LIFE AND POETRY

Life and poetry aemule each other: they are different forms of the same
process w ith sensib ilities functioning as the umb ilical chord b etw een them. T he
realities of life intenerate to incony imag eries and pleasing ex pressions w hen
pass throug h the creativ e b eing of a poet and spaw n a new w orld of delig htful
ex perience. I n this sense, poetry is life: poetry is poetic ex perience of the life, and
poetry is the spirit of life in its transcendent form. I t reflects life not only in form,
b ut also in spirit and soul. A g ood poetry soars w ith lurk ing nuances of sug g estiv e
meaning s b eneath the outer form, opens up new w orlds of meaning ev ery time it
is read. O nly a sensitiv e, imag inativ e and resourceful mind can fully comprehend
all the finer aspects of poetry. A g reat reader, in this sense, mak es poetry, g reat.
P oetry sans a g ood reader is as dumb as a w ild flow er. T his is w hy poetry needs
g ood readership.

T he g reat poet R ob ert F rost w hile talk ing ab out poetry said that poetry ‘ tak es
life b y the throat’ . P oetry is the art of capturing life in w ords. I t is not j ust the k en of life,
b ut also a direct realiz ation of the life. I t is an ex ercise of sub conscious, concinnous
interpretations of the life that intensely surface throug h the conscious aw areness.
E rg o, readers must ex perience poems throug h sub conscious ex ercises to capture the
intensity of the life, w arming up in poetry. N o conscious nisus and analyses can lead
one any-w here in fully realiz ing the inner arcane treasure of b eauty and meaning s
hidden in the poetry. N or any other person can do the w ork for a reader of poetry.
A ppreciation of poetry inv olv es the reader tuning his sub conscious perceptions to
receiv e the poet’ s sub conscious sig nals throug h the juste-m i l i eu of the poetry. A poet
can transmit his ex perience of shock of pleasure or g rief directly to his reader sans its
conscious aw areness in b oth. T he incantation is cast throug h the selection and
articulation of w ords, not only in their w ord meaning s, b ut also in the synerg y of w ord
rhythms, w ord music, w ord pictures, w ord forms and ob liq ue w ord hues and shades in
the poetry. N o conscious efforts can do the mag ic either in w riting poetry or in
appreciating it to the lev el of a w ell-trained sub conscious ex ercise in the unk now n
horiz ons of the mind. A ll conscious ex ercises of poetic criticism are for this reason,
b adly limited.

T houg h poetry is ab out w hat affected the poet most intensely, it is possib le
that he may not alg ate b e consciously aw are of all meaning s and their ob liq ue
hues in his poem althoug h his sub conscious mind ex ercised on all aspects of the
poetry in its parts and in its entirety. T he poet, T . S . E liot w as once ask ed b y a
student to ex plain the meaning of one of his poems. T he g reat poet responded to
the student b y reading the poem and said no more. T he same student made the
req uest encore to w hich T . S . E liot read the poem encore and fell silent, ipso facto
deliv ering the v ital messag e of a true poetry that poetry cannot b e restated in a
form other than m o r e suo w ithout poetic distortions.

T he r a i so n d ’ etr e of poetry is the pleasure of the shock s of discov ery ab out

the life. I t is the fraicheur of thoug hts in poetry that endears it to its readers; it is
the intensity, the undiv ided attention w ith w hich the poet ex periences the d eja v u
that w arms up the poetry to its readers; it is the concentration of thoug ht and
feeling s w hich b rood to b eauty and rich shades of meaning in poetry. T he art of
w riting poetry is the process of g radual release of the shock s of coalesced
thoug ht and feeling s in relax ed contemplativ e leisure of a reflectiv e mood. T hose
w ho attempt the release throug h the carefully chosen lang uag e are poets and
their ex pressions, poetry. T he dev elopment of poetic impulses helps such
releases to b e streamlined to carefully chosen lang uag e as an assuetude to
prev ent w astes b y dissipation. T he true pleasure of reading poetry is in hav ing
an arcane peek to the sub tle unk now n horiz ons of the poet’ s mind, thoug ht and
personality.