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Page 41


The double nature of the experience represented in this poem has been condensed into a few, carefully selected stenographic strokes. Not experience, but the essence of experience has been dramatised by the poet in his highly patterned and distinctive style. Where aphorism becomes definitive, it may be noted that the poet tends to an even greater compression of statement:


REALITIES

Visiting and dreaming
Are the realities of the hope-world.

Crying and obtaining
Are the realities of the prayer-world.

Silencing and becoming
Are the realities of the meditation-world.[54]


This kind of reductive movement in the poetry places considerable weight on the compound noun to carry the poet's meaning. A remark made about Emily Dickinson's style by her sister-in-law might well apply to the radical economy of these forms:


Quick as the electric spark in her intuitions and analyses, she seized the kernel instantly, almost impatient of the fewest words, by which she must make her revelation.[55]


The tautness of the parallel structure, the tendency toward the fusion of spiritually complex ideas into compound nouns and the dramatisation of experience by analogy all enable Sri Chinmoy to freely explore many of the creative possibilities of the English language, refining and perfecting new and unfamiliar modes of expression, so that their air of strangeness is gradually replaced by a stable elegance and authenticity. It is perhaps too soon to assess the impact of these forms on modern literature, but we can only applaud the work of a poet who, with a profound sense of the eternal nature of man's quest, is able to express himself in ever-new ways, to speak according to the echoes which things arouse in his soul.

 

 

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