EARTH AND ITS OFFSPRING

I am ever confident
Of your stature, a dot mien
Of your status, menial and mean
A particle, a dismal miniature
You are down to earth a parasite
The most disobedient for God to cite
You are oblivious of your origin
As a temporary guest in my inn
An egg to mock at its mother hen
A seed to question to a huge tree
This all is the allegation of the earth
For the response of its offspring:
What an unpleasant surprise!
I am small but my story is not
My life is short but it means a lot
I am mien but not mean and menial
For pride, you own a wide kingdom
You are soil that lacks in wisdom
I fly in the welkin; swim in the ocean
Broadcast news and telecast views
I have wonders in my lands
I have splendors in my palms
I have powers in my hands
I have no desires for your alms
I am not high but kiss the stars
From my highest parlors
Of my magnificent mansion
All know it; I need not mention
I can rock you by my wiry atom
At will, from top to bottom.

Published on MuseIndia
Source: http://www.museindia.com/regularcontent.asp?issid=46&id=3814  
 

TIME IN THE POETRY OF PHILIP LARKIN

                                                                                     

As a poet, Philip Larkin won high reputation in the post-war British literary milieu by virtue of his distinctive poetic perspectives.  His volumes of poems: The North Ship (1945), The Less Deceived (1955), The Whitsun Weddings (1964) and High Windows (1974) appeared on the literary scene as milestones in his poetic career.  Like T.S. Eliot in the 1920s, W.H. Auden in the 1930s and Dylan Thomas in the 1940s, Larkin established as a major poet in the post-war British times.

Larkin was in the galaxy of the Movement writers, Kingsley Amis, Robert Conquest, Donald Davie, D.J.Enright, Thom Gunn, Elizabeth Jennings, John Wain, etc., to herald a new era and mark a new trend in their writings.  Like the other Movement poets, Larkin insists on voicing his concern for man: “man speaking to man” in his poetry, showing its clear-cut departure from Eliot for his traditionalism and obscurity, Auden for his leftist ideology and Dylan Thomas for his romantic surrealism.

Larkin has distinctive poetic characteristics in the presentation of themes underlying life in the governance of time.  As a poet, he observes life in general and the individual’s life in particular only to record his experiences rather than to enact them by means of his poetry.  He invites the reader to participate in the poetic scene of everyday things.  He is unique in the presentation of thematic concerns by virtue of his technical brilliance and artistic excellence and akin to the Movement poets in sharing the themes underlying life.  He achieved success due to various factors:

First, Larkin’s poetic credo is concerned with distinctive characteristics: simplicity, accessibility, clarity and obscenity in the arousal of liking, interest and curiosity in the mind of the reader.

Secondly, Larkin has technical brilliance and artistic excellence in employing traditional forms, double negatives for positive expressions, images, symbolic mode and dramatic monologues in eminence.

Thirdly, Larkin’s poetic sensibility was modified under the influence of the poets of the earlier generation: W.B. Yeats, preeminently Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, Wordsworth, Keats, etc., in transforming him into a mature poet.

Fourthly, Larkin’s poetics reflects his affinities with the Movements writers in presenting his poetry universal spokesmanship.

Lastly, Larkin’s poetry is famous for his rich variety and wide range of thematic concerns especially for time as the nucleus theme of themes underlying life.

Larkin believes that time is not an abstract idea but is has “eroding agents” to turn life mortal as well as futile.  Time flows endlessly, bringing about changes in life and man who exists in its domain concurs with its destructive forces.  Man inevitably becomes a victim to time in its flux as time’s powers are multifaceted and multidimensional.  Larkin from his agnostic background concurs with time and its “eroding agents.”

For Larkin, time flows constantly turning the future in to the present and then into the past, bringing about changes in the life of man against his choice.  As time flows endlessly, life advances from birth to youth, middle age and to “the only end of age.”  Consequently life becomes transitory against man’s wish in time’s reign.  Time, at the same time, erodes the meaning of life.  So, time on one hand functions as a double, edged weapon to turn life not only mortal but also futile in reality and on the other hand it acts as a three-fold illusion to turn life an illusion.  All time – the past, the present and the future-serves as a sources of discomfort and displeasure.  The future is always unpromising and never a harbinger of good fortunes.  The past is past, and never gives solace.  For Larkin, the past is more over uneventful.  So time in reality is an instrument with which we deceive ourselves.  As a port and man, he concurs with time’s invincible powers as it conquers us, victimizing us by its invincible powers.  As an agnostic, he sees time from the practical point of view and accepts its supremacy over us.  So for him time is like God to the theist, reason to the rationalist and fate to the fatalist.

Life is rooted in time since it “exists in a linear-time dimension”: Time is man’s element: “Days are where we live.”  In the ocean of time, life becomes a transitory voyage with ebbs and tides or a series of vicissitudes.  For Larkin, life is futile, as it is disappointing since “suffering is exact”.  In time’s flow life advances to witness a series of disappointments against our choice as “happiness is too going”.  It is nothing but time with its destroying forces shatters our wishes to turn life futile.  In its flow, life also turns mortal and mortality is attributed to time as it advances life with birth and proceeds to culminate in death in its flow.  Thus Larkin’s poetry mainly focuses on life that encounters with a series of clashes between the two opposing attitude: illusion and reality; desire and actuality, hope and despair and so on.

Larkin believes that the future is the harbinger of inevitable death.  In the endless movement of time, life proceeds from birth to death: “a black-sailed unfamiliar” as life is an illusion in face of death.  Death coming near and near puts an end to life as autumn puts an end to the cycle of seasons.  Man grows aware of the approach of death: the harshest reality of life.  Anything may or may not be certain but death is certain to turn life transitory.  Neither the priest nor the doctor finds solution to the riddle of time.  Man grows more conscious of the horror of death in middle age and then in old age than in youth.  Larkin as a poet and man was so much perturbed by the thought of death as it lays it icy hand on man sat any time in life.  Life surely witnesses “sure extinction”, causing nothingness, vacuum and endless silence.  With the awareness of the fact of the inevitability of death, man lives with a kind of agoraphobia.  Man finds his future bringing death and so life is found dreary and futile in the present.  Birth initiates life but life advance to culminate in death, causing vacuum, nothingness and “bird less silences”.  So life exists within the terrain of time.  All the changes in our lives are decided by time or in time as they emerge into time, becoming one with it.

Time in its endless motion brings about a change in the life of a lover against his wish.  Larkin’s poetry throws light on love in the domain of time.  Love for him is the supreme illusion because the lover’s wants are shattered in time’s relentless destroying forces.  Consequently the lover’s life lead to failure as the Larkin lover has inability to love.  The lover is unsuccessful because he is a ‘would-be lover’.  The lover’s promise is empty and so the lovers are bound to suffer due to their failure in love.  Nothing cures the lover’s suffering through love.  According Larkin, love advances to inevitable failure in the domain of time. 

Larkin observes changes in nature “Earth’s immeasurable surprise” in the endless flow of time as he does so in man’s life seasons becomes cyclic and the trees put on tender leaves on their twigs by virtue of their “yearly trick of looking new”.  The trees renew their freshness with the advent of spring and shed their green leaves in autumn.  With the result, the joy of the trees is transformed into sorrow: “a kind of grief” against their choice.  His poetry reflects his sensitivity to the suffering of nonhuman world in the way he has deep sensitivity to the suffering of human world.

The Larkin speaker has contact with nature for fragile pleasure in contrast with the Wordsworthin speaker.  In the treatment of nature, Larkin comes close to Robert Frost who has a momentary contact with nature for rejuvenation to attend his work with new vigour and enthusiasm.  Larkin has temporary contact with nature from distance as he is against nature from distance as he is against nature-worship.

Time in its constant motion causes changes not only in life in general but also in the individual’s life in particular.   Time’s constant flux brings about changes in beliefs, customs, traditions, fashions, etc in the post-war British times.  Larkin makes the reader look at the macrocosm of British life in the post-war era though the lens of the microcosm of his poetry.  The decline of religion, the falsity of advertisement, industrialization, materialistic aspirations, pollution, sexual promiscuity etc are noticeable through the lens of his poetry.

Larkin achieves in juxtaposing life in general and the individual’s life in particular on his poetic scene. So his poetry is at once universal and individual and it is his unrivalled achievement as a poet.

For Larkin, time is not an abstract idea but a destructive force.  He sees from the point of view of its “eroding agents” on man’s life.  He, both as a poet and man, concurs with time that conquers man with its destroying forces.  From his agnostic background, he explores the fact that life turns not only futile but also mortal in time’s flux.  He realistically portrays life, death, love, nature and the contemporary life of Britons in the post-war era in his poetry with real commitment. 

Triveni, Vol.21, April-June, No.2, 2012        
Dr. K. Rajamouly, M.A.,M.Phil.,Ph.D.

Professor of English,  & Head, Dept. of S&H

Ganapathy EngineeingCollege, Warangal.

Gitanjali: Bhakti Lyrics for Humanistic and Realistic Approaches

 

Gitanjali, the most popular English work (1913) of Viswakavi, Rabindranath Tagore, achieved the Nobel Prize for literature as a mark of distinction in the Indian tradition. Its popularity as the best translation of his Bengali original (1909) is unrivalled to have won international acclaim. It excels for its kaleidoscopic themes: Bhakthi or the adoration for the Divine, the love for nature and man, the concept of work, etc. For him, God manifests in all natural elements. He proclaims his ardent love for the Divine and seeks the communion of God and man. He firmly believes that the Divine inspires him to compose songs in praise of God. He also deeply feels that they are his true and befitting offerings to Him. They are his devotional songs with musical undertones reflecting his Bhakti, fervent adoration and ardent devotion to God. There is a clear-cut influence of the Vishnava Bhakti poets and the Brahmasamaj on him apart from his understanding of humanistic approaches to compose Bhakti lyrics. His poetry reflects the echoes of Jayadeva, Vidyapathi and Chandidas. He imbibed the concepts of humanity, fraternity; humility, equality and equanimity from the knowledge of different religions to the core for his humanistic and pragmatic approach to life. The readers of Gitanjali feel at home in understanding his philosophy of life. They enjoy felicitous expressions of passions, yearnings and ideals in the rhythmic flow of words by the use of vivid images of natural objects and common people to mark a wide range. His exceptional intellectual abilities and distinguished literary talents under the rich experience of Bhakti cult enable him to expound the ethos of Indian life in fresh and natural style through his writings. Referring to his poems, Prof. Mao Shichang, his bosom friend told The Hindu in an interview on 24^th March, 2012, “Tagore was like the god of poems in my heart.” As he was a multisided genius and multifaceted personality, he established as the symbol of Indian Renaissance.           

Tagore has immanent will and inherent zeal to bring enlightenment to man to have humanistic and idealistic approaches for realistic and pragmatic goals in the well-being of his fellow being through the Bhakti lyrics or hymns of Gitanjali.  His life-long dream is to give message directly to man or indirectly through God and his vital and pivotal concept and concern is man and his welfare. He firmly believes that the poet in him is God and his poetry is the most becoming and befitting gift to be offered to Him. His Bhakti lyrics focus on ‘the ways of God to man’ in the welfare of man. Life is a struggle to face, a journey to proceed or a battle to fight. He is bound to welcome all: toil, hard work, sweat, stains, pains, etc with positive gesture for the welfare of the human world. He should not give any scope to hypocrisy, falsehood, etc which lead man to his downfall. In the poem, ‘Leave this Chanting’ and other poems, he makes it clear. Vague idealism, false ritualism, seeming worship, fancy road show, etc do not help man witness divinity.  Work, with a vision and devotion to quenching the thirst and satiating the hunger of man like rivers and trees, is real worship. God is ever present in man and his achievements in sharing duties but not in shirking responsibilities. He must be a committed worshipper and devoted priest in the temple of work for the welfare of man to win the sense of deliverance:

                       

                       “Deliverance? Where is this deliverance to be found?

                         Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the

                         bond of creation; he is bound with all for ever”                         (Poem: 11)

God is with man for ever in human welfare. He is omnipotent and all powerful. He is solely and wholly responsible for the creation of man and the universe.  As a part of His obligation, He ever safeguards the universe created by Him. God is all: the fountain of life, the origin of light and the source for bliss and the life of life. He is music to enthrall the heart and illumine the mind: “The light of thy music illumines the world.” His mellifluous music flows in all directions to delight all objects of nature. He creates light, music, the eternal blow of air and flow of water for life, nature with its beauties in bounty, etc.

            

Man is to be away from prejudices and hypocrisies and follow humanistic approaches for human welfare like the flower to sweeten the atmosphere, the river to flow through fields and hamlets, the poem to enlighten its readers, etc. Man with insight, intuition and illumination has obligations to fulfill, promises to keep and duties to perform. It is his utmost and foremost responsibility as man. God is with him to pat, to clap, to love and to bless him highly and suitably. He aptly rewards those who fulfill their sheer obligation but not those who are in mere meditation by chanting mantras and rotating beads on the precincts of shrines.  Man should cross the hurdles of materialism and commercialism and hazards of hypocrisy and falsehood and be in practice of the ideals of God.

   

Tagore finds the correct answer, ‘God is now here’ for an atheist to say ‘God is no where’ in the words of Swami Vivekananda. He is very much present especially in the place of toil and hard work with farmers and path-makers. He is the creator of the animate and the inanimate: men with insight, all the creatures with instinct and all the other objects of nature. He is present everywhere in every object of nature. Man’s body, mind and heart manifest His presence. Life is ‘God centered’ but not ‘Self-centered’. The soul aims at the Supreme soul for its communion. The body is treated as “frail vessel” but it is created with the soul that always craves for its communion with the Supreme Soul, ‘the Over Soul’ in terms of Emerson. The soul in the process of communion purifies itself to merge with the Supreme Soul. It is like a flower which eventually offers itself to God as a part of his primary responsibility. All objects of His creation will ultimately culminate in God as they are true offerings to Him.

God is omniscient. He has the knowledge of the truth and the devotion to be practiced by man. There is condemnation of worldly desires and materialistic pleasures as per the strictures of God. The divine wisdom on the part of man with insight and illumination is for his concern to serve his fellow beings. There is nothing which makes one high and the other low. There is no discrimination and difference between one and the other. According to him there is ‘only one language of the heart’; there is only ‘one religion of love’; there is ‘only one caste of humanity’ and there is ‘only one God- who is omnipresent.’

Tagore makes clear his humanistic and pragmatic approaches in his poem, ‘Where Is Mind without Fear?’ He as a child asks his countrymen in particular and man in general to break the manacles of bondage, the shackles of slavery, and the confines of domestic walls for complete perfection, right action and heavenly freedom to reflect patriotic fervor on one hand, humanistic favor on the other for human welfare. It is the utmost responsibility of man as a supreme creation.   

As an ardent devotee of God, Tagore firmly believes that He is infinite and complete. To add to or to subtract from Him is a vain hope and utter flop.  He is manifest in his infinite creations that are the objects of nature. He as man feels that all of them are the true gifts offered to God. Life, which is the most invaluable creation with infinite beauties and limitless joys, is the right gift given to God. In the same way the flower, the river, the poem, etc as depicted in the poem, ‘Thy Gifts’ are appropriate offerings to God:

                          

                           “THY gifts to us mortals fulfill all our needs

                              And yet run back to thee undiminished.”                               (Poem: 75)

Tagore’s rare distinction of the philosophy of poetry is to please the readers by its meaning. The poem aims at God whom he profusely praises for His wonderful creation of the universe with its beauties and joys in his hymns. It presents a delightful message to man in quest of the Divine. The concept of Divinity is undercurrent to flow constantly through his prolific contribution to Bhakti literature like the thread to spread inside charming flowers of a garland:

                           

                             “From the words of the poet men take

                              what meanings please them; yet their last

                              meaning points to thee.”                                                         (Poem: 75)

Tagore worships God as the musician. For him, He produces mellifluous melodies for the pleasure of the listeners like the boat man to delight the sailors and a singer to make the baby smile or sleep by the lullaby. His holy music is the dazzle in the dark. It enlightens the ignorant. It fills the heart with incessant joy in its constant flow.

                            

        “The light of thy music illumines the world. The life breath of thy music runs

         from sky to sky. The holy stream of thy music breaks through all strong

         obstacles and rushes on.

         My heart longs to join in thy song. But vainly struggles for a voice.”    (Poem: 3)

As a poet, Tagore adores the music spellbound but becomes expressionless under the spell of mystic beauty. His poetry reflects his mystical philosophy but his concept of mysticism is marked with a concrete sensuous expression. Mysticism in respect of Yeats, Eliot, Whitman, etc aims at the communion of man with the Supreme Being that is the soul with the Supreme Soul and the soul with the ultimate reality or oneness in all objects of nature. Edward Caird defines it “…religion in its most concentrated and exclusive form” as “that attitude of the mind in which all other relations are swallowed up in the relation of the soul to God.” (1129). He as a poet and man is a mystic but his mystical overtones are different from those of others like Yeats, Eliot and Whitman for their theological dogmas and conceptual thoughts. He marks a clear-cut difference from other mystics, for he loves the joys of life and the beauties of nature. He lays emphasis on the soul to purify itself, freeing from materialism and commercialism; pride and hypocrisy for its communion with the Supreme Soul. He wants to keep his body pure and his thoughts pure and prays to God: 

                  

                 “I shall ever try to keep my body pure, knowing that thy living

                   touch is upon all my limbs.     

                   I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts,

                   knowing that thou art thou truth which has kindled the light of

                   reason in my mind.”                                                                            (Poem: 4)

According to him, God is life with the body, the mind and the soul; and man can build a bridge between him and the Supreme in the form of love and devotion. His firm conviction is to offer life as the highly befitting offering to Him. In life, human love transforms into divine love. Vaishnava philosophy has had influence on him to have devotion and adoration for Him. His true adoration for Him grows deeper and deeper and his deep devotion makes him think of himself imaginatively to be His beloved, await His arrival and see Him like Radha for Lord Krishna. He wants their communion with God in the form of marriage. In the same way he seeks the communion with God by His side in the splendid chariot in the imagined role of a beggar maid. He adores Him as a devotee, a beloved, a disciple, a beggar maid, a friend or a child.

Tagore delineates human love and adoration for God as well as the relationship between man and God as the nucleus of his poetry. He presents his religion as the religion of man and his love as the love of man. His reflections focus on the universal love for man through Gitanjali under the influence of Upanishads and Vaishnava Bhakti philosophy. Pearl S. Buck reflects the view: “His poetry, his poetic prose reached deep and far and he spoke to us of mind and soul, leading human spirit towards God. No narrow God created by man, but the spirit of the universe itself, creative, broad and deep, transcending formal religions and race.”(119) In the ultimate analysis of his philosophy, he aims at the communion of the soul and God, the finite and the Infinite, the particular and the universal, the human and the Divine.

Gitanjali reflects Tagore’s message that to serve man is to serve the Divine. His philosophy of life is to have humanistic approaches for the welfare of mankind as God loves those who serve their fellow beings. The humble and the poor are His favorites as they serve mankind. Love and charity help man to purify his soul and justify his actions to be human in relation and humanistic in concern for the welfare of man. Mere chanting of mantras, rotating beads and offering incense are not an indication of true worship. Work is worship. To work is human and so to work is divine. The song, ‘Leave this Chanting’ makes his vision and mission clear. He counsels the worshipper to open his eyes and have enlightenment that God is not within the four walls of the temple. It is a mere belief to think so. In fact, God is everywhere, and prefers to be with the toiling laborers: the tiller of the soil and the path-maker.

              “He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground

                and where the path-maker is breaking stones. He is

                with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is

                covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even  

                like him come down on the dusty soil.”                                               (Poem: 11)

This shows Tagore’s ideology for man to be humanistic and pragmatic. This reflects, at its best, his true religious spirit which never considers sham or superficial worship worthwhile for God.  Real devotion and true adoration of God are not confined to the rituals within the four walls of the temple. Such worship is ritualistic rather than idealistic. His attitude to religion throws light on the ideal of toil or the sense of work which is real worship and true devotion to God. The sense of religion is to preach man humanistic and pragmatic approaches for the welfare of man.  He lays emphasis on the truth without fear on the part of man to face any kind of situation with legitimate pride and honor to show his cultural heritage. The truth is the most sovereign principle to be away from false impressions and hypocritical actions. The power of reason should guide man to have humanistic approach which is never under the guise of hypocrisy or pretence and is ever free from the tyranny or dominance of false beliefs and empty rituals. For the poet, toiling results in meeting the real needs and achieving the goals of man and God likes toiling like tilling and path-making. Man performs his duties to fulfill a purpose, aim and objective of the humans like the flower to spread its fragrance for excellence before its fall or fading away.

Man is the central character and humanity is the focal point of Gitanjali as Tagore wants to make him realize humanity and universalize the concept of man under the influence of the Upanishads. Man is the incarnation and creation of God and he is responsible for the welfare of man, his fellow being in the universe. Man is the representative of God in heaven. Man as Adam should not eat the fruit of the forbidden tree and bring fall and down fall to the race of man under the influence of artificial forces and superficial realities. Instead he has an inevitable moral obligation to perform and ‘promises to keep and mile to go’ as man in the message of Robert Frost.  It is the truth and it reflects the beauty. It is an undeniable fact, a practical reality and the eternal truth and man wakes up to realize this concept. Individual actions must not be superficial and peripheral but deeply devotional to work and really ideal to serve man in quest of human interest. It is the right way for man to meet and stand by God in toil and hard work and it is man’s sheer success and dear deliverance through his real devotion to work.      

Tagore wishes man to be a real worshipper who really worships work which God loves most. It is the humblest or the lowest who are deeply devoted to human activities though their dresses are stained and torn. It means that the work performed by man must be devotional, ideal, purposeful, resourceful, meaningful and useful like farming, path-making, writing, etc. At the same time in the same spirit he must practice charity which is considered to be the greatest virtue as per scriptures. To practice charity, man must have the virtues of munificence and sacrifice. Karna, Shibi, Ranthi, etc are the practitioners of kindness and sacrifice. The rich and the proud are blind to human virtues and values and oblivious of legitimate duties and responsibilities. God bestows the choicest blessings on them who are the embodiment of humanity as a sign of divinity because to serve man is to serve the Divine.

The gifts of God are in proportionate to his humanistic virtues like charity in practice. God wishes human welfare and so he wishes man to have humanistic and pragmatic approaches but not hypocritical and superficial worship within the four walls of the temple. It is the immediate and ultimate reality of humble and human activity. It is the real realization of true devotion to work as a clear sign of human wisdom. Man’s life busies itself on one hand in the performance of duties as true worship and it passes on the other hand through darkness to light and enjoys the beauties of life which craves for its communion with eternity, transcending the due trifles of transience.

                                                                                                                                               

Works Cited

1. Shichang, Mao. “88 Years Later, Tagore Makes a Return to China.”(Unique       Feature) Interview with The Hindu, Saturday, March 24, 2012.                        
2. Tagore, Rabindranath. Gitanjali. London: Mc Millan& Co., 1962.

3.   Caird, Edward. Encyclopedia Britannica. London: Encyclopaedia Britanica Inc,

      1768. Vol. 15

      4.   Buck, Pearl.S. ‘A World Poet’, a Centenary Volume Rabindranath Tagore., New   

            Delhi: Sahitya Akademy, 1987.

  

Published in KJE: Vol: 31/2012

Published in Triveni, Hyderbad. Oct-Dec 2008. Vol:82. No: 4.