Indian poetics

Indian Poetics

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, Writing this blog as part of thinking activity given by Prof. Dilip Barad for the Indian Poetics. Let's have a look for it. 

Classification of Literature Theories

Classification can be done by the basis of what aspect of literary composition is central to them. Accordingly, we have theory of :

1.      Aesthetic experience : Rasa

2.      Verbal symbolism : Dhvani

3.      Mode of expression : Riti

4.      Propriety : Aucitya

5.      Principle of figurativeness : Alamkara

6.      Principle of deviation : Vakrokti

These are the things which are going to discuss here. Let’s see the various school of these people and texts along with the thinkers.

RASA  – Bharata, Dhanika , Dhananjaya – Natyasastra , Dasarupaka  
ALAMKARA – Bhamaha , Dandin , Udbhata – Kavyalamkara , Kavyadarsa , Kavyalamkarasarasaghaha
RITI – Vamana – Kavyalamkarasutra
DHVANI – Anandvardhana , Abhinavagupta , Mahimabhatta – Dhvanyaloka , Abhinavabharti , Vyaktiviveka
VAKROKTI – Kuntaka – Vakroktijivita
AUCITYA – Ksemendra – Aucityavicaracarca

We think that wNow we will discuss the theories one by one.

1.Rasa Theory

Rasa is juice. The juice of life we get though art. Natyashastra of Bharat Muni is introducing this theory of Rasa.

Why this is important for English?

English is not a single department of literature. English is practicing Film Studies, Translation Studies, Comparative Literature, Indian Writing in English Translation. So various kind of studies English is doing. When we practicing English Literature in Indian Academic, we should know about Indian Literary Theories and Aesthetics for widening the views about it. And by that we can develop our linguistic zone.  

Definition of Poetics :

“The Art of writing poetry” – Oxford Dictionary

Every art has different medium and manner. These are the tools of evaluate the literature. That is poetics. There is the importance of sound and sense.  When we talk about Indian poetics then, it mainly focused on ‘Objectivity’, not subjectivity. So we can say  that it has it’s own charm to make feel. Another aspect is ‘Analysis’. We analysis the literary texts and poetries. Poetics attempts to classical works of literature on the basis of that’s characteristics and different manners.

It deals with the beautiful idea of :

Artist ( Who creates art) = Consumer (Who interpret art)

Between Artist and Consumer there is the bond of ‘Catharsis’. Artist create the work of art, but when consumer interpret it. It gives the aesthetic pleasure to the particular consumer in different capacities. That can be the every emotions the human have in the roots.

In Indian poetics, it can be come like ‘Kavya Mimansa’ (Mimansa means we study our doubts and inquire and get solutions). And this word is used by  Raj Shekhar at very first place. Before he gave this name, Kavya Shatstra was known as Alankar Shastra. Literature was studied by the Alankar Shastra. Because ancient scholars were thinking that Kavya is something which is characterized by Alankar. Kavya was for them like it should be written by only beautiful words ‘Alankrut Shabd’. Then later on they realize that poetry can not be judged by the beautiful words, it require more than that. Then other schools were added into it by various Acharya. It means they were come to the awareness of the creative use of language. How language is used! How language can be used! How language should be used! Everything matters the most in literature of any kind.

Raj Shekhar mentioned that , “It is not the object describe in literature that give us pleasure, it is creative use of language that make it’s pleasant”. By this statement we can come to know that it has the most importance of the process and the shape of use in the proper term. Object is there to play it’s role but it the matter of the was of creativeness of any artist or creator.   

Rasa Siddhanta :

1.Vibhav bhav – rise of emotion   

1. Alamban Vibhav (depending on something)       
2. Udipan Vibhav (encouraging)  

2.Anubhav bhav – expression

3.Vybhichari bhav (Sanchari bhav) – not primary emotions but reinforce the primary emotions

(i) Rati (Love), (ii) Hasa (Mirth), (iii) Krodha (Anger), (iv) Utsaha (Courage), (v) Bhaya (Fear), (vi) Jugupsa (Aversion), (vii) Vismaya (Wonder), and (viii), and Soka (Sorrow).

We can see in the above box Rasa and Sthayi Bhav.

“Aangikam Bhuvanam Yasya

Vachikam Sarva vaanmayam

Ahaaryam Chandra taaradi

Tam Vande Sattwikam shivam”

Aangikam – Body

Bhuvanam – Universe

Yasya – Whose

Vaachikam – Speech

Sarva – All

Vaanmayam – Languages (Sound)

Aaharyam – Ornaments

Chandra – Moon

Taara – Stars

Aadi – Etc.

Tam – That

Vande – Bow

Saatvikam – Pure

Shivam – Lord Shiva

Riti siddhanta :

Vamana is founder of Riti’s school. It is not completely new to Indian poetics. He said that Riti is soul of poetry and it makes differentiate poetry from other forms. Riti means ‘Style’. The way presentation of emotions matters in the poetics according to Vamana. Verbal organization in any work of art. Riti has main three kind:

1.Vaidarbhi

2.Gaudi

3.Panchali

Vamana says that Riti is more important than tha Alamkar.

Dhvani Siddhanta :

“Theory of suggestion” is dhvani theory. Acharya Anadvardhan is founded this theory. It has suggested meaning not the direct meaning. We generally say that we read what is between the lines, basically that is suggested meaning of any work of art.

Anandvardhan says that it gives beauty to work by it’s expression of suggested meaning and he also says that in the work of art the Dhvani is soul.

1.Abhidha (it denotes)

2.Lakshana (it indicates)

3.Vyanjana (it suggests)

Alamkar sinddhant (Figures of speech)

The school believed that Alamkar is essence of poetry. Alamkar means ‘Kavya Saundary’ , the beauty of poetry itself. Like simile or metaphor. When we look to the very early Acharyas of Sanskrit we can come to know that, for them Alamkar was so important in poetics. Bharat mentioned four Alamakar (additional embellishments) and thirty six Lakshanas (integral to Kavya).

Alamkar is divided into two parts like,

• Shabdalamkar : figures of speech based on the ‘word’
• Arthalamkar : figures of speech based on the ‘meaning’

Bhamah said that poetic composition is not possible without alakaras and alamkara comes out of Vkrokti (oblique expression) and atisyokti (hyperbole). 

Vakrokti Sinddhanta :

The founder of this school is Kuntaka. The word Vakrokti consists of two components - 'vakra' and 'ukti'. The first component means 'crooked, indirect or unique' and the second means 'poetic expression or speech'. There are different types of Vakrokti suggested by Kuntaka in his Vakrokti-Jivitam Those are, Phonetic figurativeness (Varnavinyasa Vakrata), Lexical figurativeness (padapurvardha Vakrata), Grammatical figurativeness (pratyaya vakrata), Sentential Figurativeness (Vakyavakrata), Contextual figurativeness (Prakarana vakrata), and Compositional figurativeness (Prabandha vakrata). Kuntaka talks about four kinds of Guna. Those are, Madhurya, Prasada, Lavanya and Abhijatya.

He mentions that the meaning is signified and word signifies the meaning. He elaborated his idea on word, meaning, style, metaphor and poetic language. And later he describes of the good qualities of a true poetry. A good poetry is what which has unique expression, meaning which delights the readers.

Aucitya Siddhanta :

Aucitya is defined as harmony and in one aspect it is proportion between the whole and the parts, between the chief and the subsidiary.

“Auchitya is the soul of the poem.” – Kshemendra

27 Types of Auchitya By Kshemendra

1. Pada (Phrase)

2. Vakya( sentence)

3. Prabhandhanartha (the meaning of the whole composition)

4. Guna(qualities)

5. Alankara(poetic figure)

6. Rasa ( State of being)

7. Kriya(Verb)

8. Karaka (case ending)

9. Linga(Gender)

10. Vachana (Number)

11. Visheshana (Qualification)

12. Upsarga (Prefix)

13. Nipata (Redundancies)

14. Kala (Time)

15. Desh (country)

16. Kula (Family)

17. Vrata (custom)

18. Tatva (Truth)

19. Satva(Inherent self)

20. Abhipraya (Motive)

21. Swabhava (Nature)

22. Sarsangraha (essential property)

23. Pratibha (Innate ability)

24. Avastha (state)

25. Vichara(Thought)

26. Nama(Name)

27. Aashirwada(Blessings)

Each and every mentioned types has something to help to give meaning to poetry.

So, now we have seen the various schools of Indian Poetics. To get more idea through example you can visit my another blog click here.

THANK YOU !

The Waste Land

The Waste Land - Thinking Activity

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani. Writing this blog as thinking activity for 'The Waste Land'. Here we have to discuss first the general idea of the poem and some points related to themes, critic's views and some important questions which are asked in the Teacher's blog. (click here to get look there).  

‘The Waste Land’ is a long poem which is written by T.S.Eliot in 20th century. And as well as the famous one of Eliot. The poem has captured the ugly but real image of society on transparent paper. It has 434 lines. It is having the ideas of more than one religions like Christian, Hinduism, Greek etc. one may can not understand it at first sight.

About the poem:

“The Waste Land” is divided into five parts. Let’s see what are those parts!

· The Burial of the Dead.

· A Game of Chess.

· The Fire Sermon.

· Death by Water.

· What the Thunder Said

Now we will see the each images one by one.

The Burial of the Dead

The poem has generally pessimistic voice or the tone. It starts with this image where “April is the cruellest month”, here we can see the poet is having somewhere pessimism in the on going flow. This image has the description of , A woman Marie, madam Sosostris, then the crowd of people over the London bridge which is moving like zombies.

A Game of Chess

This image has the myth of Philomel. which is the Greek idea of myth. At last of this image there is the two women were talking.

The Fire Sermon

This image is important for readers as from here we come to know the specker of the poem who is Tiresias, he is blind prophet and taken from the myth. Another tone of the image is the tension of the dryness of the world.

Death by Water

Here in this image we are introduced a character of Phlebas. And the tone is about the moral values of lives.

What the Thunder Said

This is the last image of poem and the first outcome of it is, there are two men were going and they feel that there is someone as third person and here we can see the reference of Christ. Further, in a sudden the thunder appear said : the three “Da” for accordingly God, Human and Devil. At last it ends with Shantih, Shantih, Shantih.

The central theme of the poem:

The basic theme of The Waste Land is the disillusionment of the post-war generation and sterility of the modern man. The critics have commented on the theme in different words: "vision of desolation and spiritual drought" (F. R. Leavis)

And also we can say “The Sexual Perversion and Spiritual Drought”. Poet might wanted to portray the 20^th century’s flow towards it. Whenever the flow leads towards spiritual drought in automatic way the sexual perversion may come into way of flow. 

1) What are your views on the following image after reading 'The Waste Land'? Do you think that Eliot is regressive as compared to Nietzsche's views? or Has Eliot achieved universality of thought by recalling mytho-historical answer to the contemporary malaise?

Nietsche has an opinion as “Progressive and forward looking” though T.S.Eliot is having an opinion as “Regressive and backward looking”. So, when we look into opinions we can come to know that one is standing for the new values of one’s life and it seems like ‘death of god’, by giving idea of ‘Ubermensch’. Here the idea specks that one should not rely on others, but have the faith in own self. 

Other side the idea talks about the connection of past to present. It insist that one should have backward looking to get the solutions of anything. Like Eliot has taken the references of Upanishad, Buddhism, and Christianity.

2) Prior to the speech, Gustaf Hellström of the Swedish Academy made these remarks:

What are your views regarding these comments? Is it true that giving free vent to the repressed 'primitive instinct' lead us to happy and satisfied life? or do you agree with Eliot's view that 'salvation of man lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition'?

As we know that Freud and Nietsche, both are somehow believing in individualism in a focused way. Freud talks about ‘Primitive Instinct’. He also give a study of psychoanalysis where he mentioned the Id, Ego and Superego theory. He insist the progressiveness and on the other side T.S.Eliot insist the regressive ness. He believes that there is nothing wrong to become regressive because human learn from the past. Paradoxically, Freud says that whatever humans repression, it will come out in a chain of mantle illness. 

3) Write about allusions to the Indian thoughts in 'The Waste Land'. (Where, How and Why are the Indian thoughts referred?)

In the poem, poet has used the Indian thoughts at various place. In the image of 'The Fire Sermon' and 'What the Thunder Said'. Let's have a look for it in detail.

“Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves

Waited for rain, while the black clouds

Gathered far distant, over Himavant.

The jungle crouched, humped in silence.

Then spoke the thunder

DA

Datta: what have we given?

My friend, blood shaking my heart

The awful daring of a moment’s surrender

Which an age of prudence can never retract

By this, and this only, we have existed

Which is not to be found in our obituaries

Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider

Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor

In our empty rooms

DA

Dayadhvam: I have heard the key

Turn in the door once and turn once only

We think of the key, each in his prison

Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison

Only at nightfall, aethereal rumours

Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus

DA

Damyata: The boat responded

Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar

The sea was calm, your heart would have responded

Gaily, when invited, beating obedient

To controlling hands

I sat upon the shore

Fishing, with the arid plain behind me

Shall I at least set my lands in order?

London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down

Poi s’ascose nel foco che gli affina

Quando fiam uti chelidon — O swallow swallow

Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la tour abolie

These fragments I have shored against my ruins

Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe.

Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.

Shantih shantih shantih”

The Waste Land appeared in 1922. The poem, which won Eliot the Nobel Prize in 1948, follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King combined with vignettes of contemporary British society. He employs literary and cultural allusions from the western canon, Buddhism and the Hindu Upanishads. The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location, time and conjuring a vast range of cultures and literatures.

4) Is it possible to read 'The Waste Land' as a Pandemic Poem?

The epic of the modernism ‘The Waste Land’. When it came out there was a time of Spanish flu, between the time of WW1 and WW2. Even when we want to look at this kind of sight we should know the author’s biography surely. During that time people were writing the letters and by those letters we can find their physical and mental states. 

By the letters of Eliot we can find that Eliot and his wife caught the virus in Dec 1918 in the second wave of the pandemic. Also many members of family died in the influenza of the pandemic. Now we can say that it was too much effect to Eliot’s state of mind and mantle condition while writing this “long epidemic of domestic influenza”. He had not good relationship with his wife because sort of personal sexual interrupting and wife’s relations with other men even. we can see by his own letters. It influenced Eliot’s mind even he was suffered from physical problem. “I have simply had a sort of collapse; I slept almost continuously for two days….I feel very weak and exhausted.” In Letter to Henry from Eliot. This statement is showing his health condition very clearly. “A new form of influenza… which leaves extreme dryness and a bitter taste in the mouth” …“hot rainless sprint” – Loddon Letter in The Dial (july1921). There were symptoms of the flu like people were becoming tasteless and frightened, fever in the body. He suffered from nervous breakdown in 1921. We can find this kind of imaginaries in the poem. Critics have studied this poem by many various aspects or the dimensions but one of them ‘Viral Context’ they did not seen. In the whole poem we can not find the direct reference of war and pandemic as well as. Might, the reason can be that whenever writer write or they paint the words, there is must ongoing journey of unconscious thought process. By the driving flow of all the aspects they write, which are unconscious or subconscious. Many critics are dealing with the idea of the war fragments though we may say that, in the part of the poem Eliot has portrayed the same thing by post-pandemic consciousness, according to Elizabeth Outka.

We can observe influenza of The Waste Land by vivid terms. To prove the roots of pandemic in the poem. ‘A delirium logic’, when we see the poem we can find that there are many images in that collage and those are not to connected easily to each other. We have to connect to get sense of the whole idea of the poem. As well as there are many speckers who have mentioned something in weird tones. By this term we can understand that if we have fever then in our dream there is total frightened way or the disturbed flow of images. 

‘The miasmic residue of the pandemic experience’, in the beginning lines we can find the this kind of negative atmosphere like all the bodies are suffering from the acute illnesses. ‘Feverish hallucination’ specks about the symptoms of the feverish body. “ Burning burning burning burning O Lord Thou pluckest me out O Lord Thou pluckest burning” these lines may showing the bodily pain of one’s own.

‘Fragmentary language’ by this term, we should look to the original line of the poem in the image of ‘A Game of Chess’. Here he might experienced the isolation on own self as he portrayed the broken language. Then he went towards spiritual crisis by the thirst of water. He uses like ‘If there were water and no rock’ it is symbolically well designed thought of draught of spiritual sense of living. It throws light towards pandemic delirium rather than war. The poem’s form and content both are equally dealing with the spiritual, psychological, physical and mental aspects of poet through pandemic lens.

‘Water and Wind’, by using this term we can say that in the pandemic time everywhere there is virus as we see the line like “Under the brown fog, the wind under the door, what is the wind doing, the wind crosses the brown land, only the wind’s home” “Fear death by water; the drowned Phoenician sailor , death by water”. ‘Tolling of Bells’, this symbolizing the constant deaths of people who lives in the domestic streets and they are dying by the pandemic. It’s not talk about the battle field cause bells tolling was not happening for whose they are died in the battel fields.

In the current pandemic we all are fighting very individually rather than it belongs to the our social decorum though it is more social. Somewhere we are not able to read even very clear glasses with transparency. Even we were not aware about the vocab of pandemic before it happened. 

Furtherly, there is the mentioned of “Death and Bones”. How people were living deadly-enervated living. To get the clear idea of the death we should jump to the image of pervasive death and bones echo images and accounts from the era. Elizabeth Outka referred the painting of A Grim Reaper by Australian artist Alfred Kubin to justify the image of influenza. ‘Viral Resurrection’, in this by influenza not only effect to the people’s body but the landscapes, cities, minds, vegetation world, language etc infected by virus. We can feel in parts of the poem. ‘ Silence, forgetting, after life’, poems talks about war somehow but contently a representation of the silence that surrounded the pandemic. 

As we seen above that, It's difficult way to capture the quality of pandemic in the particular way of writing and more difficult to read any produced text by the using the pandemic lens. 

THANK YOU !

W B Yeats Poems

 William Butler Yeats's Poems

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, writing this blog as thinking activity for the great literary figure William Butler Yeats's poems. The Poems are "The Second Coming" and "On Being Asked for a War Poem". The questions are like,

1) Pandemic Reading of 'The Second Coming'.

2) Reread the poem 'War' poem by replacing the word 'war; with 'pandemic'. Does it make any sense?

3) Critical analysis of any other poem written by W B Yeats.

4) Apply concepts of Indian Poetics and re-read both the poems.

1).Pandemic reading of 'The Second Coming' :

The poem starts like “Turning and turning in the widening gyre/ The falcon cannot hear the falconer”. It seems like there was the gyre of fluish war while 1919 when poem got published. Also it is showing the political violence in Ireland. When we look at his biography then, his wife, George, who was pregnant and caught virus, almost near to death. At that time around seventy percent pregnant women were died. One can see this incident and can say that only at that time Yeats’s wrote this poem. Because it is more hallucinated when one looses loved one, and then he or she writing the emotions and feelings that one may feel by their works.

 If we are able to find the pessimism of pandemic in those texts. Generally, it is hard to see. “blood-dimmed tide”, Here we can imagine that this is the most infected imaginary of the poem to prove the pandemic reading. Just floods of blood, in the flu was bleeding from the nose, mouth, ears. Such a horrible visionary one can get by this line. “Ceremony of innocence being drowned”, when it’s his wife and unborn baby who were in the process of drowning like that. “ things are falling apart; the centre cannot hold” talks about the situation of emergency in the time of pandemic or the flu. 

If we want to make another reading of the poem we can do through the apocalypse vision. It leads towards the ‘ultimate destruction’ as main theme in the poem. In both the works one cannot find easily the tone of the pandemics. In The Waste Land, there are so many images portrayed by Thomas Stearns Eliot which can be studied by another perspectives rather than the pandemic one. Like myths, allusions, real images, religion centric elements. Though it could happen in the way we have seen. In The Second Coming , which is written by William Butler Yeats. There is also we could find the light of pandemic which has thrown by the poet’s own mind. So these are the symbols of the pandemic to look into both the poems through pandemic lens.

2) Reread the poem 'War' poem by replacing the word 'war; with 'pandemic'. Does it make any sense?

Yes, If we look at any war poem and try to read that poem by replacing 'war' with 'pandemic'. 

We can see the war poems communicating the shattered minds and bodies of his fellow patients and portrays the agony and torture that soldiers take with them after the war. Wars always have agony and also pandemic cannot get existence without agony. If we talk about torture, there we can go to the politic view about it that whenever pandemic happens the situation is similar to war for politicians.

3) Critical analysis of any other poem written by W B Yeats.

Here we will see the poem 'Death' by William Butler Yeats and it's critical analysis.

Nor dread nor hope attend

A dying animal;

A man awaits his end

Dreading and hoping all;

Many times he died,

Many times rose again,

A great man in his pride

Confronting murderous men

Casts derision upon

Supersession of breath;

He knows death to the bone –

Man has created death.

This poem is not that most famous poem of Yeats’s. it is shortest poem of his all poems. ‘Death’ was written in 1929 and included in Yeats’s 1933 volume The Winding Stair and Other Poems. Here is ‘death’, followed by a few words by way of analysis.

Yeats examine the human attitude to death. And also compare the human awareness of death and animal’s awareness of death. That humans are aware that they will die one day and animals are having lack of awareness that they will die one day too. Poet is saying that animals don’t have fear of death and also not having the hope of after life. These things humans are always having.

The lines , “Many times he died, Many times rose again”. By this lines might poet wants to say that, In human life so many times we died when we fail to live, when we feel dead, when we feel useless and so many other ways, But we always get another chance to move on or get good lives.  

Further, the poet jump to “A Great Man”. Where he tried to talk about the idea that when we breathe our last breath on this earth, do we replace any kind of existence with another? What happens to us when we die?  Yeats also said that death is the man maid concept “ Man has created death”- here he is saying that animals also die like men are dying. But animal’s lives are not having these questions that what happens when it shuffles off this mortal coil, what may await after the last breath.  

4) Apply concepts of Indian Poetics and re-read both the poems.

Let’s have a look upon both the poems with the concepts of Indian Poetics. In the ‘ The Second Coming’ poem first in this study.  “The Second Coming” of the God is the idea that all the religions are believing in this idea of second coming and it is the Theory of Vakrokti. Also here we can find ‘Vyanjana’ when poet says that “Falconer is not able to control falcon”- the falcon is kind of bird, this is direct meaning that bird is not being controlled. But we should go with other meaning that the situation is not in the control. If we go with Rasa theory then we can find ‘ Karunya’ ( compassion, mercy), ‘Bibhatasam’(disgust), ‘Bhayanakam’( horror, terror). The poem has ‘Auchitya’ in a proper way.

When we go with the another poem is “On Being Asked for a War Poem”. We can see the very use of irony in whole poem. The poem has Rasa like ‘Adbhutam’(wonder, amazement).’Auchitya’ is also found in the poem. Poet has used Vakrokti in very intelligent way in all the lines of poem.

THANK YOU ! 

I. A. Richard's Figurative Language

I. A. Richard's Figurative Language

Hello, I'm Emisha Ravani, writing this blog for the thinking activity given by Prof. Dilip Barad. Where we have to do figurative language analysis of any peom/song/devotional song Or like that kind of study. ( you can visit teacher's blog by clicking here).

We as human beings always like to have any thing as audio- visual to feel more anything. In this I have taken this above lyrical video to verbal analysis.

First, we will see the hard words used in this lyric with meanings.

Wadi- ghati

Chinar -the oriental plane tree

Kohra - Fog

Nargis – pila phool

Sard – sardi

Tawazzon – santulan

Shikare – kind of bird

Zeel – zarana

Lutfutana – when we fall for something

Khamosh – maun

 Now we are going to see the main thought of the poem/lyric.

In the whole poem poet is admiring the nature by the words of high recommendation. There is Urdu and Hindi both languages. Poet starts with the tree’s reference that how the valley is welcoming the trees of chinar. By addressing it ‘laal’. When “wadi me chinar ka laal utar aya hain”- the first line of it.

The second line “Phoolo par titliyaan bethne lagi hain , Kohre se bhari sabha mein” , it says that nature is welcoming the spring season.

The third “Nargis ki Khushboo tahalane lagi hain” the significance of flower of nargis ,This white petalled beauty is also considered a symbol of good health and prosperity and hence delivers a mandatory appearance at Kashmiri weddings as well as celebrations of the New Year. Might, poet is calling for the season of love.

“Jab raatein sard hoti hai to ye Khushboo tawazoon banaye rakhti hai wadi ka” – here poet is saying that in the winter night this fragrance is helping to maintain the balance in the valley.

Furtherly, “ Ye zeel jis par shikare terte hai, Kuch din me baraf ho jayengi, aayna ban jayegi, Jannat ke rung, iss zeel mein chamkenge! Ye char din ki Jannat hongi”-here poet is portraying when water will freeze it will not leave it’s quality of transparency. When it convert itself into ice it looks like mirror and there will be reflected the colors of heaven will shines. And it is for sometimes.

“Musaphir lutfutayenge laut jayenge”- Visitors come and be lunatic here and also get back after enjoy it thoroughly.

“Ek Jannat aur hai, magar Khamosh”  the lines are saying that after this heaven poet find another heaven as “silence”.  

 Scientific Reading / Misunderstanding :

When we look at this poetry we will find that in the very first line of it we can find that tress never moves like humans and it is not possible that trees can walk like humans so it is problematic here. “kohre se bhari sabha me” again we find that ‘sabha’ is useable for kind of mitting in Hindi language. Here it will not possible that the mitting of fog. Further it is talking that water will freeze and it will become a mirror so it can not be mirror but the poet wants to metaphor water’s transparency as mirror.  

Poetic Expression :

The poetry is itself “juniper”. Our hearts always carving for nature to praise, to appreciate, to love, to feel, to live. The first expression of mine is, I fell for the words and the style the post has used to appreciate the nature elements. In the last stanza poet says that visitors come and fall for it. And also it is making me wonder by the last words that “Ek Jannat Aur Hai, Magar Khamosh”. The poet has put the open end for the readers or the people to imagine or to set.

Another interpretation is, May it is talking about the beauty of women. And perhaps poet has admire the beauty of women by using the natural elements. Because they both are equally in a beautiful way in our literature.

Literary Analysis:

1)     Rasa theory :

This theory talks about the “ A particular state of mind gives rise to an aesthetic relish which emerges from the combination of various emotional factors. In this poetry I can find rasa like ‘shringara’( love/beauty), ‘Adbutha’( surprise/ wonder), ‘shantha’(peace or tranquility). 

1)     Dhavni theory :

Dhavni theory is a theory of meaning and symbolism which leads to the poetry of suggestion being accepted as the highest kind of poetry. There are three powers of words or three aspects of Dhavni . Abhidha , Lakshna , Vyanjana. Abhidha provides conventional meaning or the literal meaning of the expression. Lakshana is the indication power. It consists in the external characteristics of the expression which are indicative of something deeper. Vyanjana is third power which means what is suggestive. In this poetry as we have seen the second interpretation may it is about women beauty so we can say that poet has used the ‘Dhavni Theory’.

  Vakrokti theory :

Something which is able to give some individual meaning to each one. The meaning which is not direct but indirect. Alacrity is based on vakrokti. This theory seems in this poem at last when poet indicates the heavens.

2)     Alankara theory :

Language is itself a Alankara. An alankara is any pattern of musical decoration a musician or vocalist creates within or across tones, based on ancient musical theories or driven by personal creative choices, in a progression of svaras. Arthalankara and Shabdalankara , these two are major parts of it. When we see this poetry we can at many places poet has used alankara. Like, “Jannat ke rung”, “Chinar ka laal”, Kohre se bhari sabha”.

3)     Riti theory :

Every poet write in their own style. Either they create their own style of writing or they write in the imitation of style. In this poem we can his own style here.

4)     Auchitya theory :

If the work is written in a proper format, structure wise , beauty wise , use of figurative , flow of emotions , each and everything should be proper in this order. We can find here the flow the emotions of poet. 

So, We can see this piece of literature has many aspectes of it. and we could find it easily here.

THANK YOU!

War Poetry

War Poetry

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, Writing this blog as the response to the teacher's blog as thinking activity (Bridge Course). Here i will discuss the answers which asked by teacher. 

1. What is your understanding of War Poetry? 

Poetry that deals with the subject of war. Often composed during a particular conflict, these poems are usually written by soldiers.War poetry is exclusively realistic, showing warfare in an unglamorous and unromantic light.  

War poetry got existence as literary genre during world war 1. Almost was poetries were anti romantic. Which seems against romantic poetry. War poets were known as also Trench poets. These poets wrote war poetries which they have experienced in the war. Though it is not like that only soldiers were writing this kind of poetries also civilians were writing war poetries.

Now, we should know that for what purpose they write war poetries! So, one reason we can say that when soldiers go to the wars they need the way of expressing their emotions. And poetry was the good way to express. By writing they want to show the horror of the war and as well as the dark side of the war.

Features of war poetry :

It is a kind of modern poetry. Naturalistic and painfully realistic, with shocking images and language, intending to show what the war really like, the war poetry showed the mud, the trenches, death, and sometimes even compassion for soldiers.

A war poet is a poet who participate in a war and writes about their experiences, or a non- combatant who writes poems about war. The reason that the soldiers in Worlds Wars wrote poetry is because they used it as an outlet for their feelings, they wanted to say what was happening in the trenches when others could not, and it was a pass-time for them during their downtime in the trenches.Let's see various figures of war poems,

Wilfred Owen

Siegfried Sassoon

Kingsley Amis

Christine Brooke-Rose

John McCrae

Rupert Brooke

Jack Beaching

Sidney Keyes

Themes of War Poems

·       The loss of innocence

·       Brotherhood and friendship

·       The horrors of war

·       Disillusionment with religion

·       Nature

·       Irrationality of war

·       Emotions and feelings

 2.Note down the difference of all the War Poets.

Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brook, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Siegfried Sassoon, Ivor Gurney.  

These are the five poets to compare here. Let’s move towards them one by one.

Wilfred Owen : Owen is known for his wrenching description of suffering in war. In this poem he illustrates the brutal everyday struggle of a company of soldiers.

Rupert Brook : A deep patriotic and idealistic soldier’s love for his homeland

Wilfred Wilson Gibson : Sense of honesty and compassion

Siegfried Sassoon : Disillusionment with the war

Ivor Gurney : Style of monologue

As above we can see that what is their specialities into writing poems. They were using their own ways to write. So we can say that by that view of style they are different to each other.

3.Compare any two poems with reference to the subject, style of writing and patriotism.

The Soldier - RUPERT BROOKE

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;

A body of England’s, breathing English air,

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

This is the poem written during WW1. Deeply patriotic and idealistic poem which deals with expression of a soldier’s love for his homeland, in this poem England perhaps. The soldier feels that his country to be both the origin of his existence and the place to which his consciousness will return when he dies. We can feel here the particular type of patriotism. The Theme are here like war, patriotism and nationhood.

The Fear – Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

I do not fear to die

'Neath the open sky,

To meet death in the fight

Face to face, upright.

But when at last we creep

Into a hole to sleep,

I tremble, cold with dread,

Lest I wake up dead.

The poet Wilfred Wilson Gibson wrote this poem in the his collection ‘Battle’ , which centres upon the experience of WW1. He wrote with adoption of voice of both soldiers and civilians. The poem explores themes like guilt, madness, injury, death, and sense of identity. The poems contains brash patriotism.

 Here , we can compare both the poems by the structure, style and also adoption of emotions that how one is portraying the own emotions and another is portraying the two kind of emotions. Other thing is that one is optimistic point of view and another is pessimistic point of view.   

4.Do you find any such regional poem/movies/web series/songs which can be compared to any one of the poems given here. Also, give a proper explanation of the similarity.

The Target- Ivor Gurney

I shot him, and it had to be

One of us 'Twas him or me.

'Couln't be helped' and none can blame

Me, for you would do the same

My mother, she cant sleep for fear

Of what might be a-happening here

To me. Perhaps it might be best

To die, and set her fears at rest

For worst is worst, and worry's done.

Perhaps he was the only son. . .

Yet God keeps still, and does not say

A word of guidance anyway.

Well, if they get me, first I'll find

That boy, and tell him all my mind,

And see who felt the bullet worst,

And ask his pardon,if I durst.

All's a tangle. Here's my job.

A man might rave, or shout, or sob;

And God He takes takes no sort of heed.This is a bloody mess indeed.

I can find these both are similar in the style of narration of ‘Monologue’. In the soldier is saying the emotions of killed another man and his thoughts on it. This poem shows us the effect of the war on the ordinary man , also in this song soldier is saying to ordinary people (family members), to not cry on his death. He urge to remember him as a optimistic breeze of air. He shows his patriotism by the words like if I will not come back next year so do not cry for me, believe that I have died for the our homeland.    

Thank you!