Page 119

These four bounded definitions are located in a valued progression which is rigorously maintained in each of its three major elements. The lines are stark in their simplicity, economic to the point of being laconic, yet never cryptic or convoluted. The density of the poet's thought does not affect the perspicuity of his argument or the correctness and classical balance of his presentation. Each colon is uniquely detachable from the whole and could subsist independently as a maxim or pens&, in the manner of Blake's "Proverbs of Hell."" To a degree, the completeness of this form of expression is so satisfying that it can even anticipate comprehension. The closure of each aphorism fulfils the pattern of expectations which the poet has created through his paratactic structure, while at the same time opening outwards towards the possibility of another member in the series. This cumulative effect gives the final phrase of the poem, "the dance of life," maximum impact. It represents the highest peak of man's artistic and spiritual evolution and, retrospectively, confirms the location of each of the previous steps in a single universe of being.

A somewhat different approach to doubt and faith is exhibited in the poem "An Old Disease," in which Sri Chinmoy personnifies negative and positive spiritual qualities using the dramatic scenario of a sick patient:

AN OLD DISEASE

Doubt is an old disease.
Faith is an old medicine.
Compassion is an old doctor.
Concern is an old nurse .[22]

The affliction, the cure, the administrator and the aide are witty substitutes for doubt and its opposing virtues. Each successive aphorism prolongs the poet's ironic appraisal I of the situation and firmly implants in our minds the image of doubt as an unnatural and unhealthy condition in which to dwell but one that can be easily transformed through the agency of faith, compassion and concern. The metaphors themselves are not wholly original. Indeed, the poet's insistence on the word "old" alerts us to the time-worn nature of this realisation. Nonetheless, the "disease" persists, the poet asserts, and man must resort to ancient cures if he sincerely wishes to overcome it.