Poet & Poetry

A poet’s command of languages, treasure of vocabulary, beauty of expression, and flight of imagination are better known by his/her longer poems. The same is true of all the great poets in any nation, and in any country of the world.

For example, Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained”, Wordsworths “Intimations of Immortality from early Childhood”, Shelley’s “Ode to Skylark” and “Ode to the West Wind”, Homers “lliad” and “Odyssey”, Mathew Arnolds “Rustam and Sohrab”, Firdausi’s “Shah Namah”, Rumi’s “Mathnavi Ma’navi” etc. distinctly and outstandingly corroborate this statement.

Similarly, generally in the whole subcontinent, and especially in our country Pakistan, Iqbal is the only distinguished poet, who has all the good qualities of language and meaning in his “Longer poems”, and has done full justice to the Caption that he has fixed for each poem. As a matter of fact, his longer poems are much more emphatic, pathetic, and instructive than his shorter poems.

Obviously, one cannot reach the actual meanings of the verses and the state of mind when a poet writes down his/her feelings in the form of poetry, but an attempt can be made to reach the “nearest meanings” of his/her poetry. I do believe that poetry is not for translation but is for a reader’s own depth of perception to catch the points which a poet has written and tried to convey these to the others….!

Longer poems are just like longer essays or theses in which a poet selects a “Style” to express what is on the conscious level and what is in his/her subconscious store.

A poets words are not merely a display of his/her vocabulary, but actually, a reflection of his/her sensitivity, his/her attitude towards inside and outside world, an aptitude upon which is based the practicality and the ways to solve the physical and metaphysical problems of his/her surrounding world.

In contrast to this common notion that the poets are “non-practical” and live in their own constructed imaginary environment, we can easily see the “Practical”, “Practicable” and “Pragmatic” solutions out of their “Approach towards Life”. If we cogitate over the history of the nations, we can easily find that a single poet changed the individual as well as collective philosophy of a nation. I can safely give the example of a poet Iqbal, who gave the idea of the formation of a nation and stimulated the leaders to strive for the achievement of this goal.

I can conclude that not only a poet draws a sketch of life but also fills it with attractive and charming colors.