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| Dr Jernail Singh Anand |
[Saying anything and getting caught is not a literary virtue, it is an unliterary activity. The best in literature are things which spin the words and images round and round and the reader has to shoot an arrow into the eye of the floating fish, looking at its image in the water. [Draupadi’s Swaymbara] ]
Dr Jernail Singh Anand
Broken lines which carry sophisticated ideas are not poetry, unless they evoke emotions which blend disparate elements of experience into a unified whole. The final feeling should not be of a broken experience, but a unified entity, whispering to the soul. If the poet does not whisper to the soul, it lacks in essentialities.
When we talk of a common subject like love, on an extensive
scale, is the broken heart of a poet so important to the world? Is it important
to tell the world how it was broken and where its splinters are lying? Does the
world expect such lavish wastefulness from the poet? If poets are irrelevant to
the world today, it is precisely because they sing of their personal sorrow,
and sing too much, which fails to connect with the mass mind.
Metaphor as a smoke-screen
Is it important to postpone finally saying something
and trying to find metaphors, so that abstract images could say, what the poet
is so scared to say in plain words? A metaphor is not always an adornment. In
these politicis-ridden times, most of the times it is used as a smoke screen.
A poem’s message is like a needle to be found in a
chaff store. The poet talks loosely about clouds, flowers, rivers, oceans,
moon. – good images, and sometimes soothing too, but the message… Oh, I am
sorry, does the poet have any message to convey? Or just to fiddle with words,
images and enjoy and make the reader enjoy his word patterns, which have
expertise in not saying anything. Saying
anything and getting caught is not a literary virtue, it is an unliterary activity.
The best in literature are things which spin the words and images round and
round and the reader has to shoot an arrow into the eye of the floating fish,
looking at its image in the water. [Draupadi’s Swaymbara]
So difficult it is to find the meaning of a poem. And
finally, if the reader says, “the poet says this” agains there are eyebrows.
It is not the poet, it is the poem that says something. So, the text says,
the poem says, … this is the fad. The poet has nothing to say. He only put some
words together. Forged some images. Which are now lying before you. Try to read
into them and say what you find them say.
A post-modern reading of Paradise Lost can be
rewarding. Let us forget what Milton has
to say about “to justify the ways of God to man”.. The invocation becomes
absolutely irrelevant in which he invokes the Muse to let him sing of the
disobedience of man which brought death in the world. How can Milton dare to
utter these words? It is all irrelevant. Leave invocation. Let us move straight
into the text.
Love for the Workshop
If text is our focus, we can go beyond Milton. The
message has no significance. What is important is the text, and using the text,
bring a staircase, stepping down into its interior, let us move in the dark
chambers of Milton’s mind. What he says,
has no relevance. What he did not say, is important. Move in.
Everyone who enters this talisman finds something different and challenging. So, that is our study of poetry. Finally to put out a broken spectacle because, a verse, if we take the words to enter into the poets mind, will take us into a factory area where tools are lying scattered. Are we interested in the workshop or the finished product? I think entering a sweet seller’s pantry cannot be a rewarding experience. Better to enjoy the sight of the silver-covered sweets, and still better, to taste a few of them, and praise the sweet maker, rather than de-kneading the flour and sugar that went into it and following them from which mill the flour came and from which factory, the sugar came.
Dr Jernail Singh Anand, President of the International Academy of Ethics, is author of 170 books in English poetry, fiction, non-fiction, philosophy and spirituality. He was recently awarded Seneca Award by the Academy of Philosophical Arts and Sciences Bari. [Italy -19/10/2024]. He also won Charter of Morava, the great Award by Serbian Writers Association, Belgrade and his name was engraved on the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. He was awarded Doctor of Philosophy [Honoris Causa] by the University of Engg and Management, Jaipur. Recently, he organized an International Conference on Culture, Values and Ethics at Pune. His most phenomenal books are Lustus:The Prince of Darkness [first epic of the Mahkaal Trilogy]. And Philosophia de Anand, a work of philosophy which has under one roof, ten of his philosophical works. Email: anandjs55@yahoo.com
