tidal Interlude takes its readers by surprise at every corner. The poetry collection has pulsating tracts of resistance: in references to injustice, in allusions to past pain, in endeavours to break walls of silence and glass doors. The transferral in emphasis from philosophic replication to recalcitrant angst is dramatic: Now my hands are chopped, my skin is burnt, my face is blackened Do not wash me in holy water I cannot join in your prayer in the temple. (“Prayer”, 18). “The starry night/ Silent and still, Burdened with mystery and milky ways, Told more than you could tell” (“Admission”, 22). The words deployed here are so every day and unassuming but undergo a nippy metamorphosis in the expressive hands of Lahiri and assume a lyrical perspective, an unmistakable postcolonial trait. His genius as an acute observer of the common, everyday, the ordinary and aestheticising those tiny bits and remains into surprising metaphors and images and words that spark like the fireflies in the scented dark of a verdant valley. The title of Jaydeep Sarangi’s Heart Raining the Life Poems composed at Jhargram, Kolkata, and Beyond immediately draws attention to the topographic reality while ‘beyond’ is subtly juxtaposed with two other places Jhargram and Kolkata, adding an abstract sphere to it. The opening poem of the anthology “Travelling with My Poems” sets the tune and connects the readers. “My poems are with the kite runners, /small dream goes big in the high sky. Readers /are my runners, soul makers” (9). The lines have a sacerdotal quality which shows that the poet is undertaking a journey within. Sarangi’s journey is embellished with learning’s of life “Every evening I learn /many things in these big sal trees/There is a poem/ for each one of them/ all homeward birds, after the day’s toil/ I follow them close, green after green” (10). He knits a dreamy yarn around him, the fibre is Nature. The texture is green. Postcolonial Inflections in Three Contemporary Indian English Poets  223 The poet reminds us that the last recourse of human beings is Nature. In today’s rat race we often forget Nature and move towards material comfort but that ultimately denudes us and Nature heals. It is when one finds his/her haven in Nature one can learn the “alphabets of time”. Nature is at its best in Jhargram (a district in the Southern part of West Bengal known for its dense forest and rain, old temples, and royal palaces) – the poet’s place of origin. The poem is in free verse and is rich in imagery. Sarangi’s verses remind us of the current trend of voicing a poet’s response to the landscape of his/her origin, his/her sense of the tradition and culture, and many other factors that go together to make him/her assume an identity of his/her own. We find this trend among the contemporary Indian English poets – Jayanta Mahapatra whose verses are often region-specific but his poetry represents the nation as a whole. Orissa constitutes the core of Mahapatra’s poetry. Mamang Dai’s poetry depicts her deep and passionate attachment to the land of the North East of India. Legends, history, and myths associated with these places constitute the central theme of her poetry. In this context, one also remembers Arun Kolatkar’s “Jejuri”. The Orissa landscape- with Puri and Konark occupying a conspicuous position- has a strong presence in the poetry of Bibhu Padhi another contemporary poet born in Orissa. To use Rilke’s phrase these poets “make glorious--everything they see” (Anthology, 54). These Indian poets have made the local the global. While Sarangi undertakes his journey within, he is quite clear about the “purpose of his living” “I am no shape, no form. / Comrades in suffering/ keep me awake, grasping /old night’s hunger/ after this poem” (“Purpose of Living” 12). He stands in front of the mirror of life and finds it “tall and brutal” he “endures all hurt “with phone calls “unanswered” (33). He finds solace in the “Dulung” (a rivulet in Jhargram) “The myth of sleep and our losses/reek of old folks, and that link/with forefathers lying near the rivulet/Dulung holds them tight” (35). Dulung is the soul of the poet and he is known as the Bard of Dulung. With the teachings of life and Dulung following him like a shadow, he comes to Kolkata “The City of Joy”. Kolkata 224  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets commandeers its own narratives. Sarangi’s verses display a fascination for the magical and the grotesque of the urban. “The Ganges holds truth/the last blade of green grass. /let them not fall waste. /Travelers give them names. /We carry on. / all roads lead to Kalighat” (“The City of Joy” 53). The city comes alive in startling images. The ghats, the railway lines, Durga Puja, old temples, the banks of River Ganga where he witnesses the funeral rites as well as the celebration of life are crayoned in words. “The gap which opens between the experience of sociological place and the language available to experience/describe it forms the matrix of postcolonial texts. The language question in postcolonial literature is a cultural action based upon the stimulus-response of individuals to their environment” (Introduction, Presentations of Postcolonialism in English: New Orientations). He gets under the city’s skin. “In a sea of salt, / skeletons of ships carry mysteries. /All parts quietly wait/to be uncovered, skull after skull” (“History is Mystery” 22). The city affects him as a conscious citizen and the poet voices his concern for the others in society. He now centres his lens “beyond” “Jhargram” and “Kolkata”. Sarangi remembers a real-life hero who dedicated his entire life to the upliftment of the subjugated, the dalits, the weaker strata of society. “His display of disdain /shines sword in conflict with avarice. /Walls he broke with a hammer, / veils lifted, pots of water for all” (“A Gifted Hero B.R. Ambedkar” 20). Meena Kandaswamy another contemporary Indian English poet is also a voice of resistance against the atrocities meted out to the subjugated. Indian society has programmed the understanding of Dalits in such a way that they do not understand the reason and meaning for their subjective reasons. The so-called unity of Indian nationhood has allotted them a different space. The tribals, the subalterns remain sealed within the reversal of capital logic and colonialism. It is the Dalit women who bear the brunt for they are doubly marginalised, “My window is a small space/My community is my city/My joys are not yours/My pains are distinct./My walls know my stories./My prison has a different name/My autobiography, strong binaries” (“Dalit Feminism” 56). The short poem historicizes the struggle of the subalterns. Postcolonial Inflections in Three Contemporary Indian English Poets  225 It would be befitting to conclude the essay by saying that these three contemporary Indian English poetic voices represent myriad, thought-provoking, and perceptive explorations of textuality and intertextuality of the postcolonial discourse and its meaning in their poetical works. The very discourse of post-colonialism is an attempt to bring the margins of colonial discourse to the centre and give them the power of centrality within the narrative. Their poetry explores some of the most discerning critical responses related to postcolonialism, raising some pivotal issues as to how races are related with nations and how the confined space unfetters the postcolonial poetic ‘space in the horizontality of events chained in discourse’ (Introduction, Presentations of Postcolonialism in English: New Orientations). References Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial. London: Routledge, 1989. Print. Bhabha, Homi. K. The Location of Culture. London and New York. Routledge. 1994. Print. Boehmer, Elleke, Colonial, and Postcolonial Literature. Oxford University Press. 1995. Print. Cixous, Helene, Keith Cohen, and Paula Cohen. “The Laugh of the Medusa”. Signs, 1.4 (1976): 875-893. Dasgupta, Sanjukta. Sita’s Sisters. Hawakal Publishers. Kolkata. 2019. Print. Hitchcock, Peter. Dialogics of the Oppressed. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. Print. Lahiri, Gopal.Tidal Interlude.Shambhabi.Kolkata. 2015. Print. Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/ Postcolonialism. London: Routledge, 1998. Print. Nayar, Promod K. Postcolonial Literature: An Introduction. New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2008. Print. Sarangi, Jaydeep. Heart Raining Light.Cyberwit.net.Allahabad. 2019. Print. ....... , Presentations of Postcolonialism in English: New Orientations. New Delhi. Authors Press. Second edition. 2020. Print. 19 An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca Basudhara Roy and Jaydeep Sarangi Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca was born in Bombay to Prof. Nissim Ezekiel and Daisy Ezekiel. She was raised in a Bene-Israel Jewish family in Bombay, India. She attended Queen Mary’s School, St. Xavier’s College, Bombay University and Oxford Brookes University, U.K. She holds Bachelor’s and Masters’ Degrees in English, American Literature and Education. Her career spanned over four decades in Indian colleges, American International Schools and Canada, teaching English, French and Spanish. She also held the position of Career Counsellor at the International School in India, where she taught Advanced Placement and other courses in English for sixteen years. She is a published poet. Her first book, ‘Family Sunday and other Poems,’ was published in 1989, with a second edition in 1990. She has read her poems over All India Radio Bombay, and her poems have also appeared in Poetry India, SETU Magazine, Muse India and Destiny Poets, UK, to name a few. She has her poetry page at https://www.facebook. com/kemendoncapoetry. Kavita also writes short fiction. Her work is strongly influenced by her father’s work. (The late Nissim Ezekiel was an eminent poet, well-known in India and overseas). She lives in Calgary, Canada, with her family. This interview was conducted via e mails in the rainy days of June, 2020. An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca  227 Q. So, you are a poet, the bearer of a poetic legacy and you are so lyrically called ‘Kavita’. Tell us about how poetry happened to you? I am so pleased you asked this question at the very outset of the interview. Thank you for that. My name Kavita, for which I have my father, the late poet Nissim Ezekiel, to be forever grateful to, means ‘Poetry’ in Sanskrit. That is the origin of the word. My father was the ‘Kavi’ (Poet) and I was his ‘Kavita’. Shakespeare said, ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,’ but I wonder sometimes, if I had a different name, would I perhaps have been a different person? Of all the Jewish and Indian names available to him, my father seems to have put some conscious thought to giving me a name which reflected something that was of prime importance to him in life. My mother must have understood this, because she acquiesced too. I never heard mention of any controversy over my name in the home. My grandfather spoke Sanskrit, but I am not sure if that had anything to do with it. He was a “Science man” and didn’t really understand my father’s passion for Poetry, but never objected to it either. He let all his children follow their dreams. In one of my poems, “The Many things my Father loved,’ published in the May-June issue of Muse India, I make mention of the significance of my naming. My father… Named me prophetically So I could write about him And the many things he loved It’s my turn now, returning in full circle To declare the things he loved As I too love the many things he loved Because it is he who taught me to love them. People who know me, say I have been lucky in having a poet for a father. I think it’s more of a blessing, and carrying on his legacy is particularly dear to my heart, especially as I get older. I want him, and the historic and innovative role he played in shaping Modern Indian verse in English, to be remembered after his passing. I feel a responsibility to introduce him to 228  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets younger poets writing in India today, and to overseas poets, whenever the opportunity presents itself. So to answer this question, my poetic legacy comes with an amount of pride and humility, but also with great responsibility, and one that I take very seriously. I started wring poetry at the age of nine, as many children do, and later published some in the college magazine. I published my first book (Family Sunday and other Poems) in 1989, with a second edition in 1990. I was steeped in Poetry from a very young age, having a poet for a father, and attended many Poetry readings and Art exhibitions with him, since he was also an Art critic. He also held poetry reading sessions on how to read poetry out loud, something which I loved as a child, and the importance of which I emphasised to students in the teaching of Poetry in my own classes. My favourite classes to teach were Poetry and Creative Writing to High School students. During a long teaching career spanning a little over four decades, and raising two children while working full time, there was a hiatus in my writing. After semi-retirement a couple of years ago, I began writing again, kind of revived it, but with a new fervour. The floodgates have opened, The dam has burst, The words pour out Like raging water, un-muddied and clear, Carrying everything in its path, (Lines from my poem. ‘The Poetry of Homes’) Am I a poet? I write poetry, so I am a poet, but I will say I am evolving as a poet. I remain a work in progress. I was in the process of getting my second book for publication, when my student and dear friend, Wendell Rodricks, one of India’s top designers, passed away suddenly, a few months ago. His death was a shock. He had accepted my invitation to write the preface for my book. In deference to his memory, I have postponed the publication of the book. An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca  229 In what ways do you think that your Jewish identity has influenced your writing? I was born and raised in Bene Israel family in Bombay but my parents and grandparents were not orthodox Jews. We were liberal Jews. Here in Canada, they are known as Reformed Jews. I spent much of my childhood living with my grandparents, and an older aunt who taught me all the beliefs, customs and traditions of the Jewish faith. We were well assimilated into the Indian cultural milieu and readily accepted by peoples of all different religions and faiths. I went for the New Year prayers with my grandmother and aunt, but understood little, as the prayers were in Hebrew. My aunt had taught me to pray the Shema, and that was all the Hebrew I knew. I went to Christian schools and colleges and embraced Christianity. I loved the hymns of worship and the teachings of Christ as they gave meaning to my life. I particularly experienced a deep personal joy in that faith. My father, who was an open-minded and highly tolerant person taught me that all religions ultimately lead to the truth, just in different ways, along different paths. In the last few years, I have begun to explore my Jewish roots, something that happens to many individuals as they get older. It is an exciting journey. My poem ‘Alibaug,’ is the first poem I wrote that reflects my Jewish identity. Legend has it that the first Jews were shipwrecked off the coast of the Konkan, and the survivors went on to live in the neighbouring villages. To quote from the poem: I miss Alibaug The flickering lanterns, sleeping on mats, eating from* thalis I miss Alibaug The hushed whispers between cousins I don’t know when I can return To the land of my ancestors The land of the Shanwartelis, the Oil pressers, I yearn for the unsullied rustic scenes, The dotted fields of cows and the music of their bells The hush of the chickens settling down for the night, 230  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets And I don’t know where the fish sleep In the folds of the waves Or in the folds of my memory. I have several others with Jewish themes, one that has particular significance for me. It is currently in publication. In boarding school, I was teased about “killing Christ”, and wrote a poem called ‘The Crucifixion,’ in which I protested that I wasn’t there when it happened, and in High School, I was called Shylock, though I was nothing like him. The nick name came out of the fact that we were studying Shakespeare’s ‘Merchant of Venice.’ Both times, I was the only Jewish student in my class. These characters are just stereotypes, and as children mature, they begin to see beyond such unconscious prejudices. We realise that you are multilingual and have taught English, French and Spanish in your teaching career. Do you feel that your poetry partakes of, and benefits from your multilingualism? Yes, definitely, my poetry both partakes of, and benefits from, my multilingualism. I love reading Pablo Neruda and other poets in Spanish, and I do translate some of my own poems into French and Spanish, though I am conscious of the need to do this more consistently. I have begun reading poetry in Marathi, especially the poetry of the well-known poet Shanta Shelke, with whom I had the privilege of working with in my first job at a collegein Bombay (now, Mumbai), Marathi is the language we spoke at home, along with English. I love Hindi too, a love of that language was nurtured in me by a maternal aunt, who was a wonderful Hindi teacher. I wanted to major in English and Hindi in college, but that option was not available to me, so I took French, which I loved equally. My favourite subjects to teach in Canada were French and Spanish, both language and culture, to all levels of children. My belief is that poetry that is written in one’s native language is more natural, in its ability to be powerfully expressive as it utilises the natural idiom of one’s An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca  231 identity. But with the myriad influences of so many languages, I often wonder “What language do I think in? What language do I dream in?” A large number of critics opine that Indian English Poetry started with your father. What do you think about it? This has been a widely acknowledged fact, and I am humbled and proud to be the daughter of a man who dedicated his life to Poetry, and to tirelessly mentoring so many younger poets and writers. He certainly was a foundational figure in this genre of writing, and has been called ‘The Father of Modern Indian Verse in English.’ Often times, he has been called ‘The Big Daddy of Indian-English Poetry.’ Whenever I visited him at the P.E.N office, there was a crowd of young writers clamouring for his attention and his advice, and I watched him poring over many of their manuscripts, late into the night, after a whole day of teaching, and his own writing. It was rough on my mother and us children. I get many messages about my father’s contribution to the shaping of their poetry, and others speak of how his poems got them started on their own poetic journey. He especially paid great attention to detail, going so far as to advise poets on punctuation (commas and full-stops!) to achieve maximum impact in conveying meaning. He had a painstakingly incisive writing style. He was also the first to make the ordinary, the subjects of his poetry. Many writers followed suit. My husband recalls how, as a young man in 1975, he came across an article written by him for ‘Freedom First’ and marvelled at how an Indian writer, writing in English, could express himself so beautifully, with economy in words, and hold the reader’s attention. The critic Bruce King, was foremost among several other critics, who paid tributes to my father as a pioneer and champion of Indian English Poetry. I am fiercely protective of his reputation as the Father of Modern Indian Verse in English, because I personally witnessed first-hand his contribution to the field of poets writing in this genre of Poetry. He put the needs of others before his own, 232  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets often, actually always, setting aside the needs of his own family. It concerns me deeply when well established poets make him just a foot note in their interviews, or give him a passing reference, or express irritation about the significant input he had in giving them a head start in their poetic journeys of success. Often, he even edited huge manuscripts completed unrelated to Poetry, charging nothing for his services. He was never interested in money or material things. It was complete dedication to writing and Literature. Anything I say on this subject will fall short in describing his historic role. The Journal of South Asian Literature of the University of Chicago, dedicated an issue to my father, Nissim Ezekiel, in 1976. It is available to read online. I am in the process of writing a poem (‘Waiting for Daddy’) about my sentiments on the subject of his complete dedication to mentoring students, writers and poets. The poem begins: Daddy, the poets have gone home now They have taken their commas and full stops with them You must be hungry now, daddy Let’s have lunch together, I have brought along my poem But it can wait I can wait. Eat slowly, take your time, enjoy your meal Let’s laugh together At those silly ‘knock knock’ jokes You love to tell, Don’t worry about the clever student Who will be waiting in the wings To ask you questions about your life And then ask others, who with masks of love Rob a man of his private suffering To indulge a world with its love of sensationalism. You took it to the grave We were splashed with the mud And they with false fame, How little it mattered to them, They who chose ignorance An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca  233 Of how we waited for you With our poems and our love And how it broke our hearts… How do you read your father as a poet? A copy of his Collected Poems is always on the desk, beside me, as I write. Among my father’s poems, my favourite is ‘Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher.’ I read his poems daily, almost like a Devotional. I have to say I greatly love, respect, and admire him as a poet, his honesty, rawness and vulnerability, his constant struggle for identity, his humanism, his love of Nature and his search for the truth, his fearless admission of his flaws and his loneliness and the alienation that sometimes he sometimes felt from himself. I love that he was deeply rooted in his faith in God and mankind, without being maudlin or overtly religious, and had his roots firmly in India, and especially his love for the city of Bombay. In fact, he has often been called ‘The Poet of Bombay.’ It is easy to read his poetry and identify with so much of it, though it is profound, and contains layers of complex thought, simultaneously. I turn to his Poetry for peace, for inspiration, for the economy and precision with which he uses his words, and for his depth of thought. I love that he made ordinary things the subjects of his poetry, and it has been said that he was one of the first poets to do so. He is a strong influence in my writing, and when I read my poems out to my husband, who is my best critic, and incidentally is a good writer himself, he often says, ‘you sound like daddy.’ I hear echoes of his voice in my poetry, though I have no illusions that I’ll ever be a poet of his stature. I have a poem about that, again awaiting publication. What I will say though, is that though I have big shoes to fill (I have a brief poem titled ‘Big Shoes to Fill’), I am walking with my father, every step of the way. I feel his loss palpably and struggle with the fact, that Alzheimer’s disease ravaged his brilliant mind in his last years. He revised every poem meticulously, and was dedicated to his craft, and to 234  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets promoting poetry in India. He had a strong work ethic and was a voracious reader.My father, Nissim Ezekiel, was a versatile poet and as a family, we were very excited when he won the Sahitya Academy award in 1983, and the Padma Shri award in 1988. He was a philanthropist at heart, and immediately donated the prize money from the Sahitya Academy award to charity. He also worked in an honorary capacity for the AJDC (the American Joint Distribution Centre), which helped less advantaged and poor Jews with their education. His work At the PEN India was also carried out in an honorary capacity. Who were your father's favourite Indian poets? I am not absolutely certain about his favourite Indian poets. I never discussed it with him, but he must have read poets like Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu, Jayanta Mahapatra, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Toru Dutt, Mirza Ghalib, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, T.K. Doraiaswamy and others. I think he must definitely have read Kabir, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, and Amrita Pritam. Of course, he read the Poetry of all his contemporaries, and even published, and helped publish their Poetry. Do you remember the first volume of Quest edited by your father? Who were the poets featured? I was too young to remember the first volume of Quest, though I knew my father was its first editor. The thing is I had ‘the lived life,’ with my father. The analysis of his poetry and other writing was a subject for the scholars and the critics. It was founded in 1954 and some of the writers and poets featured were: Nirad Chaudhuri, Dilip Chitre, Allen Ginsberg, Jyotirmoy Datta, Mujibur Rehman, Agha Shahid Ali, Jayanta Mahapatra, Dom Moraes, Ashis Nandy, Gauri Deshpande, Adil Jussawalla, Mahapatra, A.K. Ramanujan, Saleem Peeradina, Arun Kolatkar, Dilip Chitre, Keki Daruwalla, Anita Desai, Kiran Nagarkar and Abraham Eraly. An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca  235 You have been a witness to the formation of the canon of Indian English Poetry. What’s your take on it? There was clearly a phalanx of poets who formed the canon of Indian English Poetry. I won’t name them all here, but it seems to me that the heights they reached, still set the standard for excellence in Poetry writing. (Of course, I feel that it must not become a rigid, unbending criterion, because poetry evolves over time and will reflect the mores of societal changes.) I remember when I was very young and when my father was writing his poetry, it was P Lal, who was himself a poet and an essayist, who gave a platform to Indian writers writing in English. In the 1950’s, he founded the Writer’s Workshop. I still have a memory, as a young girl, of the beautifully designed cloth-bound covers with Indian motifs, of the books of Poetry that were published by him. Because they were attractive, they drew you to read them and one was sure the contents must be excellent. (Talk about judging a book by its cover!). P Lal published writers like Pritish Nandy and Sasthi Brata, and later, Dom Moraes and my father, Nissim Ezekiel. Any article I read about him reports that it was Nissim Ezekiel who ‘created a voice and place for Indian poets writing in English and championed their work’. My father also published a book of poetry by a fellow poet, and helped some struggling Poetry magazines to survive, by financing them himself. I remember the conversations in my home about these undertakings, because he had a family to support, and a Professor’s salary does not really allow for business forays. My father’s contemporaries were poets in India, like Jayanta Mahapatra, Gieve Patel, A. K. Ramanujan, Arun Kolatkar, Dilip Chitre, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Eunice De Souza, Kersi Katrak, P. Lal and Kamala Das, among others. Cricket and poetry, between the 1950s and 70s, were Bombaycentered. Do you recall those days? Yes, I do!! It was an exciting time and I recall the late 60s especially. During my school final exams, West Indies were 236  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets playing India. I was glued to the radio, listening to the cricket commentary, rather than studying for the all-important ISC exams. That caused a lot of problems with my mother who despaired of getting me away from the radio. To her relief, I did well. Truth be told, I wish I could tell you that, as a teenager in college in the 70s, I found great joy in the written (poetic) word. Instead, I found joy in the poetry of young love – its ecstasies and tragedies, changing every few months!!! I found joy in music, in friends, in eating out, in choirs, in rock bands and had memorised every song of the Beatles and the Mamas and the Papas and completed both my Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees by 1975. Who were the other important poets apart from your father at that time? Was there any significant event you can remember and would like to share with us? The other important poets writing during my father’s time were A.K. Ramanujan, Dom Moraes, Gieve Patel, Kamala Das, Arun Kolatkar, Jayanta Mahapatra, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Adil Jussawalla, Kersi Katrak, P.Lal, Dilip Chitre, and others. I recall a time when I was doing the exams for my Bachelor’s degree in English Literature, and there were two exams to write, in a day, with a short gap between. It was a time when I experienced severe personal stress, and I wanted to give up. The Bombay heat was excessive, and the material to be studied was vast. I had burned the midnight oil often, and was exhausted physically. My father had a mantra for all such times in life. It was, ‘if you are tired, don’t quit, take a little rest and come back to it later, once you have rested.’ He understood my fatigue, and told me that fellow poet, Kamala Das, had given him the key to her house, and as she would not be home at the time, I could go there, have my lunch and get refreshed. He would walk me back to the examination Centre, a short distance away, to write my next exam. On every occasion, when I wanted to give up, whether it was a challenging job, or something else, he saw me An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca  237 through with his amazingly positive attitude. That was the only time he took away from others who clamoured for his attention. Your poems, we have observed, offer a grand wealth of nature imagery. Could you tell us about the images that attract you and how you put them to poetic use? I love Nature. It is a calming, healing force for me. The power of, and beauty in Nature is unparalleled. I write about Nature, naturally. The images in my poems are pictures of what I see, painted in words. I write about nature as I see it. I wish I were an artist. I would spend hours depicting the spectacular scenes I witness. I’ve done some sketches, sitting on my back patio, and I signed them, ‘The Imperfect Artist.’ Here, where I live, I am surrounded by Nature. When I come downstairs in the morning to drink my first cup of chai, the scene that greets me is uplifting. I see the amazingly poetic clouds in a sky of changing colors, beautiful trees from the three kitchen windows, and the greenness of the freshly-mown lawn. My neighbour had planted five spruce trees in his backyard, and they have grown tall and stately now. They seem to speak to me. The neighbour across the alley has a large beautiful tree with some kind of red berries too, and we have two cherry trees, and an apple tree that we planted last year. It was a gift from my family for Mother’s Day. Watching the robins bathing in the bird baths, the sparrows sitting in a line on the fence, ‘the lilacs bending low over the fence,’ and the colourful flowers in the front and back garden beds, the garden which my husband has lovingly planted (he’s the one with the green thumb, my job is to water and weed), attracting the butterflies and some bees, soothes my soul. The squirrels chasing each other on the fence are fun to observe. We have winter six months of the year here, and summers are short. Some people find winter beautiful. I find it challenging, though I don’t deny the beauty of the snow-capped mountains which can be seen in the distance, if you take a short walk and brave the slippery sidewalks. 238  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets I inherited the love of Nature from my father. Our first rented home, a ground floor flat, had a large garden which the landlord zealously maintained, was chosen by my father himself. He always said he wanted to be buried in it. The flat was also close to the sea. We took regular walks with friends after school, and on Sundays with our family. My father loved the sea breeze He wanted to be buried in the garden In our home by the sea So he could feel the breeze on him Under the earth, He would be thankful for the coolness. (Lines from my poem, ‘The Many Things my Father Loved,’ published in the May-June issue of Muse India). My poem Family Sunday, published in my first book of Poetry, describes this event. Father saw beauty in everything, a tiny blade of grass blowing in the wind, would be beautiful to him. As a young girl, I had to bend down real low to see its physical form, let alone appreciate its beauty. But now, on my walks, when I come across a blade of grass waving in the breeze, it presents itself to me with magical beauty, and I show it to my daughter, who looks puzzled! We have come full circle! How have your roots in India and your routes that have taken you to different parts of the globe affected your work? India is my birthplace, but the love of the country and Bombay (it is still difficult for me to say Mumbai), the city of my birth, flows very strongly in my veins. It is my home, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually, and it’s not mere nostalgia. It goes way deeper than that. Tell Me If You Know Where Home Is Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca “All the lonely people, where do they all belong?’ Eleanor Rigby: The Beatles An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca  239 I’ve never really left home The place is always in my head, becoming as a noisy child’s rattle, If I shake my head from side to side As Indians do back home, it still doesn’t help, My ancestors often said ‘Everything will be alright in the end And if it’s not alright, it’s not the end’ I can’t get away from the clamour of Indian sayings… (Lines from my poem, published in the May-June issue of Muse India) To describe my rootedness in India with a metaphor: the pine tree on my front lawn sends its roots so deep into the flower beds, making the soil too acidic for growing flowers. No matter how many of the roots we dig out, when we prepare the soil for planting, they stubbornly entrench themselves and seem to multiply! Similarly, my roots are too deeply entrenched and I can’t seem to uproot myself, though physically I have done that. However, home to me is also where my family is. I took a year’s sabbatical to pursue a Master’s Degree in Education at the Oxford Brooke’s University in England, and missed our home in the International School where I taught English, in the foothills of the Himalayas. I took comfort in the fact that we were going to return. But, now that we’ve immigrated to Canada, how do we return? That comfort of the assurance of return does not exist. Indians have migrated to every part of the globe, and with this diaspora, Indian English poetry has reached the far corners of the world. The Poetry that comes from diaspora Indians can be powerful in the context of memories, and the aching yearning for their homeland that they evoke in their writing. It is not mere nostalgia, as some like to think. They have lived in both places, and are richer for the experience. To provide an example, I am familiar with the poet Imtiaz Dharker, whom I knew as a young girl, since she was among the poets who formed part of the circle of poets with my father. My father himself lived for many years in England, and his first book of 240  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets poems ‘A Time to Change,’ was published there. His Poetry was definitely enriched by his experiences there, and his subsequent travels to myriad countries where he was invited to read his poetry and also as Writer in Residence and Visiting Professor. He always returned to India, and felt that if one went abroad to settle, one would be lost. My own experience confirms this as a fact, although I migrated for different reasons. Turning back was considered, but that posed many challenges, and did not happen. Reflections in hindsight are useful, only in so far as they help you move forward, and not leave you wallowing in regret. That would definitely be counterproductive. My father and I had many discussions about career paths. Again, I took that route for family reasons. One writer I admire is the novelist Jhumpa Lahiri. The richness of cross cultural experiences that find a voice in someone like her, is enriching. Diaspora writers carry two homes (or more!). To quote again some lines from my recently published poem, ‘Tell me if you know where Home is.’ I’ve never really left home The place is always in my head There are no cockroaches here, though not the reason for leaving But I heard they are beginning to come to my city Perhaps then I will feel at home, We are becoming a bee city too, I can now plant flowers That will bring butterflies, I chased them as a child, in my home garden. Still, if the cockroaches come, they will increase my homesickness I had a fear of lizards too, been no sightings here yet Home is anywhere the heart is, as the saying goes With or without lizards and cockroaches, Back home the bees are happy. An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca  241 What are the themes that you are currently writing about? Tell us something about your work at present. At present, I have been writing some Zen Poetry. These poems are perhaps not in strictly Zen format, but more in theme. They are intended to be peaceful and contemplative in nature. In addition, I continue to work on poems that I began writing, but didn’t quite finish for various reasons. One poem is called ‘The Poet’s Breath,’ and describes how I was named. I enjoy writing poems about the Art of Poetry, and have written quite a few based on that theme. I think all poets write poems on this theme, at some point in their poetic career. I have recently written some Blessings, and some Pandemic Poetry, one of which ‘A Psalm of Hope,’ has been published. I am in the process of preparing a talk entitled ‘Authenticity and Simplicity’ in the writing of Poetry for college students in Jamshedpur, in India, which I have been invited to give, and an article about my father, for a newsletter put out by the International Organisation of the Bene-Israel Jewish community, to which I belong. I was invited to do a Zoom presentation on my father by the Indian Jewish Heritage Centre, and the Cochin Jewish Heritage Centre in mid-May. The presentation was very well received. I write as I experience different events, and emotions related to those events, or scenes in Nature I see unfolding around me. I live close to a lake and a Nature reserve, and this affords me much pleasure and peace, in addition to superb flora and fauna. I write anecdotal poetry and all my poems tell a story. I have written a brief memoir of growing up Jewish in Bombay, seventeen pages to date, with the promise of more! Can the poets change society for good? I’m going to answer this question with personal examples. But, I would like to preface my comments by asserting my faith in the belief that Poetry is good for the soul, and when the souls of human beings are touched and healed, soothed or moved, Poetry has done its work. I place emphasis on the inner life, and 242  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets at the risk of sounding clichéd, I’ll say that when the souls of people change, society changes. ‘Poetry is soul food’. Nature is pure poetry, yet also when poets write about Nature, they can make us see aspects of it we may not previously have been aware of. We become conscious of the beauty around us and the value of caring for our environment. Children are taught to appreciate Nature through Poetry, and to write their own in response to things they love about Nature. Poetry addresses the inner life. When I get messages from people who have read my Poetry, and respond to it by telling me that they not only enjoyed or ‘loved’ the poem, but could identify and relate with it in terms of situations they have been in, or that it helped them see something differently, or communicated emotions to them that they have been feeling, but have been unable to express, or brought about change in their way of thinking about certain ideas, I know that I have made a ‘change for good,’ in my own small way. Poetry is therapeutic and definitely helps you to understand yourself and other people. There are poems written for different purposes, such as to bring about social change, poetry which influences social and political thought. For example, with the issue of racism that has resurfaced with the recent death of George Floyd, the poetry of protest is a powerful tool to not just express anger, but to bring about social change. As mentioned earlier, Poetry is very important for children. It helps them learn to use and love words to crystalise their thoughts and feelings. It helps them verbalise ideas and learn communication skills, so vital for their development. Children sometimes surprise us by writing the best Poetry, unsullied by filters or the need to impress. They see the world with fresh eyes, and with wonderful innocence. I love reading Poetry by children and also Poetry written for children. Several months ago, I got a message, a sort of confession from one of my students in an Introduction to Poetry course I was teaching at an international school. She apologised for passing a note to another student in the class in which she said, ‘This is so An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca  243 boring.’ She went on to say that she now writes Poetry, and said she feels that ‘she must thank me because she supposes I must have had something to do with it.’ That message gave me joy and great hope for the future of Poetry. How, in your opinion, has the proliferation of online platforms given a boost to Poetry? Undeniably, yes. At least in terms of the amount of content. The democratisation which the internet has brought about gives voice to countless people who we would otherwise have never heard. It is not that people, in pre-social media times, did not have a love of poetry, or didn’t write poems. They did. But their voice was never heard or was restricted by boundaries, never able to find publishers, or have something published which soon receded into the shadows, never found again or discovered accidentally. To quote those haunting lines from Thomas Gray’s, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard… Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear Full many a flower is born to blush unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Who knows how many countless Shakespeares, or Kabirs, have gone on into obscurity, their works never to see the light of day? Perhaps, their works are treasured by immediate family, a loved one, but since unseen, never the general public. Today, we have a flood of poetry on numerous online sites. And variations in poetry. And people pushing boundaries in the way they interpret what poetry is. The imagery in the way words are arranged on a page, art, music and photography which add depth to plain words and carve their message indelibly on the reader’s mind, add new paradigms of what we must now consider poetry. And each successive evolution becomes a welcome jolt! Still, proliferation brings with it the enduring caution for ‘buyer beware’! The mediocre jostle with the pure for attention and 244  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets “The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” Easily available content quantity, does not always mean quality. Sometimes one feels while reading that publishing online becomes a race to the bottom with regard to quality. Poets may feel pressured with social media to publish more and more with quantity becoming the new currency of success. Acolytes indulge in flowery, excessive praise, inappropriate and completely out-ofproportion to the value of a poem. I too use online platforms, and I am conscious of the need to guard against the temptation to rush into print. How do you look upon the travel of Indian English Poetry all these years? As a child and well into my twenties, I recall that being ‘good’ at English Poetry meant being well-versed in the poetry of England and the masters of American poetry. I don’t think much has changed in that regard. Our curricula in School and University did not really include a body of Indian English verse, not in great depth anyway. Maybe the stray poem from Tagore and a passing mention of Sarojini Naidu. And, we as Indians, remain resolutely westward-looking in our quest for excellence in English Poetry. Not that there’s anything wrong with looking to the West… unless we are willing to concede that the downside of future generations of Indians doing the same and indulging in the same denial of Indian voices as worthy enough to be studied. If Rudyard Kipling, who is an Englishman, can be studied in India for his poems, so rooted in Indian culture, why not Indian poets? My father’s poem ‘Night of the Scorpion’ was included in school and college textbooks in India ad overseas and I observe that there is a trend toward some colleges including Indian poets in their syllabi. What I see happening with Indian poetry is our Indian poets realising that they do have their own voice. And it needn’t be a An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca  245 clone of either England or Ireland or Wales or Scotland or America or Australia. We have Indian poets from myriad cultures, backgrounds, religions, native tongues in India and in diaspora-settled regions of the World who have voices in poetry, speaking in the one language all of them can understand (English). They have moved away from themes earlier thought to be real ‘poetry’ and opt instead for the poetry of their lived experiences. We have the great Rabindranath Tagore to look up to, to find inspiration in the literature, song and art of our own linguistic heritage and then express it in English. I see the same Indianness in my father’s poetry, a refusal to be flowery, to dabble in fantastical imagery but instead write about the ordinary, the mundane – all deeply sourced in his lived, Indian experience. Who are the poets from India and abroad whose work has motivated and influenced your writing? The poets who have influenced and motivated me from abroad are numerous and I mention them in no particular order: Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, D. H. Lawrence, Yeats, Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Keats, W. H. Auden, Maya Angelou, Gerard Manley Hopkins, William Carlos Williams, Edgar Allen Poe, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, Charles Baudelaire, Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine, the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, and my contemporary, the American poet Edward Hirsch, to name a few. Since I studied English and American Literature for my Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees, I grew to love many of the poets who have a significant place in the history of the literature of their countries. The poets from India are: Nissim Ezekiel, Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu, Kamala Das, Gieve Patel, the Marathi poet Shanta Shelke, Ruskin Bond, and a few others. I am definitely making it a goal to try and read more Indian Poetry, particularly the poets that write in Marathi and Hindi, since I speak, read and write both these languages. The poets that write 246  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets in the vernacular language are simply outstanding. Some of the languages I am not familiar with, I have to read in translation. I must add a special note about the amazing poet Ruskin Bond who was a fellow resident of Mussoorie, in the Northern Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. From 1982 to 1998, I taught in the English department of the Woodstock International School. I was also a Career Counsellor for five years, after a sabbatical year at the Oxford Brookes University, in Oxford England, where I obtained a Master’s degree in Education. Ruskin Bond, lived just a short distance away and we often met him on his walks in the local bazaar. On her sixth birthday, he granted a special interview to my daughter and autographed one of his books for her. She was absolutely delighted, of course! Another amazing poet with whom my paths crossed, was Shanta Shelke, the well-known Marathi poet. On completion of my Master’s Degree from The University of Bombay, I got a job at a college where she was on the faculty. It was pure magic when she recited her poems to us on occasion. And the poet Nissim Ezekiel was an eloquent speaker, and could charm an audience with the way he recited his poems. I attended most of the readings, if not all, and was so proud to call him my father. You also write short fiction. So, how do you build bridges between the two genres? I mostly write stories about my father. They revolve around special memories of him, I had growing up, the things he said and did, and the things he taught me. One entitled ‘Walt Whitman and the Professor,’ was published by The Bombay Review, a couple of issues ago. They would not strictly be classified as short fiction, but as Nonfiction. I hope to publish a collection of these someday, again to preserve his legacy for my children and grandchildren. I have written one or two short stories, realistic fiction, like the one entitled ‘Holi and Mary’s Boy Child.’ I think both Poetry and Fiction, or Nonfiction are forms of writing and do not necessarily clash with one another. I don’t An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca  247 feel a tension there. But, I best express myself through Poetry. It is a compact and condensed form of writing, though I have written longer poems as well. If I want to tell stories about the ‘colourful and larger-than-life character’ that my father was, I need the expansiveness that is afforded by prose writing. I have written some pieces about school memories, and other subjects such as Happiness, and on the subject of Arranged Marriage. I was once on a panel discussion on this subject on All India Radio, Bombay. What can be the role of a poet in the new normal times? I’m certain that by now, most people are familiar with Kitty O’ Meara’s poem that went viral, and I’d like to begin with a few lines from the poem, which speak to the role of the poet in the new normal times. The poem starts with the activities we have all been almost forced into doing: And people stayed home and read books and listened and rested and exercised and made art and played and learned new ways of being and stopped and listened deeper… The last stanza answers the question more specifically: and when the danger ended and people found each other grieved for the dead people and they made new choices and dreamed of new visions and created new ways of life and healed the earth completely just as they were healed themselves. I myself have written poems and personal reflections, and my poem, ‘A Psalm of Hope’, believes that if you have been granted the gift of life, as in a new day, that there is hope. That is the role of the poet, to provide hope to himself or herself, and others. To quote a stanza from my published poem: 248  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets The world will look different If you can spend a day Without fearful utterances of the words Virus, Pandemic, Lockdown, Not to deny their existence But render them voiceless and faceless For even a moment, so time may not pass you by. If my father were alive at this time, he would be reminding us about the resilience of the human spirit. I grew up with this teaching, and it has helped me tremendously in these trying and challenging times. In my home, all of us have made a conscious decision, not just to avoid mindlessly listening to depressing news, but to take each day a step at a time, and move forward, so as not to lose time, as my poem says. The virus is relegated to the background, though it forms the backdrop to our lives. It is a time for poets to provide hope, while recognising suffering and death, caused by the Pandemic. It is a good time to be reminded to “Be still.” I have been making a small list for myself about, ‘The Things that I knew before the Pandemic, and the Things I learned from the New Normal.’ The profusion of Poetry readings online, are testimony to the role poets play in bringing hope, cheer and goodwill to the world. I myself have participated in these readings. Poets have always influenced society, not simply by holding up a mirror to it, but by showing us how we can ‘improve our reflections.’ Those last words in quotation marks are mine, and affirm my faith in poets. Is there a poem which reflects you? Can you please share this with us? There are so many poems that reflect me…in fact all my poems are a reflection of me, so this is a tough choice. I’m sharing this particular one, since many of poems are about my father. He is mentioned either indirectly in them, or the poem is about him. I am still struggling with the loss of my father. I just don’t seem to stop grieving for him. I had moved to another country, when I got the news that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1998. It was a devastating blow. My brother told me that it was better for me that I remembered him as he was before. He said he An Interview with Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca  249 would not give me any news about him, as I was too far away. I last saw him in 1997. The poem Loss is a Tandem poem, which means it is a poem written alongside one of my Father’s poems. It is a genre I have created, where I draw inspiration from a poem of his, kind of like a parallel poem, if you will. However, the subject, the imagery, and themes are my own. Loss Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca Tandem Poem to accompany Poster poem 1 by Nissim Ezekiel (My father talked too loudly…. but just before he died) Dedicated to my father who sadly passed away from Alzheimer’s in 2004 My father could not talk to me Before he died Could not reach me in a distant land Twinned in spirit, separated by geography, I heard he remembered me Said he could never forget me Memory without a memory Not able to remember Not able to forget Trapped in a maze of loss. Two losses The greater loss is mine Thankfully, He could not remember What he had lost. Copyright Kavita 2020 BR and JS: Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity of interviewing you. We wish you rich creativity ahead and look forward to engaging with your work in future. KEM: Thank you for the opportunity of sharing my thoughts and ideas with you. 20 Nissim Ezekiel: A Poet Father, Up Close and Personal Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca ‘The best poets wait for words’ (Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher: Nissim Ezekiel) …In this the poet finds his moral proved, Who never spoke before his spirit moved. (Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher: Nissim Ezekiel) The beginnings of a Poetic Journey ‘A Poet-rascal-clown was Born’…From ‘Background Casually’ by Nissim Ezekiel A writer’s journey can begin simply with a dream of being a writer, a discovery of a calling, a longing to express in words the inner struggles and epiphanies which form part of their experience, and a compulsion to share their vision of themselves and the world, with other human beings. Usually, it is a combination of all these motives and several more. The reasons for wanting to write depend on the individual writer. The starting point may be triggered by an event or simply something someone said. Such is the case with the poet Nissim Ezekiel, a man I am blessed to call my father. I have never forgotten a story he told me when I was quite young. He said there had been some sort of writing competition in school. He won a prize for a poem he had written. The prize was Nissim Ezekiel: A Poet Father, Up Close and Personal  251 four annas (old Indian money, now discontinued), and he bought a bar of chocolate with the money. He went home and, with great excitement, told his father that he had won a Poetry prize. “Poetry,’ my grandfather said, ‘What’s that?’ Nissim Ezekiel’s whole life was an answer to that question. As the line from my poem, ‘How Daddy Wrote His Poetry’, about his father’s reaction to winning a prize for Poetry says, Who ate his treat in solitary Silence/And tears of wept Hurt/ Mingled with Hope/And secret Determination/To pursue the/Poetic journey/ He would devote his entire lifetime to Poetry, to helping and mentoring others to write good poetry, editing, publishing and promoting poetry, giving generously of his time and money to the cause of poetry. My father recounted several times how this school event was the beginning of his poetic journey. He would write plays, book reviews, edit anthologies, write Art and Television columns, and literary criticism, but poetry was always front and center in his life. No matter what anyone said, or thought of his writing, he was determined to write poetry and be a poet. A public figure like him would have his critics. But this did not deter him in the least -Poetry was his calling. His single-mindedness of purpose was extraordinary. Despite the many lucrative propositions which came his way, he resisted the temptations to take on offers which would have made him a wealthy man, resolute in staying on the path of being a poet. Poetry became an act of devotion. And he was a wonderful teacher. My grandfather was a ‘Science man’ and did not understand the artistic bent of mind his son was gifted with. He was a sceptic and a rationalist by temperament and training. I do not think the Ezekiel parents would have ever envisioned that one of their children would be a poet. Of course, they were happy that, like both his parents, he had inherited the teaching gene. He was a dedicated teacher and spent hours preparing his lectures. ‘Thorough preparation is the key to successful teaching,’ he often reminded me, 252  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets as I would follow in his footsteps by choosing teaching as a profession. The ‘lived life’ with Father There is a wealth of literary criticism on my father Nissim Ezekiel, and his poetry. It is rewarding for me personally, to be able to write an article about how I viewed him as a poet. My purpose here is to describe the man behind the poetry, and what kind of individual wrote such ‘soul-stirring’ poetry and why so many people are drawn to it even today. The poems are universal in their appeal, profound in meaning, communicate directly, and yet, as Gieve Patel says in his introduction to the Collected Poems, ‘And for all the poet’s stated aim to write clear and direct verse, in many of the best poems there are finely shaded inner movements, requiring an acutely tuned register to pick them up.’ This article confines itself to my personal observations of his motivation and drive as a poet, and it is less a critical evaluation of his poetry. There will of course be references to the themes of his poetry, and his pivotal role in the canon of Indian poetry in English. When I read the poetry of well-known poets, understanding the individual behind the writing is what I find more valuable. It contributes more fully to my understanding of the world view, philosophy, life experiences and thought processes of the poet, that he brings to bear upon his work. I was fortunate to have the ‘lived life’ with my father and observe and imbibe many lessons from the ‘larger than life’ and ‘colorful ‘character that shaped his writing. He enriched my life in so many ways, not just by his poetry, but by his positive attitude, his great sense of humor, as evidenced by his ‘Very Indian Poems in Indian English,’ his belief in the resilience of the human spirit, and his boundless enthusiasm and zest for life, to name a few of his qualities. He was an eloquent speaker and a great entertainer. I marveled at his lucidity when speaking and writing. It was always fun to be in his company. I was able to appreciate life in all its fullness and learn to take the joys and the challenges in stride, as he taught and modelled for me. His search for meaning in life and personal identity would inspire me to explore the inner Nissim Ezekiel: A Poet Father, Up Close and Personal  253 workings of my own soul, to discover meaning and purpose in my own life. His poetry spoke of these facets with tremendous honesty. It would enable me to live life fully and give me direction, amid my own struggles. His spirituality and serious attempts to define a complex take on morality, spurred me on to become spiritual, and develop and define my own understanding of morality. His deep and lasting commitment to India, though he had travelled abroad frequently, and had opportunities to live and work there, is admirable, especially in a culture which placed a high value on things ‘phoren’. Confiscate my passport, Lord, I do not want to go abroad, Let me find my song Where I belong (From The Egoist’s prayers p 213, Collected poems OUP 1989) His life lessons would come with many examples, again always in the form of a story. This time it was the marathon runner who was winning a race when he glanced slightly over his shoulder to see who was behind him. In that split second, the other runner overtook him and won the race. This was an illustration to forge steadily ahead in pursuit of one’s own goals without comparing oneself to others. It is a lesson that has, like all the others, stood me in good stead, particularly in this age of Social Media. It would also help him to deal with his fiercest critics and he never once expressed bitterness, professional jealousy or comparison with other writers. He had no time for petty rivalries, regarding them as distractions from the purity of his calling to write poetry. He set high standards for himself and expected the same of other poets and writers, so many of whom he spent countless hours mentoring. It was in keeping with this spirit of purity that he wrote his reviews of other poets and novelists, though that was not often taken kindly. He stuck to his convictions and spoke openly about the things that mattered to him. One of the first books he introduced me to was ‘How to win Friends and influence People,’ by Dale Carnegie. He would mark 254  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets certain passages with a horizontal line and a check mark and leave it on the center table with gentle words of encouragement. ‘When you have a moment,’ he would say, ‘perhaps you might just want to read the marked passages.’ ‘It’s not that I want you to win friends and influence people, but to read the inspiring stories of the lives of happy and successful people in their personal and professional lives,’ he said. It was through his stories I gained much inspiration and many insights into his world and the world of poetry. He was a voracious reader (our house was full of books, even in our clothes cupboards!), had a strong work ethic, and was an eloquent speaker. The recitation of poetry was an art to be cultivated and he held classes in our home to teach people how to read poetry out loud. All of this has shaped my own teaching and writing. We had a close bond through the connection of the ‘prophetic’ name he gave me, the discipline of literature we both studied, and through his ‘belief in my potential’ as he once inscribed on a Beatles book of lyrics, he bought for me from a trip to New York. Over the years, we became remarkably close, as we lived together at my grandmother’s house, due to complicated family circumstances, beyond my control. I was ten years old when I went to live at The Retreat, which was the name of my grandmother’s home, and I would live there till I got married. The Man Some adjectives to describe my father should help to paint a picture of him for the readers. It endorses my belief that poetry, after all, is mainly a reflection of the poet’s personality. He was extraordinarily calm, cool, and patient, even in the most adverse of circumstances. These characteristics he inherited from his mother, my grandmother. He was kind and compassionate and hated to see anyone suffer, whether it was a child crying or an animal in distress. He would not hesitate to give the shirt off his back to anyone and was a man of few needs. He would immediately step out into the street and see if he could do something to alleviate the suffering. He Nissim Ezekiel: A Poet Father, Up Close and Personal  255 and had a tremendous sense of justice and fairness. When I wanted to study in the United States (mostly because to pursue a serious relationship), he told me in no uncertain terms that he could not afford the cost. If he sent me, then he would have to send the other two children as well, and that would not be possible. He was generous with his time and his money and worked at the PEN in a voluntary capacity for many years, and later at the AJDC (The American Joint Distribution Center) helping poor and needy Jews. I recall his compassion for the poor and the disadvantaged – the kind which was devoid of maudlin pity and external displays of emotion. Yet, to himself, he was a man who was deeply introspective and was able to express and define in verse, all the conflicting emotions and the turmoil that went on inside him. Deep inside him often felt like a failure, sometimes as a poet, but mainly in his own being. He expressed this idea openly. I knew my father intimately, and everything he felt, he poured into his poetry and writings. It made him vulnerable to attacks. The poem below underscores his humility and outlines the things he felt within himself with integrity and candidness. These same qualities he valued greatly and were instilled in me from an early age. The poem below conveys the very essence of Nissim Ezekiel himself. Gieve Patel quotes it at the outset of his introduction to The Collected poems, published in 1992, with a second impression in 1994. I met a man once who had wasted half his life, partly in exile from himself, partly in a prison of his own making. An energetic man, an active man. I liked his spirit and saw no hope for him. 256  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Yet, he had the common touch; he could, for instance, work with his hands. To others, all attentive. To his own needs, indifferent. A tireless social human being, destined always to know defeat like a twin-brother. I saw him cheerful in the universal darkness as I stood grimly in my little light. (From Hymns in Darkness) Collected Poems Oxford University Press 1989 Father of Post-Independence and Modern Poetry of India By common consensus, Nissim Ezekiel would be attributed several titles. Some of these were, ‘The Father of post-colonial South Asian English Poetry, ‘The Big Daddy of Indian-English Poetry’, ‘The Father of post- independence Indian verse in English’. ‘The Father of Modern Indo-Anglian Poetry’, ‘The Poet of Bombay’, among others. Though there were other poets writing before him, he clearly emerged as a leader in the field of poetry. He wore many hats: professor, editor, art critic, literary critic, television columnist, playwright, and an excellent writer of prose. He was the VicePrincipal of Mithibai College in Mumbai for fourteen years, and Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Bombay, until he retired. He earned the title of ‘Father’, not only because his poetry was a break from the conventions and preoccupations of the poetry of colonialist writers with his first book ‘A Time to Change’, writing about ordinary everyday experiences, but because he tirelessly mentored so many younger poets, teaching them economy of words and assiduous revision. He religiously edited the manuscripts they brought to him. The time commitment involved in his mentoring took a toll on his own Nissim Ezekiel: A Poet Father, Up Close and Personal  257 writing – he probably would have written a lot more poetry if he had guarded his time more zealously. Some of these individuals he mentored have admitted that they looked upon him as a fatherfigure, a confidante and a counsellor. He was easily approachable and made time to listen. This was a rare quality, not seen in many others. In a sense, I am using the word, ‘father’ as an extended metaphor to add another dimension to his ‘titles’. His generosity with his time and energy often came at a great cost to his family. As I wrote in a poem titled ‘Waiting for Daddy’: Daddy, the poets have gone home now They have taken their commas and full stops with them You must be hungry now, daddy Let’s have lunch together, I have brought along my poem But it can wait, I can wait. Eat slowly, take your time, enjoy your meal Let’s laugh together At those silly ‘knock knock’ jokes You love to tell The Art and Craft of poetry It was interesting to watch the process and technique my father ‘employed’, so to speak, when writing his poetry. The handkerchief, the bed, the desk and the Menthol Cool cigarettes played an especially important role in his method of writing a poem. To quote a few lines from my poem ‘How Daddy wrote his Poetry’: The smoke curl from the Menthol Cool cigarette In the glass ashtray Touched the ceiling Creating patterned shadows On the paint- peeled walls. He only took one puff! As he lay on the dusty bed Triangle-fold handkerchief Over his eyes 258  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Carefully removing the Delicately- crafted glasses I always thought would break With even the slightest tap. Then, moving to the crowded desk Hastily wrote a few inspired lines On pieces of paper, blank or lined Whatever could be found. Then again with set rhythm Back to the bed Placing the same crumpled handkerchief Carefully Over the eyes Waited patiently for the remaining Lines to come. More of Father To the world, Nissim Ezekiel will be India’s ‘leading Indian poet’, but to me, he will be the man I will call ‘daddy’ all my life. The lessons he taught me about how to write a poem were mostly by example. Listening to him at Poetry readings, in the classroom as my teacher at The University of Bombay, and watching him work, was where I gleaned wisdom. He looked at one poem (only one) of mine and asked me why there was no punctuation. His advice for me was to revise a poem eight times and read more. He gave me my love for Thoreau, among many others. He often quoted the lines from Thoreau’s Walden, ‘I went to the woods because I wanted to live life deliberately,’ and he said, “that’s how you should live your life”. ‘Many live lives of quiet desperation,’ was another of the lines he quoted from Thoreau, cautioning me to take life seriously and ‘suck the marrow’, out of it. He said it was not possible for everyone to go into the woods to discover how to live life, but we could use it as a metaphor to dig deep into our own souls to unearth the deeper meaning of how life must be lived in a fulfilling manner. It is all coming full circle now, as I pour my soul into my poetry. He Nissim Ezekiel: A Poet Father, Up Close and Personal  259 poured his passion, his beliefs, his struggles, his values, his ideas, and indeed his life into his poems. When I was going through a particularly difficult time as a teenager, he wrote me a letter, encouraging me to be hopeful, and suggested ways to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The letter addressed the consequences of the actions I was contemplating, on me and other members of my family. ‘Write a poem about it’, was one of the suggestions. But he was never dismissive of the suffering I expressed. He always saw the human side of unchallenged values and the human cost of any kind of lofty values. Advice on How to Write a Poem To write a good poem one must be silent, be still, observe carefully, feel the emotions connected to the events or the scene, and note down initial observations. As mentioned previously, the mechanics of a poem were important to him. Good grammar, punctuation, thorough revision, and not being in a hurry to publish and rush into print, were things he stood by in his own poetry. He wrote many poems and essays on the art of poetry. One poem, with its definition of poetry, and which I love, stands out for me: A poem is an episode, completed In an hour or two, but poetry Is something more. It is the why, the what, the flow From which a poem comes. In which the savage and the singular, The gentle, familiar, Are all dissolved, the residue Is what you read as a poem, the rest Flows and is poetry. This should be so, Precisely so. (From Collected poems OUP 1989 p.13) Family Life and Roots Briefly Nissim Ezekielwas born in 1924 into a Marathi-speaking BeneIsrael Jewish family. He was an Indian Jewish poet, Indian to the 260  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets very core, with a love for the city of Bombay and a deep commitment to India. He was conscious of the layers of his identity which found expression in his poems. His father was a professor of Botany and Zoology at Wilson College and later Principal of a college in Gujarat, India. His mother was a trained Montessori teacher who founded and ran her own school for disadvantaged children in an impoverished area of Bombay. He was the third of five children and was educated in Bombay and England. There was a lot of scientific material in their home, but though he dabbled in politics and worked in advertising and as a manager of a picture frame company, he developed a strong love for Literature and specifically a passion for teaching and writing poetry. He travelled extensively, reading his poetry at Poetry Festivals and was visiting Professor at Leeds University and at the University of Singapore. Yet, he was steadfast in his love for the city of Bombay and remain deeply committed to India, as he says in the concluding stanza of his poem ‘Background Casually.’ I have made my commitments now, This is one: to stay where I am, As others choose to give themselves In some remote and backward place, My backward place is where I am. (From Collected poems OUP 1989 p13) Publications Nissim Ezekiel published seven books of poetry, a couple of plays, significant Prose, edited various anthologies, was the editor of various magazines, co-translated the poems of Indira Sant and wrote Art and Television Columns for The Times of India. Awards Nissim Ezekiel won the Sahitya Academy award in 1983 and the Padma Shri award in 1988. I know that he gave the money he received for the Sahitya Academy award to charity. He was a veritable philanthropist. If a poet found it challenging to publish a book of his poems, my father would personally publish it for him. Nissim Ezekiel: A Poet Father, Up Close and Personal  261 Finally… I am humbled and proud to say that my father was the favorite poet of Shimon Peres, the eighth Prime Minister, and the Ninth President of Israel, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. He always had a copy of my father’s poems on his desk. His words to my cousin (working at the World bank at the time) and who had gone to Israel to attend a meeting in 2005, to assist The Government of Israel led by Prime minister Sharon and the Palestinian authority, in creating economic development following the Israeli withdrawal, were, ‘’your uncle is one of my favorite poets in the world, and when I need peace myself, I always turn to his poetry.’’ He particularly liked the opening lines of the poem ‘Acceptance’. I am alone, and you are alone So why can’t we be alone together. Mr. Peres used these lines in major public events, such as welcoming Jewish athletes from around the world to the Maccabiah Games. What a great honor for my father, Nissim Ezekiel, and for us as a family, as well. As his daughter, I too, turn to his poems for his wisdom, insights, and above all for peace. Growing up, when we siblings bickered, as they always do, or when we argued a point with our mother, he would stop us with the phrase ‘Peace at all costs.’ It is these words I hold close to my heart, as I, like the rest of the world struggle with what the pandemic has done to our world this past year. I have never fully accepted his loss, as he seems so alive in every poem. I have a recording of his voice in a You Tube video, reading his poem ‘The Railway Clerk,’ and the room is filled with his presence. Peanuts that do not come wrapped in a cone-shaped newspaper, which he brought home for me regularly from the peanut vendor, can never taste the same. His Poetry is a wonderful legacy, and I consider it my sacred duty to preserve it in whatever way I can. 262  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets A favorite poem of my father’s is, ‘Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher’. A friend of my father’s paid a wonderful tribute to him, “if ever there was a perfect poem, this would be it”. The last stanza of his poem London would be significant in how he himself wanted to be viewed as a poet. Speaking of his basement room in London he says: I want to leave that room, The paraphernalia, The fuss the clutter, The whole bag of tricks, And go into something So public and anonymous, One would be unseen Like God’s love, obscured by life. (From Collected poems OUP p199) Notes on Contributors 1. Archana Kumar, Department of English, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi – 221 005, U.P. 2. Asesh Gupta, Department of English, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, Agartala, Tripura. 3. Basudhara Roy, Assistant Professor in English, Karim City College, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. 4. Bikram 5. Binod Mishra, Facuty, IIT Roorkee. Uttarakhand. 6. C.L. Khatri, Faculty, T.P.S College, Patna. Mishradeep, Shaketpuri, Road No. 1, Hanuman Nagar, Patna-800026, Bihar. Edits Cyber Literature. 7. D.C. Chambial, a poet, edits Poetcrit, Maranda – 176 102 Brahmabarada Brahmabarada, Jajpur, Pin – 755005, Orissa. Kumar Mohapatra, College, (Himachal Pradesh). 8. Jaydeep Sarangi, Principal, New Alipore College, Kolkata, W.B. 9. K. Jha, Deptt.of English, M.L.S.M. College, Darbhanga – 846004, Bihar. 10. Kasthuri Bai, Reader in English, Sri Sarada College, Salem – 636016, T.N. 11. Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca, Poet and Fiction Writer, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 264  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets 12. N. Sharada Iyer, Head, Dept. of English, Vasanta College for Women, Rajghat Fort, Varanasi – I, U.P. 13. P. Gopichand, Dept. of English, J.K.C. College, Guntur – 522 006, A.P. 14. P. Naga Suseela, Dept. of English, J.K.C. College, Guntur – 522006, A.P. 15. Pradip Kumar Patra, Reader and Head, Department of English, Gauhati University, Kokrajhar Campus – 783370, Kokrajhar, Assam. 16. R. Arunachalam, Reader in English, M.K.R. Govt. Degree College, Devarkonda – 508 248, Nalgonda (Dt.), A.P. 17. Subhendu Mund, Reader in English, B.J.B Autonomous College, Bhubaneswar, Pin – 751014, Orissa. 18. Sudhir K. Arora, Faculty, Maharaja Harishchandra (P.G.) College, Moradabad. (U.P.) 19. Sujaat Hussain, Reader in English, 4/771, Friends Colony, Aligarh – 202 002, U.P. 20. Sutanuka Ghosh Roy, Associate Professor in English, Tarakeswar Degree College, The University of Burdwan, West Bengal. Index A Abandoned Temple, 59, 62 Academic sponsorships, 196 Active antagonism, 137 Ahana, 40 Alternative voice, 5, 195 Amalgamates reality,, 151 Anatomical science, 45 Ancestral crocodiles, 18 Animal attributes, 144 Anthropological theories, 214 Anti-colonial grammar, 196 Anti-colonial literature, 214 Anti-colonial resistance, 214 Anti-national activities, 99 Art critic, 228 Aurobindian mysticism, 14 Autobiographical elements, 125 Autobiography, 73, 118, 123, 224 B Beautiful Beyond, 188 Black snake, 192 Born innocent, 192 British brutality, 112 Broad-based pockets, 196 C Celestial pleasure, 77 Christian metaphysics, 117 Cinematographic precision, 133 Colloquial language, 64 Colonial clerks, 172 Colossus poems, 120 Communalism, 132 Confessional poetry, 117, 118, 119, 123 Conjugal relationship, 18 Constant humiliation, 206 Contemporary american poetry, 119 Contemporary face, 209 Contemporary Indian English poets, 216, 223 Contemporary poems, 97, 106 Creative writing, 228 Cultural nationalism, 195 266  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Customary locations, 59 Cuttack city, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154 Cyclic exploration, 122 D Das, Kamala, 11, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 81, 82, 83, 84, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 117, 119, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 172, 196, 235, 236, 245 Day-today activities, 169 Decorative structure, 159 Diaspora-settled regions, 245 Dichotomous duality, 132, 133 Double-edged attitude, 159 Dramatic monologue, 113 E Egyptian grandeur, 96 Emergency rule india, 112 Emotional imbalance, 204 Enterprice, 15 Environmental degradation, 153 Exclamation multiplies, 190 Exemplary experience, 160 Exotic beauty, 192 F Freshly-mown lawn, 237 G Geo-spatial shift, 195 Ghanshyam, 73, 79, 88, 91 Gita govinda, 29 Global code, 195 Grammatical coherence, 64 Grammatical cohesion, 51 Grammatical cohesive devices, 51 Grammatical sentence, 68 Grammatical subject, 46 H Half-sceptical manner, 131 Historiographical significance, 28 Human emotive attribute, 141 Humanistic attitude, 17 I Ideal tragic hero, 147 Immaculate images, 191 Immeasurable world, 74 India-democratic, 116 Indian cultural values, 217 Indian English literature, 21, 24, 28 Indian English poetry, 21, 23, 26, 28, 136, 172, 187, 188, 193, 194, 239 Indian freedom movement, 30 Index Indian Jewish heritage centre, 241 Indian mysticism, 26 Indian spiritual philosophy, 30 Indian spiritualism, 23, 29 Indo-anglian poetry, 13 Inner contentment, 78 Internal vacuum, 79 International bi-annual journal, 187 Intra-clause complex level, 49, 50 Intuitive poetry, 30, 31 J June Rain, 151, 152, 153 K Khalistan movement, 99 L Language code, 58 Lexical cohesion, 50, 51 Linguistic monocentrism, 197 Lingustic hybridity, 8, 201 Literary qualities, 45, 52 Logical subject, 46 M Male chauvinism, 73, 92 Male-dominated society, 123 Man-woman relationship, 127, 221  267 Material cosmetic, 209 Maximum employment, 51 Metaphysical poets, 211 Modern English poetry, 58 Modern Indian creativity, 212 Mono-dimensional, 192 Multidimensional poems, 193 My Good Luck Home, 198 Mystic approach, 189 N Narrative poems, 14, 38 Native English, 17 Natural phenomenon, 143 News-commentators, 95 Nirvanashtakam, 24, 27 Non-european peoples, 216 Non-western societies, 214 O Occasional sojourns, 28 Of post-independence government, 130 One-word adjective, 59 One-word adjectives, 68 Orthodox location, 59 P Pakistan-autocratic., 116 Pandemic poetry, 241 Paramahamsa, ramakrishna, 27, 30 Parenthetical statement, 63 268  Explorations in English Poetry: Musings by Indian Poets Perennial subjection, 218 Perpetual challenge, 221 Personal objection, 195 Philosophical thought, 19, 23, 28 Poetic technique, 188 Politico-military evasion, 5, 195 Postcolonial countertextuality, 196 Postcolonial identity, 215 Postcolonial literary, 195 Postcolonial literature, 5, 195, 214, 216, 224 Postcolonial novel, 216 Postcolonial poetry, 216 Postcolonial writers, 221 Post-independence india, 134 Post-independent complexities, 216 Postmodern Indian English poet, 128, 130, 133 Postmodern situation, 129 Powdered tranquillity, 138 Pre-independence Indian poetry, 14 Prepositional phrases, 61 Pre-requisite quality, 158 Prisoner, 88 Prosaic physical details, 130 Psycho-exotic pastime, 117 Psychological subject , 46 Pure poetry, 41, 148, 242 Q Quantitative metre, 38 Quintessential philosopher, 218 R Raghuvamsam, 29 Rain-starved humanity, 154 Reflective poems, 111 Revising Lives, 164 Rhetorical emphasis, 70 Rhetorical questions, 140 Rhythmic word, 30, 33, 36 Ridiculous obsequiousness, 208 Rock-like human mind, 103 Romantic demagoguery, 219 Romantic-symbolist poetry, 110 Rupture language, 111 S Self-assertive statement, 84 Self-explanatory nature, 94 Self-justification, 221 Self-sustaining tradition, 6, 172 Semantic coherence, 64 Semantic irregularity, 71 Semantic relation, 51 Sensitive american poet, 119 Sex act, 74, 82, 88, 90 Sexual disgrace, 83 Sexual hunger, 76 Index Sexual indulgence, 75, 178 Sexual relationship, 90 Situational poetry, 105 Socio-cultural resonance, 196 Sociolinguistic identity, 8, 201 Spiritual journey, 168 Spiritual luminosity, 39 Spiritual satisfaction, 129 Structural dissimilarity, 96 Structural parallelism, 69 Supreme self, 80, 91 Syntactic inversion, 71 T Tagore, Rabindranath, 23, 29, 234, 245 Tamil sangam literature, 49 The bubble-eyed water-bugs, 19 The Crowded Metaphor, 136, 139 The Mahabharata, 13 The Ramayana, 13, 44 Thematic position, 48, 49 Thematic significance, 96 Theme-rheme structure, 47 Thought Poems, 136, 148  269 Tidal Interlude, 221, 222, 225 Traditional colonial construct, 5, 195 Traditional qualities, 208 V Various european anthropologists, 214 Vegetational richness, 59 Verbal embellishments, 100 Verb-complement order, 60 Violet blooms, 34 Vivekananda, Swami, 11, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 Volcanic line, 191 W Well-crafted poetry, 148 Well-known american poet, 197 Well-known critical maxim, 94 Western countries, 214 Western disciples, 27 Western literatures, 44