The Longer Poems of O. P. Bhatnagar

 

BIJAY KUMAR DAS

 

            Short poems are the order of the day. Most of the Indo-­English poets write short poems. Of course, there are long poems by R. Parthasarathy, Nissim Ezekiel, Jayanta Mahapatra, A. K. Ramanujan, K. N. Daruwalla and Arun Kolatkar. O. P. Bhatnagar, though writes both short and long poems, excels in his long poems. Since social concern seems to be his major theme, longer poems are his forte. The purpose of this paper is to analyse his longer poems and find out how far they are successful in embodying Bhatnagar’s poetic vision.

 

            Bhatnagar has four collections of titles till date. They are, Thought Poems (1976), Feeling Fossils (1977), Angles of Retreat, and Oneiric Visions (1980). The maiden volume has no long poem. Perhaps, the muse was young. Feeling Fossils has only two long poems: “Scaling Heights,” and “A Poem for the Pantheists.” His third volume, Angels of Retreat, contains a number of long poems and they are also his successful and mature poems such as “Death by Law,” “Pyramids,” “Adam and Eve”, “Trees in Autumn” “Morning Thoughts from Night,” “The way to see a thing”, “Memory Frescoes”, “Of art, fact and artifact”, “Look Homeward Angel,” “History is a sorry-go-­round” and “Beggars can be choosers”. His fourth volume, Oneiric Visions, contains long poems – such as “The Last Supper”, “If one starts asking questions like Hamlet”, “Who is afraid of fear?” and “The God Game.”

 

            “Scaling Heights” commemorates the tragic death of Nanda Devi, the daughter of Dr. Willi Unsoeld, a devoted American mountaineer, on an expedition to the peak of Nanda Devi in the Himalayas. This poem brings to our mind Wordsworth’s famous Lucy Poems. Wordsworth mourns the death of an imagi­nary girl called Lucy, who “grew three years in son and shower.” Bhatnagar mourns the death of young daring woman who “grew twenty-two years in grace and snow.”

 

            Her death occurred while scaling the heights of Nanda Devi. This is no defeat but conquest in a deeper sense, as Bhatnagar rightly suggests in the following lines:

 

            In the twilight mood of liquid clarity

            one can still see her scaling heights

            on the path which has no turning

            And from where

            There is no turning back.

 

            After mourning the death of Nanda Devi, Bhatnagar ex­presses a deep sense of sorrow for the loss of lives and property by the devastating cyclone in Andhra Pradesh, India. The poem begins in the manner of Coleridge’s “Ancient Mariner”, and narrates the tragic destruction caused by water. The poem begins with these lines:

 

            Water, water, everywhere

            with all the water to drown.

 

            The fury of Nature has caused wholesale destruction, unheard of in recent years. Paddy fields, cocoanut trees and houses have been destroyed “beyond resurrection.” Even the dead bodies lie untouched for days together. Bhatnagar ironically says:

 

            As the corpses lie untouched

            Even by kindly dogs and vultures,

            That have met their watery graves

            Or flung far off by cyclonic waves.

 

            The tragedy brought out by this cyclone has shaken the faith of man in God. The poet cynically tells us:

 

            The receding water in places reveal

            Domes of temples and spires of churches

            People with annointed-gods

            Fed on centuries of human warmth

            But, oh! not a kind God to see

            What God has made of man!

 

            Such kinds of poems are rare in Indo-English poetry. But O. P. Bhatnagar uses the theme successfully to evoke a sense of sympathy in the readers. Bhatnagar’s poetic talent blossomed with Angels of Retreat and “Words obey his call.” The savage cruel law like hanging unto death, shocks the poet and he bitterly criticises it in his poem “Death by Law.” The ela­borate preparation needed for hanging is uncalled for. Gallows, executioners and ropes are necessary for such a death. That prompts the poet to ask “wouldn’t be easy done / by shooting him with a gun?” and ironically tells us:

 

            Law is not a murderer

            It has its own way of putting people to death.­

 

and concludes in the report of newspaper, “Gallows gallop to Goa: Death by law revived.”

 

            “Pyramids” depicts human greed. Bhatnagar satirizes our lust for gold. The poem begins ironically:

 

            Stoned in our lust for gold

            We all are pyramids.

 

Human vision has been blinded by greed and they have become “pyramids” and they fail “to see things visible/like an owe’s unseeing eye/in the daylight’s tangible.” The images like “yellow fever”, “owe’s unseeing eye” are suggestive of fatal disease and blindness and highly evocative – hence appropriate.

 

            “Adam and Eve” is one of the memorable poems of Bhatnagar, where the urge of sex and its consummation have been symboli­cally presented. Our first parent (according to Christianity), Adam, self-imposed his fall for the sake of his woman, Eve. And since then, we all (men) have been following his footprints, in our lust after woman. The poet on a trip to Calcutta, saw in Eden Garden (which is unlike Garden of Eden, a place for sensual mischief) “a young girl/being chased by a bull.” After lifting her in his arms, the poet found a large crowd looking at him and someone asked him,

 

            “ ... if I didn’t feel

            Even surreptitiously moved

            Carrying that tempting fruit

            To take a greedy bite.”

 

            The figure of speech used here is transferred epithet. A snake hissing “out of its hole” symbolically means the sex organ ready for a sex-union. The desire for a sex-union is eternal and it is a burden which all grown up human beings carry and perhaps that is the mystery of life. Boldly the poet discloses how he had “unloaded in a far off lane” the “burden” all men carry. This reminds us of S. K. Kumar, when he joins the prostitute, in his poem “To a prostitute.” The first stanza of the poem “Adam and Eve” is used as a refrain to emphasize the eternal lust of man after woman. Hence the first quartain gets repeated in the last stanza.

 

            “Trees in Autumn” is a wonderful poem – where there is a fusion of social custom and religion. The first two stanzas are an allusion to Napoleonic invasion of Russia and its ignominious defeat. The trees without leaves are likened to toe Russian army, which first retreated to frustrate the brutal attack of Napoleon and ultimately won. Similarly the falling of leaves in Autumn, anticipates the new leaves in spring – a new creation. In the third stanza the tree “bereft of leaves” are likened to Rajput maidens who performed “Sati” to escape the “outrage on their modesty” and defeat the vanity of the enemy. Leaves falling from the trees in Autumn is regarded as an act of “self-annihilation.” In the last stanza, the bare trees are likened to a Sanyasi who suddenly gets a spiritual awakening and thereby renounces the “Maya” – illusion of the world, and enters a trance of “blissful Samadhi / undisturbed rest by the ravages of time.” The allusion to Napoleon’s invasion of Russia is an event in history. Rajput maidens performing Sati is an event of Indian society under British rule and a Sanyasi getting glimpse of spiritual vision is a matter of religion,. All these three allusions are successfully infused into the texture of the poem and each has nine lines. The meanings and ideas flow fluently into successive lines. The poem makes an absorbing reading.

 

            In “Look Homeward Angel,” Bhatnagar observes with the curiosity of an artist and the irony of a keenly critical intellect, the implication of the exodus of the intellectuals of his country to foreign lands and makes a fervent plea to them to return home. The poet maintains an objective view and does not grudge his friends working in various fields in different countries like England, Mozambique, America and Australia. But he cries halt, when they perform “cultural strip-tease” or “waltzing national pride.” He also comes heavily on those who glorify “our sons, / settled abroad with mercy relaxation.” Intellectuals living abroad betray their country, which “once brought them up / splitting water with sun­rays.” Bhatnagar compares them with migrating birds, to dismiss the intellectuals as selfish who fail “to look beyond glamour and gold.” The migrating birds that are “forced out of home / at the turn of every season / return to their land / traversing incredible distance.” But our “Heroes” (as he ironically calls them) are unlike Ulysses who “brought his ships back home” and instead “make no myths.” The conversational tone and free verse and flowing lines make the reading of the poem interesting and enjoyable. This is a great poem, by any standard.

 

            “Beggars can be choosers” is a satire on our social order and ills of modern times. Begging is a profession and its root lies deep. Bhatnagar joins a camp to reform the beggars and is greatly disillusioned. Beggars although feel sorry for their home­lessness, they have no regrets as far as their profession, begging, is concerned. Even when they are cared for and all the essential things like food, clothing and shelter are provided, they go to beg, as if begging has become their other self.

 

When interviewed, a beggar said:

 

            We are the sons of elements

            We don’t fight for our food

            We are no shallow careerists.

            Daredevil smugglers, cruel adulterators

            Or cheating blackmarketeers of today.

 

            This is to suggest that “careerists,” “smugglers,” “adulterators” and “blackmarketeers” are more harmful to the society and hence enemies of the country. The beggars, on the other hand, live on other’s charity. Then the beggar goes on to defend his profession, like a devil courting scriptures to his advantage. Thus he says:

 

            We have a history of no bad pre-eminence

            With all saints adorning our profession

            And all religions making provision for our roles.

 

            This argument is based on false reasoning and rhetoric. To compare a beggar with a saint is to err against proportion and hence ironical. Then the poet satirizes the people who think that a whole day’s sinning could be washed away by “a coin in charity.” And paradoxically enough unlike modern men the beggars do not suffer from “alienation, tension or loss of identity.” They don’t have any ambition and “live on the indifferent others.” Since begging for them has become a way of life, all efforts to reform them are in vain. As a beggar puts it rightly:

 

            And don’t reform us more

            Than you can reform a prostitute.

 

            The malady lies deeper. The entire social structure has to be re-built before any attempt has been made to reform beggars. Begging can’t be viewed in isolation. It has to be taken along with other ills of the society. It is an offshoot of a deeper malady like poverty and blind belief. In this poem, Bhatnagar draws our attention to various problems of our society, and handles this theme successfully by using the figures of speech like irony and paradox. The use of everyday speech, and the free-flowing of ideas between the lines heightens the musicality of the poem.

 

            “History is a sorry-go-round”, satirizes the people who seek power and authority, and in the process betray the confidence and trust of the common masses. They never understand the common men and their problems. As the poet ironically puts it:

 

            They take several light years

            To reach the masses

            Awarding titles, licences and tortures

            In the name of national unity and security

            What passes.

 

            Political sychophants surround the people in power and misguide them to their own advantage. Sometimes the people in power torture and crush the opponents and their supporters. But ironically the “crushed” rise like phoenix from the ashes and take revenge. Thus history gets repeated. Tyranny in demo­cracy fails and “too much suppression and much politiking / fer­ments its own defeat.” This poem serves as a warning to those who blunder their way into oblivion and to whom self-recognition comes too late. History is likely to be repeated. The poem has seven stanzas and of them five are in five lines each, one a fifteen line stanza, and the last a nine-line one. The choice of words, handling of stanza-pattern and metre are superb “Memory Frescoes” deals with the dichotomy of body and soul. Even long after the body is dissolved, the soul lingers on. The poet uses the familiar myth – the story of Orpheus – to drive home the implication of being obsessed with soul, Orpheus, “lived and flourished like a bee lifting loads with laden eye-lashes / hardly ever befriending his bolting soul. He lived to love his body like Hercules.” Our body is also “Achilles’ heel” and that is our main concern. But when one is obsessed with soul and becomes sick of it, he feels “the burden of it like a bough bent with better fruit / or a maiden carrying an illegitimate child.” When body is no more, soul comes from the other world to “tell us of his woes.” Soul is linked up with memory, in the sense that makes us conscious of the past. The poem is full of allusions to mythical figures like Orpheus, Hercules, Tiresias, Zeus, Hera, Achilles Thetis, Styx and Theseus. These allusions make the reading of the poem difficult but at the same time they heighten the meaning and texture of the poem.

 

            “The God Game” is a satire on the blind belief of men and the different controversial points of view regarding the creation of this world. One religion propagates the idea that the world came into existence when someone (God) said, “Let there be ...” and the other believes that someone created this world “out of his navel.” In both the cases, the natural order of the world, according to scientific point of view, has been violated. For a rational (rather irreligious) man of our century, God has become an abstract concept (idea). Thus, like a sceptic, Bhatnagar asserts:

 

            Man will not search God any more

            Is God a sufficient cause

            To fight and die for?

 

Searching for God has become a futile question and the poet believes that “the Greeks were only right / In creating gods as their competitors.” This is not to suggest that Bhatnagar is an atheist. But he believes that there should not be any controversy regarding God and faith is individual.

 

            “If one starts asking questions like Hamlet.” analyses the dilemma of the world and arrives at no solution, when one searches for solutions to “modern woes”, one is simply disillu­sioned. Questions like “Why should the dishonest thrive? / Do virtuous people really go to Heaven?” are age-old questions and seem to have no answer. The high-ups in the society exploit the common men in the name of religion, revolution and even peace. As the poet rightly says:

 

            The innocents can only have misted dreams,

            Like dead men dreaming fragrance of light.

 

            The disparity in the society and also the sufferings were there right from the day the world came into existence and they are not simply “modern woes,” as Bhatnagar puts it. Perhaps, that is the way of the world. The basic question in the Book of Job. “Why does innocent suffer?”, has not yet been answered. That is the mystery of the world. This poem is based on Bhatnagar’s concern for the common man and the society. He believes in the common man – the average, not the extraordinary. Bhatnagar handles a major theme (that is, social concern) in his poetry successfully. He takes, as it were, the cause of common man – the average which is large, and demands for social justice. The highbrows of the society, who exploit the poor and vitiate the atmosphere, are severely criticised. Bhatnagar maintains a balanced view of both love and sex. His views on religion are based on scientific rationalism. He is never conservative. He has faith but without any dogma or prejudice.

 

            His poetry is lucid, calm and even deliberate. The use of free verse well suits his theme. But the difficulty in his poetry arises out of his vast literary-cultural allusions. Like the English metaphysicians, he puts all his learnings into his poetry and the result is that the common reader is baffled. No doubt, his allusions add up to the range of his poetry and for an equally learned reader they are most satisfying. His longer poems (particularly from the third volume Angels of Retreat) are evocative and thought-provoking poems like “Trees in Autumn,” “Look Home­ward Angel,” “Beggars can be choosers” and “Adam and Eve” are good poems by any standard. The theme, syntax and free-verse are arresting – and above all the music of these poems (for which we, Indians have no ear) is superb and haunting. One hopes, Bhatnagar will chiefly be remembered for these poems.

 

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