Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Content
spiritual illumination.
eleven line stanza has different rhyme pattern abb cddc eee.
of the stanzas.
1
Nila Shah and P.K. Nayar opp. cit., p. 31.
2
G.J.V. Prasad, opp. cit., p. 27.
134
France. All the five stanzas of the poem are written with fine
in the phrase 'winding round and round'. The poet then builds
'grace' of the tree and begin to see the tree in all its charm.
The images that come up in the next six lines of the stanza
creeper does not climb the summit near the stars, nor the
by the poet.
figure, i.e., the tree is invoked and then the poet proceeds to
weave images of the winter season around it. Hence she sees
things are generally still and quiet. Again the grim 'statue'
image works against the active 'leap about and play', image,
'gray' which co- exists with the image of the winter season
when things appear gray with frost. The word 'hoar' which
colour.
the tree in sympathy with the poet, whose eyes are blinded
are drawn up. Hence the 'dirge like murmur' becomes the
contrast.
now lay in 'sheltered bay'. Its waves did not 'break' but 'rose'
fragmented and the images do not run after the other. The
the tree
Shadow---').
impression of perfection.
depicts of the great sense of duty that he had for his elder
dilineates that when the prince failed to gain the favour of his
who served the God by opposing his cruel father. "Sita" tells
us about her suffering during her last days. All these stories
are some of the gems of Indian literature and with all these
140
it were, the two eyes of the nation ; with their character, they
have molded the ideals of the whole nation and in their sway
over the peoples and the religious movement they gave birth
depicted not only the great love of Rama and Sita and the
and above all, the love of the father for his son. In his hero,
the first of poems, adi- kavya, and truly did Valmiki lay down
Toru Dutt was not the only poet to be inspired by the stories
in these epics.
and the fervour of his desire for union with the universal
3
Letters of Sri Aurobindo (III Series), p. 300.
143
receive it. 4
as a poet.
"A Rose of Women" and "To the Cuckoo" even earlier. Two
4
Aurobindo quoted in K.R. Srinivas Iyengar, opp. cit., p. 166.
144
blow. ("Envoi")
felt quality, the passion for love and the passion for beauty.
her back to me, 0 mountain, g1ve her back' later finds the
mishandled :
(Urvasie:A Poem)
145
She a leaf
the tradition of great love poetry. Both Urvasie and Love and
reality.
There can be little doubt that the choice of the theme was
One may wonder how, in Ahna and Other Poems (1915) the
the world where amid the strife and trouble of mortality, the
exceed himself. Shun the light of the ideal and chimera ---
years later out of 'the great mass of poems written during the
5
K.R. Srinivas Iyengar, opp. cit., p. 162.
148
there had been any doubt about the quality and direction of
arrive at and are lost in the rich calm of the wonderful last
line 'Self was lost, lone, limitless, nude, immune.' Of the four
complete, the ego is dead, the self is bare of all the sheaths
the earlier "Rose of God". A poem of holy love, the first two
embodiment.
6
Ibid. p. 168.
150
and sonnet. Rarely has the sonnet been put to such wide use
bears the title "The Divine Hearing" Here the advaitic concept
every voice of this world, the first line, though it looks like a
the cry of the birds, in life's babble, both its sorrows and its
151
the one Eternal Spirit : 'All now are wonder - tones and
and yet taken with another phrase, line or word become the
of it or not and that is the sole cause for the beauty of the
give us is not a system of thought but the glow and the force
seems to illustrate the idea that, 'if he has the passion, then
7
Letters of Sri Aurobindo, opp. cit., p. 25
152
with God, achieves his goal and the soul's vision of such a
the relief that the poet experiences at the feet of God : 'I who
God for the poet ; this feeling of oneness, the moment of his
the mystic seeks his God. This subtle movement of his soul's
8
Ibid., p. 128.
153
the feelings and not the mere thinking mind --- Neither the
recipients of the poetic delight, even as they are not its true
creators, they are only its channels and instruments; the true
creator, the true hearer is the soul. Again in the last couplet
presents the peace in his soul : 'For this one moment lived
From behind the veil ran out'. The mystic vision is compared
theme of the poem again is the union of the Being with the
delight, Shiva stretches his sight over the depths and sees
rises with felicity to unite with him. The inner throbs of the
following lines :
155
this 'rhythmic world'. The last three lines describe the final
union :
'his vision of its beauty, its power, his thrilled reception of it,
9
Letters of Sri Aurobindo (III Series) p. 128.
10
Makrand Paranjpe, opp. cit., p. 79.
156
itself.
bulk and the sheer audacity of its conception, but also by the
with which the poem opens is among the finest things in Sri
(Savitri, p.19)
almost gambled away ; Sakuntala was too easily won and too
circumstance all the time. She does not falter, she does not
fumble, she does not weep ; and ever she indignantly rejects
(Savitri, p.748.)
11
K.R. Srinivas Iyengar, Dawn 1Q Greater Dawn (Simla: Indian Institute of Advance Study, 1975),
p. 33.
159
there are single lines, double lines, triple lines, four lines
Death's grip can break our bodies, not our souls. (p. 490)
Fate's law may change; but not my spirit's will. (p. 490)
The whole world could take refuge in her single heart. (p. 19)
thou shalt see the Eternal's body in the world. (p. 541)
lOU
The Universe was his body, God its soul. (p. 631)
The forge where the Arch - mason shapes his works. (p. 770)
'Which other mind soared so high and sustained its flight for
Love has always inspired the best and the majority of the
of their oneness through love. The lover does not know why,
"Ecstasy":
12
V.K. Gokak, Sri Aurobindo: Poet and Seer (New Delhi Abhinav, 1973), p. 16.
13
Sri K.R. Srinivas Inyengar, opp. cit., p. 653.
14
P.E. Dustoor, Sarojini Naidu (Mysore: Rao and Raghvan, 196), p. 30
163
Poet's Love Song", the poet, far away from her lover, is rapt
expressed. In "A Love Song from the North" the forsaken one
love. In "Longing" the heart, thus broken, still hopes for the
life that crowds round the sadness of the maiden's days and
love poems at the end of her last volume, and the twenty-
four poems that form the group are significantly given the
begins with 'The Gate of Delight' and the poems of this stage
woman cares not at all for the glories that spring brings. In
lute, no silks. Her eyes, her voice, her heart will serve
instead. 'If you call me I will come', says the maiden in the
next poem. In the sins of love the poet asks for forgiveness
for the sins of looking on the face of her lover, touching his
165
flesh, assailing him with her silence or her song. 'The Desire
and the magic of the sea, the subtle fragrance of the spring,
the faithful lover bewails the other's pride and disdain and
woman complains that her beloved has turned his face away,
lover the whole joy of her flesh and the treasure of her soul,
Love' opens with the ruthless, pride of the loved one and
closes with :
wrongs done to her. Even the withering of all her hopes and
only she could find relief in tears. This is all she asks from
the loved one. The loved one, drenched with life drops of the
face, and she will sing a paean to thrill the dead with his
the Star of her Trust to shine upon her straggling spirit and
raise it ; she is confident that his warmth and grief and stern
breast like a flower,/ Or burn like a weed for your Sake in the
flame of hell.'
15
Ibid., p. 40.
168
The simple joys and hopes and fears and lives of the common
in style and in those that are openly and plainly lyrical she
16
Ibid., p. 23.
169
daily tasks and at the same time relate their activities and
completely spent, she craves only for the release from his
the past having retreated like a hermit to his cell - she stands
the wind of change, which blows across the ways of men and
blows away one sorrow only to bring another enters into the
poems, she goes into the forest to burn the dear dreams that
poetry.
for her that made her nerves 'tingle' and stirred her into
the reader. While her poetry does not make any pretence to
172
uses of language. The new mind requires the new voice, and
themes - the other two being life and death - of poetry, and
17
B.K. Das, Modern Indian English Poetry (Bariely: Prakash Book Depot, 1982), p. 4.
18
Ibid. p. 5.
173
sex. This is traceable from the very first poem "A Time to
making in bed. 19
19
Anisur Rahman, Form and Value i!! the Poetry ofNissim Ezekiel (New Delhi: Abhinav
Publications, 1981 ), p. 13.
°
2
K.R.S. Iyengar, opp. cit., p. 657.
174
remembered hair,
21
Anisur Rahman, opp. cit., p. 17.
175
adjuncts tend to occupy the poet both in the mind and out
side the home. The musings on the female body 'Shall her
them as his model for his own sexual frenzy and unabated
erotic zeal. Notice how even in old age he uses Radha and
22
Nissim Ezekiel, Collected Poems (Delhi : Oxford University Press, 1989) p. 249.
23
Ibid. p. 16.
24
Ibid. p. 249.
25
Ibid. p. 25.
26
Ibid. p. 250.
176
The Radha - Krishna myth has also been used by Kamla Das
her need for love and goes a step forward by using words and
blood', 'the musk of seat between the breasts' 'the jerky way
They did this to her, the men who knew her, the man
Face into their smells and their young lusts to forget ---
Love
In you---
'The whole frame of the poem', said Donne 'is beating out of
a piece of gold', and added, 'but the last clause is like the
her husband :
'and the consummation' in Cobwebs i.D_ The Sun (p. 48. 1974),
relief from the uncertainties of life and this has been probed
conceptions.
poets'. 28
river poems, and some of his earlier poems, too, like, "The
Ramanujan, has also written on the river Vaikai. One can get
27
B.K. Das. opp. cit., p. 6.
28
Vilas Sarang opp. cit., p. 13.
180
Meditation", and "A Hindu to his Cow" are some poems which
On mud walls.
(Subterfuges, p. 37)
home in the West; and those who have never lived abroad for
29
Vilas Sarang, opp. cit., p. 12.
182
the third group described above, and never seem to have felt
("Background, Casually")
in the poems related to the city-life and almost all major poet
fear, cruelty that uniformly mark the poetry of the city. It's the
shelter.
Mysticism has not found much favour with modern poets and
rev e a I n o t h i n g . ' 30
30
Adil Jussawala, 'The New Poetry,' Readings in Commonwealth Literature (ed.). Williom Walsh
(New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 16.
184
Form
knowledge or pleasure.
says, I use the term image here as the only available word to
symbolic vision'.
31
John Middleton Marray, 'Metaphor', Twentieth Century Poe![y: Critical Essays and Documents,
(ed.). G. Martin and P.M. Furbank (Walton Hall, Milton Keynes: The open University Press
1975), p. 7-17.
32
C.F.E. Spurgeon, Shakespear's Imagery and What!! Tells~ (Cambridge : At the University
Press 1935), p. 35.
33
C.D. Lewis, The poetic Image (London : Penguin Books 1958 ) p. 58.
186
( 1) Texts of d o u b t f u I a u t h o r s h i p c a n be a u t h e n t i cat e d ; 34
34
M.D. Smith, Marlowe's Imagery and the Marlow Cannon (Edinburgh: Cadell, 1940), pp. 80-94.
35
T.H. Banks, Milton's Imagery (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1950), pp. 50-59.
36
C.F.E. Spurgeon, opp. cit., pp. 43-56.
37
K. Burke, Philosophy of Literary form (Berkeley :University of California Press, 1941, 1973),
P,P· 90-114.
os Northrop Frye, Anatony QfCriticism: Four Essays (Princentos University Press, 1957), pp. 90-
53.
188
texts.
of relationship'. 41
The next and fifth approach was to reason once again from
inside to outside the work, but this time ostensibly for the
39
C.F.E. Spurgeon, opp. cit., pp. 394-408.
-1o Ibid., p. 12.
41
K. Burke, opp. cit., pp. 68-69.
189
meaning.
has been realized that not all poets have the same sorts of
literal sense.
190
42
Alex Preminger, opp. cit., 365.
191
brought into the poem from outside the world of the speaker,
fashion.
43
Ibid. p. 367.
192
has dignity, and is raised above the everyday level' (On the
and power. Advising against the use of grand diction all the
poetic diction, laid down the principles and prepared the way
sources. The main body of the images falls into two groups-
44
The concept of 'abstract' and 'concrete' type of classification each taken from Derek Deckerton,
'Prolegomena to a Linguistic Theory of Metaphor', Linguistic Perspectives on Literature, (ed.).
M.K. Ching (London : 67 Routelage and Kegan Paul, 1980), pp. 43-61.
194
and images from house, door, window, etc. Thus the ma1n
All phenomenon
Abstract Concrete
Animate Inanimate
English Poetry. One may again begin with Toru Dutt, the first
major poet, and her poem, "Our Casuarina Tree", the first
the art of weaving image upon image. Thus in the first stanza
we notice how the poet opens this poem with the simile of a
and round' the 'rugged trunk indented deep with scars' and
45
The diagram is slightly modified from the one given in Derek Dickerton 'Prolegomena to a
Linguistic Theory ofMetaphor', (ed.), M.K. Ching, opp. cit., p. 53.
195
stanza the poet faced with the desire to see the light of truth,
Dutt to show the zest behind the amazingly original and vivid
imagery of her poems. Notice the vigour and force with which
("Savitri",p.118)
wrote. Apart from the epic poems which always express the
The image that is created in the above lines has both power
observed :
power to sweep the reader off his feet. The whole poem is
noted again and again. Notice the music and sweep, the
rhythm and unity in such lines from 'The Tiger and The Deer':
Where else can we find such grandeur and sweep? The very
murder reveal the grandeur of the tiger. The poet almost uses
Notice the description of the forest and the tiger in the next
lines :
Hardly daring.
201
The image of the wind slipping its leaves, its being afraid of
its own voice and the noise of its steps is truly remarkable for
it drank
deep woodland
beauty in Nature.
tiger.
The above cited lines from the two poems of Sri Aurobindo
holy love which remains in our mind for ever. The passage is
The words and phrases such as 'Divinely lifting', 'A warm rich
in true Longinian spirit. These and the one cited from Savitri
(Savitri, p. 158)
describe the archangels that try to know the truth from within:
contexts.
Sri Aurobindo and most will agree that it qualifies 'wind' with
like hammer strokes, uplift the soul and show that this can
at all to the question that has been asked : 'Why does thou
heart and a dauntless spirit that can scale the stars even on
'bough' and 'morn' and 'ape' and 'realms', it even holds such
46
a r a r e m o t h as ' m i n e a n c i e n t w o r I d '
envy and 'from their pierced hearts, rich with pain, send forth
lamps for a fairy shrine, or the golden pitchers for fairy wine,
or the bright anklet bells from the wild spring's feet, or the
Song", the day is a wild stallion, and the beloved wishes her
46
Dustoor, opp. cit., p. 15.
207
vermilion tassel in the girls that the she weaves, the scented
fan that lines upon her pillow, a sandal lute, or silver lamps
imagery :
("Coromandal Fishers")
("Indian Dancer")
and lastly
("Lei I i")
figures that she employs, the simile, the metaphors etc. are
of images and their choice of words, one feels that there lies
touch the lens bringing the body into focus. This is repeated
Notice the choice of words and the use of lines, 'breasts like
eyes are large I so are the breasts', 'your thighs are full and
round, I thin and flat I'd love them too' which find numerous
very dominant and the poet believes that in the modern world
48
Nissim Ezekiel, opp. cit., Examples have been taken from different poems scattered in the
collection.
49
Ibid. opp. cit., p. 98.
50
Ibid. opp. cit., p. 112.
211
not for him I nor Ratha's wiles I for her I They have a
51
Ibid. opp. cit., p. 215.
52
Ibid. opp. cit., p. 221.
53
Ibid. opp. cit., p. 220.
212
The images drawn from the human body are used most
the 'eyes reddening under the shower', 'the shy walk across
'burning mouth', the 'long braids flying', and the 'dark eyes
convulsions'.
following lines:
and
54
R. Parhasarathy. opp. cit., p. 27.
213
Convulsions. You
what Daruwalla writes : 'in India I the left hand is out caste I
Shiv K. Kumar :
Enroute to perdition
("bharatmata : a prayer")
s co r c h e s ' . 55
55
Nila Shah and P.K. Nayar opp. cit., p. 14.