“THINGS FALL APART..” -CAN POETRY HOLD IT TOGETHER?

 

 

The other day I attended the book release of one of my old teachers. He is eighty years old and the book contained a collection of poems which were written in the last ten years! Though he was one of the best teachers I have come across, I never knew he wrote poems. Looking back, during college days what attracted me to him was his brilliance as a teacher. Today I realized that I was so enamored by his brilliance that I failed to recognize many other facets of his personality.

In his speech he said that these poems were his way of expressing his concern, pain and angst about the countless atrocities happening all around us. Many of his poems boldly address few topics like- are we, the human beings, slowly turning into beasts? Are we losing our hold on many things? Are we, in our unquenchable urge to amass power, destroying nature and also our fellow beings who are weaker? He further asked whether art in general and poems in particular help in alleviating the situation. Will words be the panacea for many vices ailing the world was his major concern.

I don't remember him having discussed such topics in class. Nevertheless, his question haunted me for many days. Can art change the outlook and belief of the people completely? I doubt. There is no doubt that art, in its various forms can influence our thinking. It can stir us, prompt us to probe further, help us to form our opinions, shake us from our slumber or at the least push us out from our comfort zone.

This thought took me to those old college days when lines from many fabulous poems had a lasting impression on me. Some of those lines looked extremely relevant in recent times as they emerged with larger meaning. These are lines which most of us might have come across in our life. Still, I will quote them just to prove how they fit into the present times. Of course, great poems are those which withstand the test of time.

 

The first lines which came to my mind are from " The Second Coming”, the powerful poem by W.B.Yeats. It seems, years ago he could foresee the present when he wrote:

"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity".

Today, can anyone describe the world around in better words? Everything is getting disintegrated as we can't hold each other together. The invisible thread of compassion, which was holding us together, has snapped. Millions of innocent lives are drowned in blood, while the hatred, violence and conceit are gaining intensity day by day.

We human beings are known for their resilience. Even while treading through the most desperate times, we, with amazing ease used to gather positive energy from somewhere. That always helped us in keeping the balance. That light, though bleak, at the end of the tunnel always made us march forward. The optimist in us always won the battle. However, it seems that hope is slowly, but surely diminishing. Deep within we are losing our faith. We fear things may not be same forever. This angst of ours were beautiful captured by Mathew Arnold when he wrote those inimitable lines:

" Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! For the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, not light,

Not certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as in a darling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night".

( Dover Beach)

We may all be feeling that we are not a part of the atrocities and anguish loosed upon the world. We may feel that it is the hand work of few powerful people. As the poet said, we are ignorant of the fact that, unknowingly we all are the part of those armies which are clashing by night. It is our silence, ignorance and innocence which is encouraging the dark powers to unleash such terror on us.

What is prompting them to do that? Nothing but the unquenchable thirst for power. Those who claim to be the leaders of the world are no more concerned about the wellbeing of the poor and down trodden. They grab power just to trample the hapless by elevating themselves on those golden thrones and to remain there are pushing the whole human kind to unending misery by engaging into unending wars. They are out there to create a history of their own. They hope to inscribe their heroic deeds in golden letters, which they believe, will be eternally treasured. I wish such leaders read the shocking yet prophetic lines of P.B. Shelley:

"..Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in desert. Near them on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamp'd in those lifeless things,

The hand that mock'd them and the heartd that fed;

And on the pedestal these words appear:

' My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

Look on my work, ye mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away".

( Ozymandias of Egypt)

 

The poet, in few lines, make us aware how short-lived our fame is, how momentary our powers can be. Those who claim to be the ' Leader of the whole world' will be eventually reduced to those " trunkless stones" in the vast ruins of the desert.

Coming back to the point, I still don't know whether words can heal our wounds. Poems may not stop wars. Art may not turn us into monks. Still, a few powerful lines can remind us of the benevolence and compassion we are supposed to carry in our hearts. It will make us aware how transient life is. It will help us to use our faculty of reasoning and may urge us to use it wisely. It will gently whisper in our ears that, life is not always about power, position and privileges. It may hold a mirror at the truth. It softly touches your inner heart and beg you to remain a human being always.

Words or poems may not be the solution for everything. However, that can't be ignored completely. Art, undoubtedly, is a major factor which defines the values and culture of a nation.

So let us encourage artists to express their feelings fearlessly. Let us appreciate their efforts by spending some part of our valuable time for them.

 

#POETRY # W.B.YEATS, # MATHEW ARNOLD # P.B.SHELLEY,# SECOND COMING # DOVER BEACH # OZYMANDIAS OF EGYPTH # ART AND POEM # WAR # WORLD LEADERS #BOOKS # PURPOSE OF ART# PURPOSE OF LITERATURE.