Foreword
There can be no doubt that Dr. Syed Ameeruddin is one of the most widely known, most widely travelled, most widely published and most widely critiqued Indo-Anglian poets and the recipient of numerous awards. But the records of his various achievements and publications of the views of a wide spectrum of learned scholars about him and their profound assessment of his poetic works lie scattered over several newspaper articles and commentaries in various publications spanning a period of some decades, so that one does not get a comprehensive and complete picture of Ameeruddin, the poet and the man.
The following is an attempt to collate the various critiques and articles published and present a complete portrait of the person that Syed Ameeruddin is. Since the matter contained in the various publications about him is so vast, any treatise attempting to present all facets of his personality and the voluminous criticisms of his works has to necessarily be a condensed and abridged version, in which certain portions considered essential by some, may have been left out. However an earnest attempt has been made to include whatever material is considered indispensable in the presentation of his multi-faceted personality in a single article.
Views of Critics
K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar: Ameeruddin has made a name for himself in Indian English writing by his "thought provoking poetry" and as "a rare phenomenon in the contemporary field of world poetry today".
On What the Himalaya said': Unlike most young men, Mr. Ameeruddin doesn't essay romantic love or explore the perversions of lust. He isn't interested in politics either, nor yet in probing complicated states of mind. Mr. Ameeruddin's flair is for philosophising. He doesn't like urban civilisation. He is ill at ease with modern youth. The timeless, the ineffable, the stupendous Himalaya, these seem to attract Mr. Ameeruddin. There is usually a directness and force in his writing which is commendable. Sometimes he is loud and merely rhetorical, and the virtues of reticence, understatement and suggestiveness go by default. There is, however, a general wholesomeness about the book which, I hope, will appeal to its readers.
On A Lover and a Wanderer' in 1981 The long title-piece in 3 parts successfully articulates a particular point of view caused by the intrusion of intellect and calculation, and the resulting failure and frustration, and, perhaps also the residual aspiration and hope. The other pieces with their variations in theme and mood give a fuller amplitude to the volume. While romance and sentiment have their say, social criticism and larger issues also figure in some of the poems, bespeaking your widening interests.
Dr. Krishna Srinivas On A Lover and a Wanderer': The whole of Ameeruddin's poems is an ascension towards love. The poet attains through love, the fullness of reality. Love yields him its greatest treasure. The act of love surges and resurges. He traces the passionate multi-facets of love and presents in every evocative way the process and evolution of love from the ideal and platonic to the pragmatic and surrealistic trends of our time. The winding galleries of his mind unfurl strange tunes. Green echoes haunt him like a passion. He replaces meanings by suggestions. Unsuspected impulses and unfathomable fears throb and explode. Nature to him is a merciless genetic force which transmits to its creatures its own frenzied fury. Man -nature's favourite offering - mirrors its riotous cruelty. Love is stripped of its sentimental wrappings and reduced to the starkness of its violent rapture. Ameeruddin is restless of the waltzing civilisation. He lays bare the agony in the inner recesses of his soul. His poetry is lyrical and subjective; has the stamp of his unique personality - a slenderness, a nervous subtlety which makes him the finest and the most sensitive of our contemporary poets.
On Petallic Love Times': Syed Ameeruddin has emerged as one of the distinguished and most popular poets writing in English today. Young, very sensitive, widely acclaimed in India and abroad, translated into many languages and strikingly different, he is deeply rooted in the ancient Indian ethos. Ye, he is a perfect modernist and he strives to bridge the gulf between the rich Indian classical values and the exuberant new Indian consciousness. He speaks in terms of provocative and forceful metaphors and relates his work to the relevance of contemporary experience, the realistic, the non-realistic and surrealistic trends in behaviour and relationship between man and woman of our time and their existentialistic attitude towards life.
His poetry traces the origin of feeling and consciousness, forcing one to think backwards, inwards into many awakenings. Further it springs from a full participation in life, and even where it seems purely sensuous, it has vigour and a freshness. He belongs to a special and rare breed who use words with the fury of obsessed people. He is complex, evocative and sometimes explosively immediate. His language is powerful, incisive, well-knit. He is daring, innovative and has powerful imagery with substantial vigour. The most exciting poet to emerge on the Indian literary scene, he represents the old and the new and fascinatingly original in our poetry today.
Ameeruddin is a repository of scuttled truths and a museum of irrefutable facts - refuted not by empirical discoveries, but by mysterious decisions to experience differently from time to time. It worked in the totems and taboos of ancients, the pyramids of Egypt, the cosmology of Dante, and the theory of expanding universe. Echoes from abyss abound. He dives into the darkness of thoughts, in unbidden suggestions, in multitudinous waves and currents all at once flashing and rushing in dreams. He glimpses great tides in the clairvoyance of passion and in the nightly rising of the somnambulist. He communes with dark powers - as Poe, Kierkegard, Rimbaud and Von Gogh - raging beneath tranquil everydayness. Such visitations come only to masters of verses. The poet has inexhaustible flow of raging vitality. It is difficult to decipher his goal. Words fall with the impact of a blow with utmost precision. His phrases are weighty. Thousand shafts burn.
Petallic Love Times', are Ameeruddin's lyrical offerings at the altar of Love, celebrating all the facets, longing, anguish and exhilaration. His poetry is the confrontation of his whole being with Reality - a basic struggle of the soul, mind and body to comprehend life, to loving order to chaos, and by will and insight create communicable verbal forms for the delight of mankind. Ameeruddin is restless of the waltzing civilisation. His poetry is lyrical, his feelings flame as images and has the stamp of unique personality. This makes him the finest and most sensitive of contemporary poets.
- Mujeeb, Vice-Chancellor. Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, on 'What the Himalaya Said': Mr. Ameeruddin seems to be in full agreement with the view that "Poetry is criticism of life" and that "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world". So throughout his poems he has preached - not as a moralist or preacher but as an artist - those moral and spiritual values which make life meaningful and are essential for a cultured and civilized life. Like all thoughtful persons today, he seems to feel that "the world is too much with us" and we have no time "to stand and stare". Hence we suffer from "the wariness, the fever, the fret" of life and our minds and souls are starved. What strikes the reader of these poems most is that Mr. Ameeruddin is a sincere and real lover of India - its culture, its art, its science, its people, mountains, rivers, animals and birds - and has paid in his poems glowing tributes to them. His diction is simple and lucid and his style sincere and effective.
Dr. C.R. Sarma, Secretary, Regional Offqice. Sahitva Akademi. Chennai. on 'What the Himalaya Said': Sri Syed Ameeruddin, though a student of English Literature, has given philosophical tinge to his poems and therefore his thoughts are at once inspiring and illuminating. To him the Himalaya is an embodiment of purity. It also stands for oneness and immutability, glory and grandeur. While discussing the value of Timelessness, Sri Ameeruddin finds no change in Time. Only the attitudes of man change. True, but man changes with the advancement of Time. A lover of ancient heritage, he urges the modern man 'a product of disbelief to adhere to Bhakti (devotion), Jnana (knowledge) and Karma (action). The message of the mighty Himalayas has thus been put in a nutshell in these words - words of eternal value.
Dr. A.V. Krishna Rao, Head of Dept. of English of I.IT., Madras, on What the Himalaya Said': In 'What the Himalaya Said', the title poem, we get a Himalayan censure and expostulation regarding our "Cursed gifts": Drought, sterility, fragility - lack of fertility; Discomfort, discontentment - dissatisfaction. The Poet's eyes roll up in a fine frenzy and catch a glimpse of the Himalayas". "The eternal titanic pillars which connect the Heaven and the Earth". They are cold and merciless but hortatory. Faith, Hope, Truth and Love have been relegated to a back seat in our modern materialistic civilization. Mr. Syed Ameeruddin, as the readers may soon discover for themselves, has certainly got the makings and markings of a major Indo-Anglian poet, firmly rooted in the Indian tradition as evidenced by these poems. The contemporary relevance of his metaphysical, mystical themes is surprisingly striking. His facile and felicitous expression is impressive. The imagery and the symbols, so expertly employed by the poet, need further critical explication in so far as they are characteristic of the Indian ethos.
Niranjan Mohanty: General: His 'craving for' and 'urge to create' something out of the living and authentic experiences of life, remain the pivot of Ameeruddin's poetic utterances. Love inordinately occupies a central position in the fabric of the poet's experiences, so much so that it builds for him a citadel which neither breaks down nor cracks, neither petrifies into shallow nothingness nor disillusions nor dissipates. It emerges as a viable metaphor for transcending reality. It is through the pattern of images and metaphors, that Ameeruddin unfolds his metaphysical quest with clarity and the transcendence of love against all that decays, or goes to pot. His disenchantment or unease with the place or the world he lives in stems from his restlessness and moody temperament. His 'flair for philosophising' is not an escape from reality, but rather a determination to forge an order amid chaos, to enkindle hope amid despair, to find a solution through purification of heart.
In 'What the Himalaya Said' there is a juxtaposition of the images of flux and permanence, the former represented through the bewildering, fatal floods, panic, fury and the latter through the titanic pillars 'which connect / the Heaven and the Earth'. The ignominy of this mechanical civilization, the hypnotic ways moulding the character and destiny of young, incessant corruption in the blood - all these contribute to the mounting restlessness of the poet who tries to find a universe purer than he lives in. The question of cleansing the dirt and filth from the body and mind of the individual and the universe, remains central to the aesthetic quest of Ameeruddin's art. In this sense his vision is universal. Establishing peace, dharma and sanity in a spiritually bankrupt and decadent world becomes the poet's mission. His quest for Beauty transports the poet from the physical world of decay and death to the metaphysical and eternal. He tries to touch the nectar hidden in things invisible.
Ameeruddin's third volume 'A Lover and Wanderer', is a long poem in three parts, in which he sharpens his desire and dream, hope and imagination "to experience a purple paradise" through "rivers of wild scream" and 'Juicy whispers of oneness". The thematic centre is now love, its lost and yet-to-be retrieved dimensions. The tone has become more intense, more personal, the language more clear and the metaphors change - from the down-to-earth reality to the elemental fecundity of world's bounties. The quest for beauty with which the second volume ended seems to be perpetuated here too but with a difference. The quest for beauty gets a peculiar twist and is transformed into the quest for love. Being disillusioned, dejected and WQUndtd by the merciless movements of the world, being denied the ideal he had been seeking, the poet comes face to face with love, with the hope that it might redeem his agonies, cure the cancer of his griefs and install for him the ideal he had been after. In this volume,
Ameeruddin pines for the lost love, lost dreams and lost dimensions of love-making, rather honestly, in order to shield himself off the drab monotony of life's lonesome plight. His dreams, both as a lover and a wanderer, do not necessarily materialize always and hence it creates an incurable wound in him. The pangs of loneliness and lost love seem to dominate the volume often causing a bleak pessimistic atmosphere.
But the poet, lonesome and agonised in the present, can realize the folly of his dream to bring back the lost moments to present reality. And therefore, he aims at making his life complete and wholesome with his involvement in the affairs of the world. Now he becomes a seeker, wanderer and lover. This determination to fare forward is a record of the progress of his soul from the transitoriness of the physical bondage to the permanence of an eternal bliss. The objective of the poet's quest is clear: true identity, harmony between inner and outer self and the happiness which will not wither away. The note of protest and the tone of revolt, if any, now gives way to a subdued tone to reflect the society as it is: Poverty of the people, helplessness of the beggars, degeneration in the life-style, desiccation of the heart's soothing sap, the increasing gulf between the rich and the poor and all the odds which cripple the society. He is upset by the predicament of a bride in the Indian society. An effective presentation of Indian bride's degeneration to the status of goods and commodities, stemming from the conventional taboos, marks the sharpness and sensitivity of the poet's desire to render a new mould to the social customs and system.
In his next work, 'Petallic Love Times', Ameeruddin reappears as a lover, wanderer, quester and inquisitive visionary, waiting for the call of the spirit to overcome all odd storms of sensuality and perplexing sexuality. This appears to be an extension of the attitudes envisioned in the earlier works. Everything returns - the oceanic eyes, the colourful landscapes, the shy moon, the torrential dreams, but all in recollection, all in deciphering the reality and transcending over it. Juxtaposition of the images of mere physicality and blissful eternity makes these poems wear a great immensity and diversity. Being ensconced in the beauty of flesh, the poet can envision a timelessness which saves Ameeruddin's art from being exhibitionistic. For the poet, love and the act of love are more than 'Eden's glory', and heavenly bliss. There seems to be something unique in the poet's understanding of the transience of body and live without negating the possibility of a higher order of relationship, a higher order of bondage, celebrating perhaps the glory of the soul. The body which was 'feverish' and stormy and warm is now the soul's 'symphony', 'the product of rages of pure love and attuned souls'. The 'morning star' of love has guided the poet-lover-wanderer in the dark dales of life and shall still guide him into a new 'destination', 'a golden glade', and to a 'new world of purple paradise'.
Ameeruddin's poetry bears peculiar, unpredictable twists and turns in relation to themes. He began his creative career with a realistic-revolutionary attitude towards life, but disgusted with the rotten social realism, unhappy with the corrupted odes of existence, the poet becomes a theist and believes in the redeeming features of the omnipresent God and soon he turns away from it to become a seeker of beauty through love. Realising the mutability of the physical world, the poet hopes to land on a purple paradise, a griefless world of beauty and innocence and eternal bliss, but it is only through love and its complete treatment, he can transcend the world of body, the temporal and mundane. The poet's realisation of the futility of the physical and materialistic ways of living and his final acceptance of the presence of a supreme power make us feel the progress of the wanderer to the new world.
Future of Ameeruddi's poetry depends on the way he guides and channels the nature of his quest. Often it is said hat Ameeruddin's poetry is repetitive But, when one takes refuge under the aegis of love, one is bound o repeat the songs of soul, for herein lies the electrifying passion of triumph and transcendence.
Mohammed Yaseen in his Critical Appraisal of Ameeruddin's Poetry affirms that he has all the unique qualities of a serious sensitive and original poet, and occupies a distinct place among the modern Indo-Anglian poets. His poetry traces the origin of feeling and consciousness, forcing one to think backwards, inwards into many awakenings. It springs from a full participation in life, and even when it seems purely sensuous, it has vigour and freshness. He seems to stand as a bridge between pre-lndependence traditional poets and the present day romantics, realists and surrealists. In him, we have the harmonious blending of the 'living past' with the 'blazing present'. His poetry is rooted in the ancient Indian ethos, but he has also sought inspiration from English poets, particularly Shelley, Arnold and Eliot. His uniqueness among his contemporaries lies in his attempt to bridge the gulf between the rich Indian classical values and the exuberant new Indian consciousness. His keen perception and acute vision of half-hidden realities and unrealised pathos of life mark him as a chronicler of modern sensibility.
On 'What the Himalayas Said': Ameeruddin's keen sensibility, aversion to material pursuits and urge for the inculcation of higher values of life led him to choose such perennial subjects for his poetry as The Himalayas'. He lays bare our 'wounds' and analyses our illusions guided by his study of Indian philosophy, culture and history. His art finds its best expression in the realistic portrayal of life around him. His social conscience is aroused at the sight of suffering destitutes, beggars and boys of different age groups with deformed rickety bodies roaming in search of 'leafy left-outs' in front of hotels and houses.
A Lover and a Wanderer' in three parts shows the love's fluctuating fortune from the romantic bliss of the earlier days and his spiritual urge 'to go about the world like a gypsy' to his disillusionment with the world, and finally his hopeless prayer to the beloved to restore his past to him. The poem has elements of phallic poetry (a' la Lawrence) and a parody of modern man's attempts to play Ulysses. In part III of the poem, the poet recounts his experiences and encounter with people with 'leaky souls', 'split existence' and 'with the vanity of Himalayan wishes' and comes to the conclusion that life is still a 'riddle' to him. Despite spiritual hollowness, he aspires to pass through the arch of new experiences. The poem is modern in its thematic candour, suggestive imagery and scintillating style.
On 'Petallic Love Times': The poet has tasted and experienced love in different moods and situations and has successfully envisioned the sensual impressions in some of his best known pieces. Usually the treatment of love reverberates with echoes of romantic pathos, but something beyond mere sensuous gratification also haunts him.
A perusal of Syed Ameeruddin's poems clearly indicates the poet's love of poetry which he enchantingly and sensuously breathes. Transcending the ephemeral and ignoring the topical, his eyes rest invariably on the 'eternal' and the 'universal'. It would almost be a truism to say that while his imagination captures shades and shadows, his mind is seen holding dialogue with the world within and without. On closer examination, he appears to be a poet of both moods and memories. He sings of sensations sweet and bitter, felt in the blood and felt along the heart'. His social awareness and his firm commitment to society is commendable. Essentially Ameeruddin is a poet of love. While the sympathetic reader is generally carried away by the magic suggestiveness of Ameeruddin's fine phrases, an honest critic often feels baffled with the overflowing currents of powerful feelings in his poetry. At times he appears as a poet delighting in sheer verbiage and also creates an impression that he lacks restraint in the choice and use of words. In spite of certain minor limitations, Syed has established his originality, sensitiveness, multidimensional imagery, keenness of perception and vision and there is no denying the fact that Syed Ameeruddin has emerged as a major Indo-Anglian poet of our time.
A.N. Dwivedi: Syed Ameeruddin's poetry may sound rhetorical and repetitive at times, but it is quite sincere and honest in its expression of the Truth Eternal. All the three volumes of his poetry viz., What the Himalaya Said, The Dreadful Doom to Come and A Lover and a Wanderer, contain germs of his "intense brooding" and concentrated introspection. The forces of Evil haunting the present-day human world - passion, emotion, intoxication, sex and sensuousness - render the poet restless and uneasy and he prepares himself to grapple with them with his pen in an effective manner. He points out 'divinity' and morality as the remedies for the modern man to emerge out of the marsh of Evil. What Ameeruddin does is somewhat unique in Indo-English verse despite the 'censure motion' passed by the Writers Worksop coterie against Sri Aurobindo and his circle. For this he may be called a Romantic or an idealist or a propagandist or a poet-preacher, but he moves with sure and steady steps towards the avowed objective of elevating his readers to a higher plane of living and thinking. Syed's message' may be misread in the present-day world, but its tone of sincerity can hardly be questioned.
The slender collection 'What the Himalaya Said' clearly displays the poet's propensity for moral and metaphysical subjects. He unequivocally suggests, through the symbol of the Himalaya, that the way of salvation' for man lies in the strict observance of the age-old principles of Faith. Hope, Truth and Love, which he has presently thrown to the winds. The message undoubtedly draws heavily upon the Bhagavad Gita and is enveloped inescapably in an air of didacticism and directness - an inexcusably artistic fault indeed.
In the second collection of six poems 'The Dreadful Doom to Come' the title-piece is chilling to the bone and horrible in vision. It bewails the lack of proper atmosphere in the world around us and the prevalence of corruption and greed and passion. The remedy lies in the practice of austerities and mortifications enjoined upon us by our wise rishis and gurus - of the triple eternal principles of Bhakti, Karma and Jnana.
The last collection viz. A Lover and a Wanderer' is largely amorous in content but metaphysical in its tone and temper. He feels uneasy before his visible love and is inwardly goaded to start his metaphysical quest in order to be at peace with himself. Hence he turns 'a wanderer' with a goal, a quester with a purpose. The great self-transformation is allowed a new dimension, clearing the deck for the transformation of others. Besides the longish title-piece, other poems in this collection clearly show the poet's spiritual and metaphysical longings. The poet feels the mystic presence of Almighty in all the objects of Nature - in the blossoms, thunders, streams,waves,the purple moon,the breezy dawn and dwindling dusks.
To conclude Ameeruddin is a poet who discards the physical plane of existence in favour of the metaphysical one, who is totally at ease with the world of lust and curruption, and who chooses to lay bare 'the agony in the inner recesses of his soul'. Though he has not been able to formulate any consistent system of thought, he has decidedly a flair for philosophising', as
Prof. K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar observes. The eternal, ineffable, the intangible seem to attract him irresistibly, and he sings songs of glory for Him who has created all of us, almost administering us a heavy dose of sermon at times. Throughout his poetry, the metaphysical quest remains a constant metaphor and serves as a cementing force, without which it will fall asunder and break into pieces.
Vinayak Krishna Gokak on 'The Dreadful Doom to Come': Shri Syed Ameeruddin has a sensitive, poetic heart. He has tasted the waters of disenchantment. The life that he sees around him, with all its faith and evil, makes him resentful. The masculinity of modem woman, he strongly disapproves even at the risk of being called a conservative. Technology, with all its attendant ugliness and permissiveness, has but multiplied our material desires and turned the vices of yesterday into virtues of today. His sensitivity is geared to a real and metaphysical quest and he has emerged from it with the repose, if not the joy, of faith. The expression of this quest, anguish and repose moves us and touches our hearts. A sensitive poet, Shri Syed Ameeruddin is experimenting with the diction which will communicate his Vision. He comes out with sharp and scintillating lines, with a facile and felicitous expression, which is quite impressive. His poetic craftsmanship will surely come into its own in good time.
Dr. Ernest Key, Editor, International Who's Who in Poetry, Cambridge on The Dreadful Doom to Come': All the poems are of first class standard and I particularly like 'A Craze for Supreme Beauty'.
Dr. Percival R. Roberts, Bloomsburg State College, Bloomburg on The Dreadful Doom to Come: I admire the exuberance and depths of fee4lings. I enjoy your use of alliteration and ballad-like refrains.
Dr. Mabelle A. Lyon, Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A. on The Dreadful Doom to Come': These poems are written by a thoughtful, perplexed, intuitive and perceptive man. His seeking expresses the doubts and dreams of millions of men. Every man of good will and hope walks the path this poet has trod, and if he does not knock on the same door at its end, his imagination will have been stirred to seek his own door.
Dr. Richard Eberhart: The whole of Ameeruddin's verse is lyrical and subjective silhouetting an inexhaustible flow of the poet's raging vitality. The meditative awareness of the divinity hidden in love is unique in Ameeruddin's creative imagination.
Prema Nandakumar on 'Visioned Summits' in Deccan Herald of 2.6.96: There is certainly commendable stamina behind the planning and writing of the poem.... Ameeruddin stands up boldly to release the dove of peace as he envisions the summits attained by world's religions. Nirvana, Aham Brahman (sic), Anal Haq. The divine light of bliss overwhelms him.
Shyamala A. Narayan on 'Visioned Summits' in The Hindu of 30.7.96: The 21 poems in the book are linked together by the search for ultimate meaning in life, the vision of "summits of illumined peaks: of benign Nirvana". There can be no doubt about the genuineness of the poet's experience". The best poems in this volume are the quatrain in 'Musings' where the form has made the expression concise and almost epigrammatic.
Dr. P.N. Shukla: Syed is a seeker, a wanderer and a lover too. He would not rest until he realizes the end of his journey. Juxtaposition of the images of mere physicality and blissful eternity makes these verses wear a great immensity and diversity.
Saraswathy R. Murthy on Ameeruddin's anthology, Indian Verse in English' in The Hindu of 7.6.77: Syed Ameeruddin has done a great service to the rich harvest of Indian verse in English in separating grain from chaff and his efforts in this sphere are perfectly balanced by his contribution to creative writing.
Rosemary C. Wilkinson, Secretary General, World Academy of Arts and Culture. Governing Board of the World Congress of Poets on 25.4.1990 on Petallic Love Times: Truly he writes for the blind too giving them insight into use of colour in poetry so necessary for good poetry.
Dr. Prem Varma Senior Reader in English. Sri Aurobindo College, New Delhi on 'Visioned Summits': Although his poetry shows the influence of many English poets, he_remains firmly rooted in his Indian ethos. I find a deeply metaphysical aura over most of the poems, but the language he uses is almost sensuous at times. There is also the mingling of the realistic with the surrealistic whether he talks of the man-woman relationship or of the man-God relationship The most deeply printed impression that seems to occur like a refrain in many poems is the carnage and bloodshed that we have been witnessing in different parts of the world. It would be foolish to assume that the love interest has no place in Ameeruddin's poetry. It is submerged but not in its totality. Sexual undertones and references to orgasms and phallic symbols abound even in the metaphysical poems. It is thus difficult to define and pin down his poetry in one broad category. Written in the style of T.S. Eliot the summits he refers to are of nirvana and salvation in whatever form or religion. He tries to remain universal and not write from the point of view of any one religion.
Now a word about Syed Ameeruddin's style. Written in free verse, he uses imagery and symbolism to both clothe and reveal his ideas, making his style simple, direct, lucid and lilting. The use of forceful and provocative metaphors makes his language powerful and incisive. Ameeruddin, I find, has a weakness for alliteration and uses it in almost every second line whether apt or not. I give a few examples: "alphabetic anarchy", "nebulous night", "scissoring sighs", "symphony of sepulchre", "dusky disappointments" and so on. I also found Ameeruddin's poetry strewn with truisms scattered throughout the book like "Seasons change the smell of the earth", or "Experiences change the attitude of mind". By way of conclusion I would like to say that Syed Ameeruddin's poetry is really an enigma because it conjures up so many images, throws up so many ideas, sees life in so many different ways that each adjective merely confines him and is applicable to only one aspect. His poetry can, at best be described as a conglomeration of the metaphysical, the surreal, and the existential.
Dr. Asha Viswas, Lecturer in English, B.H.U. on 'Visioned Summits': The different poems in the collection are, in fact, different mystical steps to attain the visioned summits. The very first poem of this collection 'Eloquent Serenade', presents almost all these steps - Separation, Uprootedness, Alienation and Loneliness to attain the 'aloneness' - the goal of the spiritual quest. Ameeruddin's 'Visioned Summits' may be called his Divine Comedy. The seeker moves from the inferno of sadness, separation and despair to the Purgatorio of guilt, fear, and the ills of the world to the Paradise of Beatitude which unites the diminished T to the bliss of the Cosmic Consciousness. The poems are the outpourings of a hyper sensitive heart with an almost feminine sensibility. The poet is at his best when he sings of 'Crimson dreams', 'Shrieking hopes' and 'haunted memories'. The tender sadness of shattered sunlight, empty day breaks, crumbling sunsets and broken melodies of wind touch the reader's heart strings. There is a constant play of words weaving the fragrance of ecstasy. "Buddha's bodhi bewilders", "compassion crumbles", "cyclone centres", "silence sighs" - the list could be almost unending.
Dr. A.H. Tak, Lecturer in English. Kashmir University on 'Visioned Summits': Syed Ameeruddin's poetry is truly Arnoldian in describing the specific political, social, economic and ethnic problems of contemporary times and in depicting man's psychological and spiritual strains in an industrialised and commercialised world of decay, depravity and chaos. In most of the poems included in Visioned Summits, Dr. Syed's thoughts and feelings revolve round the historical and sociological and religious forces that have led to the first signs of the crumbling of our civilization based upon cash nexus and money value with no sense of religious communion or even community, a world of isolated lonely individuals with shattered will and crippled emotional capacity. The distinctive feature of Dr. Syed's philosophic poetry is its complex echoing of multiple sources from which he derives influences and assimilates them so completely into his own sensibility that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. No doubt, he uses poetry as a vehicle for his inquiries into the nature and meaning of life, yet so completely are form and content united in his work that it is scarcely possible to remove the philosophical element in any given poem without destroying it totally.
In short, Syed Ameeruddin in Visioned Summits, presents the complex, the abnormal, the unusual and the unnatural which is the main reason that his picture of humanity and human life is more varied, detailed and extensive. The book is a valuable social document, a faithful record of the doubts and uncertainties, hopes and aspirations of our times. Dr. Syed is a highly conscious artist and a penetrating thinker who knows what he is talking about viz. humanity and human values. Unlike many Indo-Anglian poets who welcome free verse as a liberation from form, Dr. Syed's poetry has what Eliot calls "the inner structure of a poem" by which he means a kinship between the felt experience and the resources of language. There is in Dr. Syed's poetry, the inner unity which is unique to every poem, against the outer unity which is typical. Verily Syed Ameeruddin's poetry, which is not merely the poetry of 'ideas' and 'thoughts' but also of feelings and experiences, has the ring of being immediately contemporary to us than that of many Indian poets writing in English.
Dr. Rachna Mehrotra on 'Visioned Summits': Dr. Syed Ameeruddin is one of the most brilliant stars among the galaxy of Indian English poets. He uses the age old convention of journey as an allegory of the soul's quest for self-realization. It is a spiritual journey from chaos and doubt to peace and awareness. His mysticism is neither creed nor a philosophy but a practical way of looking at the world with a pure soul. He wants contentment, eternal peace, natural beauty and perfect bliss. The object of his quest is the realisation of Satchitananda and Anal Haq. The hope of reaching his final goal is always there in his heart encouraging him to go ahead with his mission. His poetry is full of mystical overtones. He has deep knowledge of both the Hindu and Muslim scriptures. His God is monistic. His thoughts find expression in the realistic, mystical, spiritual, surrealistic and humanitarian poetry of the visioned summits.
He is influenced by Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Khalil Gibran, Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Shelley, Blake and Swinburne.
Dr. Syed has perfect command over language. He has employed similies, metaphors, various symbols and images to enhance the beauty of his poetry. The idea of life as a journey and man as a wanderer is taken from Khalil Gibran. Nature imagery gives a touch of extraordinary subtlety to his poetry. His symbolism and imagery have a marked similarity with Yeats's. He employs Swinburnean swaying rhythms which heighten the effect of his poetry. The words sway into labyrinthine melodies. The lyrical grandeur in Dr. Syed's poem is to be noted. He has shown artistic excellence in his poetry. His mysticism is a relation of the present ; his spiritual vision resembles Blake's. His daring simplicity and spiritual beauty thrill our imagination as onlya great poet has power to do. He is a poet of joy and peace. Dr. Syed's ecstatic and lovely poems make him a fascinating poet of today. He is successful in distinguishing himself as a great poet in the contemporary field of world poetry today.
Dr. Kulwait Singh Gill, Professor of Journalism & Languages, Punjab Agricultural University on 'Visioned summits': In Indo-English poetry, Syed Ameeruddin, both as poet_and critic, has carved a special niche for himself. As the very title 'Visioned Summits' suggests, the poet attempts to transcend the material and mundane reality though he does not forget that his clayey mould is of the earth, earthy. The fervid imagination and a soul enkindled with the desire to reach beyond and starry heaven, to those regions of effulgence where it can experience a state of bliss - sat-chit-ananda are constantly in quest of this coveted goal. It, however, goes t the credit of Syed, that his transcendentalism does not ignore the harsh reality around him and his lacerated sensibility finds an agonised expression in another's throats in the name of Ayodhya and Allah. The Shelleyan courage prompts the poet to silence 'the scissoring storms' of 'religious fundamentalism, ethnic and racial vandalism'.
The poet's aim is 'to create a New Eden / To establish cosmic unity / And Eternity in Time', the quest for eternity, for ultimate silence is here and now, not in any posthumous state of existence. The poet can hear 'whispers of beyond'. He has crossed finitude and enters into a state of cosmic consciousness through an intuitive leap and now finds 'meaning in ambiguity' for visioned summits are reached by transcending dualism. Visioned Summits' provide a peep into the inspired soul of Syed Ameeruddin. It is the spiritual Odyssey of a poet who reaches the summit of Silkcnce for it was out of Silence that the first creative vibrant Om, Word, Sarosha or Kun was born.
Dr. Bhaskar Roy Burman on 'Surrealism in Dr. Ameeruddin's Visioned Summits': Surrealism has now become rare in poetry. Surprisingly, the poetry in 'Visioned Summits' show, though thinly, traces of surrealism. It is for the poetry to tell whether he has deliberately imported surrealism into his poetry, but the fact is clear that he stressed the workings of his unconscious mind and they have got automatically synthesized with his conscious mind. The moment he presents himself before a mirror to watch his eyes in the grip of quietude the hallucination will certainly break and he will certainly find himself flung headlong into the territory of the conscious mind in close proximity to reality; he will cease visualizing 'black storm on my palms', 'the desolate sun in my bones', 'hissing hurricane in my mind', 'earthquake beneath my skin' and 'snaky creeps on my body'. The [poet could not endure for long the fits of hallucination and he leaps up to the semi-conscious just a few steps beneath the conscious mind; he is now neither in a dreamy state nor in a conscious state; he is in between. As a poet, he can't shut his his eyes to the stark and naked reality and the sufferings of the humanity pain him, pain his soul. Against the backdrop of suffering of t the humanity he points his finger at the display of 'pomp, power and glory' by rapacious politicians' who are investing billions in arms to destroy mankind, unmindful of the hungers of the multitude and 'unaware of the misery of the marooned million? here he has synthesized the workings his unconscious with the conscious mind.
Jasvinder Singh on Visions of Deliverance in National Herald of 1.3.2008 . He presents a beep through into varying aspect of life with a broad precision and scepticism.He expresses his thoughts most Interestingly and innovatively and inspires introspective thinking among, the poems also reflect a superb coordination between thoughts and imagination of the poet." His poems-ace_a fine combination of lyricism emotional surges. The poems also suggest a deep insight into sensitive issues affecting to be philosophical and vivacious.The book contains treasurable gems for the reader.
Dr. Panos D. Bardis of the University of Toledo, USA and Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of World Peace on Petallic Love Times in 1988: Aeeruddin is a realist of the senses The two realities, the earth and the soul, are firm in his own. There is verbal magic in his verse. He feels poetry like fire in his hands. His strong sense of suggestivity, gift for sharp imagery, and zest for full participation in life, even where it seems purely sensuous, makes him strikingly different in the contemporary arena of world poetry. Past and present are combined together to form a brilliant garland. Dreams and reality are artistically intertwined to create a world of magic. The poet's language explodes with beauty, words often sounding like majestic typhoons.
Werner Manheim USA on Petallic Love Times in 1989: The reading public can easily see why in this world of tragic disintegration a love so true, so profoundly nurtured can only inspire a poet of the stature of Ameeruddin to be the true messenger of a better and more sincere world in the future. His imagery and illusions to the one-ness of love, poetry and music are a sign of his mastery of the art of living and a source of splendour for kindred spirits. Petallic Love Times should be an inspiration for those who seek the meaning of their existence in this world of social and cultural upheavals.
Masoodul Hasan, former Professor in English, Aligarh Muslim University on Visioned Summits and Visions of Deliverance: Gifted with a quick imagination and confident of his rod power, Syed Ameeruddin has earned a distinctive position for himself among the present generation of Indo-Anglian poets. His poetics is transparent, and his own poetry is a life-long pursuit to translate this concept into reality. Along with compassion and empathy with the under-privileged, the true poet's chief concern is love for mankind, and mystic probing into Reality. Ameeruddin's own poetic manifesto sparkles with vibrant humanism. Unlike most post 1950 poets, bears genuine mystical leanings, spanning and intermingling the various shades of spirituality seemingly divided in the name of different faiths. The titles of his two collections are avowedly vision-specific and patently related to mysticism. The title piece of the Visioned Summits presents an intoxicated celebration of spiritual visions of "mystical sparkling paths ', "clasping ecstasies", "a great beyond, / A resounding voyage", the "Mahaprasthan", the "Nirvan" and "The Sat-Chit-Ananda".
As evident from several poems, the author's familiarity with varietie4s of Indian mysticism is fairly impressive, though not always accurate. Modern writers' well-meaning branding of all shades of spirituality with a common stamp is at variance with factual scholarship and beyond the pale of poetic licence. Teachings of Guru Nanak and songs of Kabir symbolize the bliss and bonds of unity in medieval India., In contrast, contemporary India suffers from the "Disease of imbecility", savagery spread by the ill-informed youth's "tongues of hatred" and a grievous collapse of our traditional values. The prevalent political degeneration and communal fury upsets Ameeruddin, sometimes, even to the point of frustration. Spurts of terrorism in different parts of the country, the "Ayodhya destruction", Bombay blasts, virulent political agitations tarnish the country's image. These pained him, as did the acts of belligerence and human destruction elsewhere in the world.
Social disintegration and sense of individual loneliness as manifestations of modernity are recognized by Ameeruddin. These themes predominate the Visioned Summits. Unsurprisingly, he distances himself from the popular culture, and feels and exile in his own land. This feeling of psychological isolation arises from the uncongenial political and cultural environment,deepening the sense of uprootedness. Images of decay and disintegration predominate - for example "crumbling summits", "broken melodies", "splintered mirror", "crumbling stairs", "fractured sunsets", etc. Idealism and remoanticism are natural partners, and Ameeruddin's imagination has fast romantic hues even bordering on the fanciful and the exotic.
Kinetic and lustrous images animated by alliterative phonal sings are the other distinctive features of Ameeruddin's poetry. His protagonist is usually a pilgrim or wanderer, symbolizing movements, vitality and quest of an ideal. The frequent metaphors of elemental energy -cyclones, hurricanes, volcanoes - come naturally to him. Juxtapowing the contrastive concepts and images is his favourite device, e.g. "the cyclone centers in my mind", 'the rhapsodic silence", "caresses of embers", "dreamful desert", "volcanic heart", "joy-maddened the shipwrecks lash", etc. Light imagery irradiates the whole series of the poems. Stars, twilight, dawn resplendent gold, flames glittering galaxies blazing brilliance, rainbow and a plentitude of kindred words and phrases - pleasing in sound and pregnant with evocative suggestiveness -throng his pages. Indeed, colour, light, sound and vitality seem to be Ameeruddin's possessive passions, and their effortless combination, sometimes even too profuse, enlivens and reinforces the substance of his poetry.
Ameeruddin's memorable title-piece, 'Visions of Deliverance' resounds with references to "fire flashing smithies", crushing "dark and despicable souls", "A devastating deluge of fire", "molten lava", and like recurring glow of flames suggest echoes of the scriptural description of hell. Evidently, Ameeruddin's poem was conceived on an ambitious paradigm of liberal religious thought and their homogeneity. The volcanic flow of words and kinetic imagery has rendered the value of brevity and compactness of structure often look irrelevant with some amount of repetitiveness, which ill suits the eschatological sections of the poem. The key concepts of three great religions of the world are sought to coalesce into a common objective of these faiths.
Ameeruddin has sought to realize and communicate the unutterable; for ecstasy and vision are beyond the reach of words; but even an attempt to approximate them is an intellectual and poetic feat and Ameeruddin deserves full credit for that.
Dr. P Raja Syed Ameeruddin has carved himself a permanent niche in the Hall of Indo-Anglian poetry with his four collections of well-received poems - 'What the Himalaya Said', 'The Dreadful Doom to Come', 'A Lover and a Wanderer' and 'Petallic Love Times'. The three renowned anthologies edited by him representing the best poets from various parts of the globe show him as a connoisseur of fine poetry. Well-known in the literary circle as a poet and anthologist, Ameeruddin's works are admired not only by the increasing number of young readers of Indo-Anglian verse and by his equals, but by at least one who is his superior, the German poet Werner Manheim, who did not hesitate to say of his poems that they "should be an inspiration for those who seek the meaning of their existence in this world of social and cultural upheavals". Literary Historians like K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar and M.K. Naik have already included his works in their tomes. Several eminent critics have done full-length studies of his poetry. Above all his poems continue to get translated into many languages of the world.
Most poets begin their literary career by writing about love and as they grow old their works become philosophical. But Ameeruddin's first collection began with high-sounding philosophy and his fourth one is about sensual pleasure. Considerably influenced by philosopher poets like Shelley, Keats, Ezra Pound, Eliot, Yeats and Auden, his poetry is bound to be philosophical. In his poem, 'Value of Timelessness' he sees 'Time' as the world itself and as the determiner of life, while both world and life run in 'Timelessness'. He states that it is not time that changes but only the attitudes of man. In 'Dolls of Clay', he depicts the insignificance of man and his vainglorious achievements. In his symbolic poem, Dome of Gold', he laments how money and mean-mindedness have corroded the spirit of man. He ends by saying that gold is really a curse to the society. Ameeruddin's philosophical poems are eye-openers and make us look beyond the 'city of glitter and glory'.
In his long poem The Dreadful Doom to Come' the poet visualises a disastrous destruction that awaits man, for the man of today has ignored all that is eternal, all that is divine. In the name of Science and Technology, in the name of Progress and Prosperity, man has only harmed humanity Man is so much engrossed in the construction of the dome of gold, that he has completely forgotten the divine messengers and heavenly communicators who had come with a divine will and a heavenly sanction. The poet's message to the man of today is that he must wake up from his sensuous slumber and derive a lesson from his past by going back to the "prophets, mystics, avatars, sages and saints" who came in different . . ages . . races and languages" to save mankind from this panic-stricken world.
When we move to his third and fourth collection of poems we seem Ameeruddin as a lover rather than as a philosopher. Like all other acts, the sex act too has a goal. To the poet it is a resurrection of bones and flesh. It is "a repetitive rehearsal... a wheeling image". In the scintillating surroundings of an ancient temple inhabited by captivating statues of zest and passion, the ladylove sees in her lover the 'vivacious Victor Shiva' and the lover sees in his ladylove the 'tumultuous Parvathi' and the result is the dance of Shiva and Parvathi - the cosmic dance of Creation. His enchantress is his "fount of inspiration", his "manuscripts of unwritten poems" and above all "emotions Radha ... passions Parvathi... and spirit's Shakuntala". Yet the poet is not obsessed with love. These two long love poems might be described as a brilliant demonstration of the psychological reality of the modern situation.
Ameeruddin's poems are his response to the world around him. Hence his poetry appeals to us by virtue of his subject matter. But what appeals to us more is the way he handles language. He favours plain language; his rhythms are firm and unfussy though they have all the feel of improvisation. In none of his poems is the reader forced to scratch his head for or rack his brain over the proper understanding of a word or a line. And his poems remain as the best example of the adage: 'Simplicity of style is the natural result of profound thought". In his own words "a good poem must have complexity of thought. It must evoke a kind of curiosity, an element of wonder, a kind of thrill and a sense of novelty and freshness in the minds of its readers. It must have certain element of vagueness and must be suggestive through its well-conceived visual images...and not empty words and direct narration". Syed Ameeruddin's poems serve as ample testimony to the fact that the Philosopher-poet does not preach what he does not practise.
Dr. O.P. Mathur of B.H. University on Petallic Love Times in 1988: Your poetry displays a sensuousness roused to cosmic and metaphysical dimensions. It embodies a harmony of reflection with the fury of passion and is characterised by a striking originality of imagery and style. The book is a positive contribution to contemporary Indian English poetry - a welcome relief from excessive cerebration and cultivated alienation.
On Visioned Summits: It can be considered to be a loose series of monologues,. . . . embodying a journey from depression and anger at the contemporary ambience of evil to the illumined peaks of "benign Nirvana . . Sat-Chit-Ananda". The bi-axial journey naturally consists of a whirling voyage from the agony of contemporary life to the ecstasy of having had a vision of complete harmony between the Self, the World and the Beyond. This group of well over a dozen poems reveals the poet's stance from the existential to the humanistic, looking within the ambiguity of his own self to the carnage around him. This group of synergic poems is a valuable series of peeps into the poet's heart and his varied responses to life. An important aspect of this powerful series of poems is that Ameeruddin's style in it is largely synchronic with the progress of his 'long pilgrimage', his voice an appropriate vehicle for his vision. Its comprehensive framework is enriched by the use of imagery, symbols, paradoxes and metaphors combining two or three of them in a phrase, a line or a sentence. Even before the visioned summits can be reached one has to contend with the all-round degeneration of values echoing "a swan song / for the oncoming deluge of humanity", the eternal enigma of "cycling and recycling experiences" of "birth, copulation, death".
The lines are marked by a concentrated feeling of repulsion and rage trying to burst out through personifications, synaesthesias, series of metaphors, paradoxical phrases, deft use onomatopoeic alliterations, which sometimes pass on from hard hammer-like consonant sounds followed by eeriec serpentine hissings, to return soon to the hard sounds at the end. To highlight a contrasted feeling of joy, an entirely different sound pattern consisting of short playful vowel sounds and liquid consonants has been employed. In a few poems in the middle a tone is low and the movement slow, which is quite in tune with their reflective content. The sound pattern and imagery of the last section are quite different, for they are marked by the poet's approaching "the mysterious spiralling paths / of passion and peace". Essentially, a poet of visionary fragments, Syed Ameeruddin's Visioned Summits was directed towards the attainment of propinquity with the Divine to deliver himself from the world perceived by the senses.
Visions of Deliverance is an exciting collection of poems with both sensual and metaphysical overtones. It is also possible to read it as a wavy sequence of poems on love passing through various phases, not in any emotional order and also interspersed with poems on other subjects most of which have some relation to the theme of love in different fields, but ultimately touching the summits of Deliverance. The underlying subjectivity of the sequence is rooted in filial love. What is remarkable is that almost all his love poems including the romantic ones gradually broaden out into spirituality. His romantic poems explore the presence of the radiance of divinity even in sexual love.
Some of the poems in this collection indicate just worldly garb of divinity which include places, persons, important occasions etc. But through openings in that clothing, divinity does peep out every now and then. The last poem of this collection, 'Visions of Deliverance', comprises three parts, each unique in its own way. The first part projects the innumerable aspects of the repulsiveness of modern life through a powerful fusion of an amazing wealth of imagery with numerous linguistic devices to make the meaning burst upon the reader. It ultimately reaches the tantalizing light of "the twin tunnels" in one of which its destiny, carved by itself, lies. Thus after his Visioned Summits, Syed Ameeruddin in this book casts a backward glance at the worldly phenomena including love, which is often tremulous with intimations of the spiritual. In the last section of the book he has a 'Vision' of the individual soul, reaping its punishment or reward in what is beyond this life, finally reaching its deliverance. What is indeed remarkable about his books is not only the powerful theme and expression but the essential unity of all important religions of the world as envisioned by our ancient scriptures.
The poetry of Syed Ameeruddin with its immortal message of unity conveyed effectively and repeatedly has been acclaimed by critics, both Indian and foreign. A reviewer of Visioned Summits in National Herald describes his poetry as "a conglomeration of the metaphysical , the surreal and existential" while a reviewer in Deccan Herald recognises that "Ameeruddin standsup boldly to release the dove of peace as he envisions the summits attained by world's religions". Justice S. Mohan opines that Ameeruddin's poetry is pregnant with far-reaching suggestiveness and that "he combines a single moment with centuries". Dr. Joy B. Cripps of England is equally suggestive in saying that Ameeruddin's "prophetic words are the living views of universe, holding keys to eerie secrecies". It would perhaps be proper to close with a remark by Dr. Naomi F. Faust of USA which covers many of the4 achievements of Syed Ameeruddin whom she calls "an unique phenomenon for his poetic mission, spiritual vision, vibrating dynamism, symphonic symbolism, complex imagery and above all for his humanitarian and metaphysical concern".
Syed Ameeruddin, the man and the poet - in his own words
(Interview with Syed Ameeruddin - By Atma Ram of Writers Workshop, Kolkata)
According to him, the most distinctive feature of modern Indo-Anglian poetry: The most distinctive feature of modern Indo-Anglian poetry is its secular spirit.'
On what influenced him most: The human misery, plight of the down-trodden and hypocritic attitude of society at every step in life has touched the core of my heart and left indelible impacts of deep influence on my spirit.'
On what set him off to become a writer: 'Basically I have a craving,...an urge to create, to express myself, my own being, my predicaments and reactions about my surroundings and my experiences and encounters with different human, psychic and spiritual situations'.
His views on modern sensibility: 'I am deeply influenced by modern sensibility. Modern man wants to encounter life on the basis of his own experience. He wants to find new meanings, new expressions and fresh solutions. Modern sensibility is considerably influenced by existentialists, realists, neo-realists and surrealists.'
His views on modern man caught in the web of contradictions and complexes: ' 'Man is caught in a web of contradictions and complexes because he is torn between the hypocritic life which he is forced to live and the real spirit in him which recognises the realities of life. The society is so cruel and powerful that it does not allow him to slip out of the shackles of set values which are simply a hoax. The result is a big dilemma, a mental crisis in the individual, who is unable to decide what course exactly he has to take. He is unable to arrive at a compromise.'
Whether his poetry is symbolic: 'Yes - all my poetry is suggestive and highly symbolic'
The most distinctive feature of modern Indo-Anglian poetry: The most distinctive feature of modern Indo-Anglian poetry is its composite culture. Most of the Indo-Anglian poets are influenced excessively by Western thought and modem English poetry. They are profoundly influenced by the English Romantics and particularly by modern English poets like T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, Auden and others. Our writers make use of the influence of western culture and literature in interpreting our ancient Indian sensibility and way of life to the English-knowing world. And also, they give expression to Indian life in the light of the latest trends and techniques evolved by their counterparts in the west. Thus their visual frontiers are deep and vast and their perception of things multi-dimensional.'
His favourite writers and their influence on him: 'I was considerably influenced by Shelley, Keats, Ezra Pound, Eliot, Yeats, Auden, Kalidasa, Tagore and Iqbal in my formative days'.
His attitude towards his critics: 'Indifferent'
His comments on his own poetry: Generally if anyone analyses my poems, he is sure to find ree main aspects in my poetry: i) Spiritual and personal, ii) Social themes, iii) and, most iportant, the multi-facets of love. To be precise, my poetry is deeply rooted in the ancient ijiart ethos. Yet I am a happy modernist and I strive to bridge the gulf between the rich Indian assical values and the exuberant new Indian consciousness. I am a typical Indian poet rooted Indian sensibility. I speak in terms of provocative and forceful metaphors and relate my work 'fhe relevance of contemporary experience, the realistic, neo-realistic and surrealistic trends in 3 behaviour and relationship between the man and the woman of our times and their istentialistic attitude towards life.'
His views on poets' responsibility to the society: 'In my view, poets have a great responsibility society. If a poet wants, he can influence his readers emotionally and he can easily change 2 taste and attitude of people and inculcate in them more social awareness.'
His views on pure poetry: 'I personally believe that poetry must be pure and must aim at sthetic values rather than specific social purpose. Its primary aim must be to delight and if it ;identally instructs, it is welcome.'
- About the Author of this Article : Dr.Nithie Victor - Poet, Critic and Prof. of English - Anna University - Chennai