No Definite Definitions:
Poetry is multisided and
multifaceted for its infinite characteristics to reflect a definite goal like
the flower of infinite petals to spread the definite perfume. It is the queen
of all genres as it is not just like a novel, short story, essay, drama or
anything else as it includes all the merits of every genre else. It is
everything to be beyond the defining parameters. If it is defined in a specific
way, it is not poetry since it marks unlimited rich variety. It is indefinable as it is inadequately
definable in the way the ocean with its infinite shores in all directions is
invisible to the physical eye. It is not confined to any age, any nation, any
region, any faith or any sect or any class or any person. It surpasses the
boundaries of time and space. Right from the dawn of civilization it has been
so variously defined by poets and critics. All look and aim at one goal, the
sole goal of poetry. It has the definite goal or specific purpose of
communication with a profound feeling to have its indelible impact and inerasable
imprint on its audience for a reform or good change. A poet aims at a definite
message through a poem as Rabindranath Tagore delineates the Divine infinite
gifts that are offered for the welfare of man but they run back to Him without
becoming less in his poem, ‘Thy Gifts’
and rightly puts it,
“From the words of the poet men take
what meanings
please them; yet their last
meaning points to
thee.” (Gitanjali, Poem: 75)
Poetry is the result of
imagination from the mind of a poet when he beholds the sight of beautiful
daffodils or the dance of a peacock, a scene of bloodshed or listens to the
song of a nightingale that recalls something delightful or sorrowful to his
heart; the wreck of a ship, or any other moving incident. It rises from the
mind as a response in the form of imagination to get transformed only to be
appealing to the heart of a reader. The poet is the creator of a poem like
deity and the reader is like the devotee in the process of reading like that of
devotion or adoration. Milton has the specific purpose of definite
goal, the attitude of the Task-Master as he presents,
“As ever in my great Task-master’s
eye” (The siren’s Song, 7)
Poets have different modes of
expressions to vary one from the other but all their poems—long or short, aim
at the sole goal of poetry. Their reflections are various but their expressions
flow from the sole channel of poetry for the definite goal.
Life and Poetry:
Life is also defined in different
ways but not in a definite way. It is
indefinable like poetry. Poetry and life are therefore beyond the scope of
their definitions. Life has all joys and sorrows, ebbs and tides, ups and
downs, tears and smiles, etc., to be away from boundaries of its definite
definition. Poetry is the most befitting medium for the portrayal of life. All
ideas, experiences, feelings, etc arise in life are transformed and transmuted
into beautiful poetry by virtue of imagination born in the poet’s mind and
grown in the poetic process to result in a beautiful poem as the rough caterpillar
transforms into the pretty butterfly in the natural process. It is the
stethoscope to hear the heart-throbs of the poet or the lens through which we
watch the picture of life in the mirror of poetry, the most suitable genre. Lord Krishna expresses his message through
the Gita when humanity at the verge of colossal human loss and the hour of
fatality is flagrant to the physical eye.
The heart with
overwhelming joy knows how to reflect in the hues of poetry. The soul with woes
and throes is pretty aware of the tears, needs the medium of poetry for its
expression in snapshot details. Anger coming from the heart of a person,
deprived of deserving privileges and suitable opportunities vested in the hands
of the selfish to offer, erupts from the heart like lava from a burning
volcano. Parching throats and deepening hungers; deprivations and
discriminations; etc have their expression from aching hearts and crying souls
of creative minds. Joys are also expressed in equal spirits through the medium
of poetry as delightfully as the flower blossoms. It subsumes all kinds of feelings, emotions,
experiences, dreams, thoughts, etc. that have a suitable expression through it.
All these are viewed, felt, heard or experienced to the fullest extent in the
kaleidoscope of poetry.
Poetry Knows No Boundaries:
Poetry is universal and
philosophical rather than individual and historical as it originates from
imagination to reflect higher truths and higher realities. It is not confined
to any region, any age, any idea, any faith, or any ism or anything specific.
It may be subjective or objective but aims at a definite goal. It is not
outdated nor is it updated as it is universal in its exquisite expression of
universal ideas and frank exposition of permanent values for universal appeal.
It has the aesthetic goal of its own for the audiences for ever as Keats
opines, ‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever’. The beauty of poetry is a glory
for ever as it is full of lessons on virtues and sermons on values for the
reader. It is not confined to any ism which of course is not its criterion. It
welcomes all facts of life in the fidelity of expressions. These are the facts that leave it
indefinable.
Poetry Is Unlike All Others:
Poetry in variety and diversity
marks no exact or correct definition and no limit to its genuine expressions. Though
it was, is or will be written all over the world, it is one but poets are many
and poems are infinite with different forms and dictions to express different
subjects. They have their own ways of feeling-expressions and word-utterances
but they abide by the laws of poetry which is the expression of emotions and
passions by and large. It is not the rainbow that has only seven pretty colors
to expose seven hues of expressions and exhibit its wonders to be a rare spectacle
that falls inferior to poetry as it is the rainbow of infinite colors to
express infinite ideas to be far greater for expressions. If I feel privilege
to define it, I can define it as the rainbow of infinite colors; a bower of
flowers with multi-petals and lots of varieties of fragrance or a multi-sided
weapon to aim at different goals. It is words arranged in a systematic way to
express the feelings of the poet to share his feelings with his audience and so
on in the language of the reader. I, as a lover of poetry, define it from my
point of view as follows:
“Every poet lets
us listen to his heart-throbs for our heart-responses. It is his primary
goal and bounden responsibility to describe events, incidents, experiences,
dilemmas, problems, etc that he glimpses and witnesses in life. Poetry is his
medium and spectrum he expresses through, and weapon and organ he fights with
for the aimed reforms and desired solutions. It rises from the reality and the
actuality of life in the way the plant rises from the ground of truths to bloom
the flowers of facts.” (Language, Literature and Culture, 54-67)
It is sometimes a source for
pleasures, sometimes an avenue for fears but has the aesthetic goal of its own
for satisfaction on the part of the reader. It has multisided functions for
multidimensional effects. The key ones of poetry aim at are bloom-like
evolution and bomb-like revolution. We
should all mind that poetry is therefore beyond the scope of defining it in an
exact or correct manner. Different definitions in use, as poets and critics
defined in the past, are defining now and will define in the future in
different ways in different ages and places. Other genres have exact
definitions and mark a clear-cut difference from poetry. The differences in
poetry are so diverse and its definitions are so varied but it is a whole and
the one to represent human emotions by means of word-expressions,
thought-interpretations and sound-modulations. It cannot be confined to limits:
size, time, space, mood, or anything nor can it be defined in a way alone. The Paradise Lost and The Mahabharata are poems to run to
pages and pages to be bulky enough but they are for pleasure. There is no size-limit
and time-limit for a poem to be completed in one sitting. No such limits are
imposed to it as the valid are portrayed in it. So, it is not to record events
like history to state what has happened. Poetry is to reflect what should
happen. It is not science to have a specific definition nor is it mathematics
to say two plus two is four. Of course, sciences express realities as they are
but it, in its modified fancy, expresses higher realities and broader outlooks
for the enlightenment of the reader. So it has a goal higher than sciences for
they mark limits.
Poetry and Effects:
Poetry is the amalgamation of
views to reflect the synthesis of inklings that occur in the mind of a poet for
a spontaneous expression. It is a solo or duet or chorus or something else of
diverse rhythms to move the heart of a listener or reader and teach him or her
higher truths. It is a multi-sided weapon for a reform or correction. It is a
garden with different kinds of flowers to offer perfumes in variety. It is lava
to burn vices and a bullet to shoot the vicious enabling the virtuous to lull
in the swing of peace. It is a vehicle for the poets for their aesthetic
communication to the audience. It is glory never to diminish or vanish but to
flourish and cherish as long as man lives in emotions, feelings, ideas,
experiences, etc. It is not a series of ideas to be abstractive but to be
constructive as it has powers to effect on the aimed lines. It is always alive
and can at any cost survive in its glory and glitter, flair and fervor, lessons
and sermons, sense and essence all concomitant to be important in the life of
man.
Silent and Open Expressions:
A word articulated by mouth is
the microcosm of expression through the macrocosm of poetry. It reveals an
idea, advice, instruction or something else for the response of the listener’s
mind. Poetry is therefore has a series of responses and reactions in the
process of experiencing by listening or reading. In the same way by viewing and
smelling, the human mind can have feelings in the form of responses at the
sight or smell of a flower or any object of nature. The eyes also express
different kinds of feelings by means of their contact. The raising of eye-brows
reflects the sense of wonder. Gestures and postures have ideas to express, and
facts to confess. A hen expresses fear or anxiety in protecting its chicks at
the sight of a kite or an eagle. All these are silent poetic expressions of the
thoughts in mind for response. The flute or lute conveys a thought without a word. Similarly different tunes
constitute music. It can therefore be conveyed by sound-utterances and facial
expressions. The objective of poetry is the most effective silent or voiced
expression of thoughts, emotions, and so on in the form of word-clusters in
rhythmic expressions, rather than the dialogues of dramas or novels.
Main Types and Parts of Poetry:
Poetry mainly exhibits either of
the two facets: subjective or personal to express the poet’s own experiences in
odes, elegies, sonnets, etc, or objective or impersonal poetry to deal with the
events taking place around, with less reference to his personal matters in the
narratives like stories in verse, ballads, epics, idylls, etc. It has the two
essential components: form and structure; content and sound which are
complementary to each other as the one enriches the other. It employs the sound
and the sense as the sound echoes the sense, for its chief objective is the
aesthetic pleasure the reader loves most as his poetic goal.
Poetry, Prose and Drama:
Poetry, prose and drama are the
three major forms of every literature. The drama welcomes poetry to it apart
from dialogues in prose for a greater effect. They are therefore interrelated.
Poetry is more effective than the other forms as it has all their characteristics
in it for its effective ways of expression to mark unique and distinctive in
its stature. It is altogether for higher values. It is primarily connotative
unlike prose and drama and is different from sciences that are denotative.
Poets and Critics; Definitions and Subjects:
Through passing ages, poetry has
been composed by different poets in different ages to mark infinite variety.
When I talk of poetry, we talk of different isms: classicism, Puritanism,
neo-classicism, metaphysics, romanticism, Victorianism, modernism, surrealism,
post-modernism, realism, etc as poetry in the ages has been found aiming at
different trends. They have their own isms and unique ideas to be transformed
and transmuted through the antenna of poetry. They have had different trends or
approaches: general approach, sociological approach, psychological approach,
formalist approach, archetypal approach, etc to portray their emotions and
passions. It employs words, diction, language, image, meter, tone, theme, etc
to enrich its expression. Different poets form the Anglo-Normans to the present
day and critics from Plato to that today have defined it in different ways but
they are inadequate to reflect the true essence of poetry. I totally agree to
Philip Larkin’s comments on poetry:
“I write poems
to preserve things I have seen/thought/felt (if I may say indicate a composite
experience) both for myself and for others, though I feel that my prime
responsibility in the experience itself which I am trying to keep from oblivion
for its own sake. Why I should do this, I have no idea, but I think the impulse
to preserve at the bottom of all art.”
Essential Factors of Poetry:
All such definitions of poets and
critics cannot justify the definition of poetry and its scope. Poetry in
general is never defined as it is not confined to the limits of its definition.
The essence of imaginative and emotional substance is the nucleus of
poetry. There are other essential parts
to enrich its beauty for its full blossom and all perfume for the enjoyment of
the reader. The diction with the choice of apt words in metrical and
syntactical devices, adds beauty to poetry. Its sounds must echo the sense by
its rhythmical and musical effects. The felicity and beauty of expressions also
depends on the employment of figures of speech like simile, metaphor,
personification, irony, alliteration, hyperbole, pathetic fallacy, etc. There may be any meter, any verse, any
rhythm, any style or anything else in poetry but it solely aims at an imaginative
or emotive expression as all roads lead to Rome .
Poetry, a Living
River
Poetry lives in the moving
expression of feelings, ideas, inklings, etc through the poet. It reflects in
newspaper headlines, sub-titles and titles, maxims, dictums, quotations,
slogans, emotional utterances, etc. It echoes from the oasis-expression of
fulfillment, the joy-jubilation of achievement, the tear-emotion of bereavement
and so on. It flows from imaginative, emotive and creative minds in flowing
ideas for moving expressions to the audience. It is the living river of the
ideas to flow from the mind to the senses through the mouth-piece of the
poet.
TRIVENI
Vol.: 83. Jul-Sept. 2014 No.3
