Novelty and Poetry

D. BALAGANGADHARA TILAK
(1919-1966)

Poetry shines only if

it has novelty, chum,
for poetry implies novelty as well;
But, just to be modern
and say something
Why bother yourself and me
With meaningless imagery
and patchwork descriptions
With imitations beyond Dylan Thomas
And crazy syntax sans rhyme or reason
for experience so vague and confused!
“I swallowed two swords
In the late hours of the night
And poured sulphuric acid
On my heart and my head
Scissored my lips and
Stuck them to your

This very minute my eyes be
gold fishes in poison dipped”

It is indeed novel and brave
To Write thus
But it’s nonsense
It is immaturity
Plus Insainty

Into decadence

This bitter drug
Will cause allergy
This cultivation
Will go crazy.
Obscurity in poetry
There could, at times, be, of course
But the image of Your experience
Must reach
And strike the reader
It must be a darkness transparent
And speak to You
Poetry most unlock
The light-ful chest
Of New Experience,
Move it must;
Every word has its
Power and its edge
Every description has a meaning
and an aptness,
Don’t you rattle a tin-drum
of gravel-stones
and bluff your way
By calling it fine music

Don’t you sulk and curse me,
Brother, I am not angry with you.
All men are not Gandhi-ites
Who don homespun
Everything need not command respect
Merely because it is new
Change of apparel doesn’t make a king
Of a common man,
Nor does end-rhyme in itself
make poetry of a prosaic thought,
for poetry is an alchemy
Whose secret only a poet knows,
Like Kalidasa and Peddana
Krishna Sastri and Sri Sri;
Do live in the present
and mirror the world around,
Open all the windows
Welcome all the winds,
Whatever you say must be yours
Breaking forth from within
Poetry is no word play
Nor magic or jugglery
No need today to revive
the verbal acrobatics
of metreand rhyme
Don’t leave the steeds of feelings
With no let or hindrance;
Brother, poetry must uncover
the worlds of light within
The frontiers of consciousness
Must extend
Whether it scatters fire
Or sprinkles nectar
Its end and aim
is Beauty and Bliss.
(Rendered from the Telugu by D. ANJANEYULU)