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In numerous ways the poem folds back on itself and develops finer gradations of meaning. The constant friction of contraries all/none/everyone; eve rything/no thing-gives the poem a dynamic, tensile quality The term "dialectic of purification," coined by Louis MacNeice, is an extraordinarily apt term for these procedural lines. Between the absence and presence of knowledge, between particular love and general love, self-love and Divine love, the essence of the poet's thought moves nimbly and intently. By holding his emotional powers in reserve, the poet infuses his verse with considerable dramatic stress.
At times this tactic of restraint is deployed by Sri Chinmoy to conceal a highly ambiguous tone. in the following poem, for example, his "dialectic of purification" is the powerful expression of an ironic and uncompromising vision:
ANCIENT AND MODERN SPLENDOURS
Three are the splendours
Of the ancient world:
Faith-moon,
Concern-sky,
Sacrifice-sun.
Three are the splendours
Of the modern world:
Indifference-house,
Doubt-walls,
Suspicion-gate.
(p.87)
Here the poet plays upon the notion of the seven wonders of the ancient world in order to create a biting comment on the modern loss of faith. Using natural emblems of constancy, vastness and brilliance-the moon, the sky and the sun-the poet is able rapidly to portray a kind of spirituality which is both natural and expansive. In the light of these emblems, we are compelled to read the "splendours" of the second stanza as a severe criticism of the narrowness and finitude of the modern, sophisticated mind, withdrawn behind its barricades of indifference, doubt and suspicion.
Related Poems
