Dr Chambial’s “A Poem”

D.C. CHAMBIAL’S ‘A POEM’: A STYLISTIC VIEW

Dr. G. D. Barche

D.C. Chambial, a poet from the land of scenic splendours and glistening grandeur, viz., Himachal Pradesh, is surprisingly here dealing with the evil forces engulfing the modern world. Secondly, though comparatively a rising poet, yet one infallibly notices his deep perception and poetic excellence in ‘A Poem’. The poet has here made a very sincere attempt to highlight the present state of the modem world marked by all pervading violence, loss of values, helplessness, etc. However, he has not stopped at that. He has also confidently pointed to the saviour of this world. Besides, the beauty and the strength of the poem lies in its stylistic choices and their insightful organization. The poem is as follows:

A POEM

Come
I’ll be by you
Sand dunes,
glaciers and floods
flowing in blood.
Story
quite unbelievable.
World sinks into mud
of the Lethe.
Boisterous lake is full.
Who will draw from it?
Sun setting down.
Foxes out for carcass.
cold wriggling.
Brain parched.
hands and mind
amputated
not severed
for SOS Hands.

The first question one faces at the very outset is: who are the dramatis personae- “I and you” in line No. 2? And the answer to this question will be withheld till the end of this analysis as there-in lies the real end of the poem. A close reading of the poem makes us see it being divided into six units. viz, unit No. 1 consisting of lines 1-2; No. 2 of lines 3-5; No. 3 of lines 8-9; No. 4 of line 10; No. 5 of lines 12-15; No. 6 of lines 16-19. Now let us see in detail what these units speak of the present day world.

We begin with unit No. 2 as No. 1 will be dealt with at the end. Unit No. 2 has three lines forming one sentence and projects one crucial aspect of the modern world, viz,. violence. For convenience that unit is given as under.

Sand dunes,
glaciers and floods
flowing in blood.

Here one is reminded of the mythological story of Lord Waman. He asked demon Bali to give him three steps of earth. Bali granted it. And the Lord measured ‘earth’, ‘heaven’ and ‘underworld’ in three steps. Here the poet has measured and depicted the whole world in three words, viz. ‘dunes’, ‘glaciers’ & ‘floods’. Let us first see the simple dictionary meaning of these three words;

Sand dunes:      a hill of sand near the sea or a sand desert,

glaciers: a huge mass of ice which moves slowly down, a mountain valley

floods: a large amount of water that flows fast on plains.

Thus in a very artistic manner the poet has referred to the whole world by showing its people living either at the coastal regions or in the deserts; or at the mountain regions, or in the plains. Further all these regions are marked by violence. Besides, one can see the poetic beauty that emerges from the grouping of the words of invariant and variant nature. The words are invarient in the sense that all the three words are associated with water: ‘dunes’ ­plenty of water (ocean) or no water (desert) glaciers - frozen water; floods - fast flowing water. They are equally variant in the sense that they refer to different forms and colours i.e., dunes - form grains, colour - grey, glaciers - thick mass, colour - white; flood­-large liquid amount, colour - dusty. This unit then finally be interpreted to mean that places may be different, forms and colours of the people may be different, but all share one thing, viz, feelings and emotions suggested by water symbol. Unfortunately, all these people have become the victims of all pervading violence.

Unit No. 3 is as follows:

World sinks into mud
of the Lethe.

Here, poet has avoided the use of the definite article before the common noun ‘world’ and added deliberately before the proper noun ‘Lethe’. This deviation can be interpreted thus: ‘Lethe’ is a river of the underworld causing forgetfulness of the past who drank of it. Here the addition of the definite article shunts it from the old context to the new one. Now it assumes generic sense and it means ‘the river of life’. But then this river of life has no water, i.e. morals, virtues, etc. It has only ‘mud’. i.e. vice, confusion. Secondly, instead of refreshing and making the people remember the old values, it makes them forget them. Similarly the Word ‘World’ without article also assumes generic meaning in the same way as the word ‘man’ assumes in ‘Man is mortal’. Further, the VP ‘sinks’ should take ( + human ) (+ animate) Noun as subject and ( + abstract) Noun as adjunct, e.g., MANMOHAN sank into DEBT. Or BALI sank into SLEEP/VICE, etc. But in the poem it is quite the opposite, viz, ‘World (+ abstract) sinks into mud (+concrete) of the Lethe’. But because of the deviation, this can now be re-wirtten as - ‘MAN sinks into vice / confusion of the present day life. This way the poet has tried to depict the present day life as devoid of values, joys, morals, ideals etc., and the modem man is being swallowed up by such a life.

Unit No. 4, line No.10 – ‘Boisterous Lake is full’ highlights yet another aspect of the present day world. The word ‘boisterous’ means - violent, rough, noisy and it appears in phrases such as-­boisterous weather / sea / behaviour / manners, etc. In the poem it has occurred before the word ‘Lake’. Secondly, this sentence is incomplete and causes ambiguity. That is, instead of only ‘Boisterous lake is full’, it should have been Boisterous lake is full of fish, / of crocodiles / high rising waves’ etc. Now it is a fact that human mind (citta) is often compared with ‘lake’. And in the present context ‘lake’ can be replaced by ‘citta’ (mind) and the sentence can be rewritten as ‘Boisterous (citta) is (anxieties / questings / fears or may be ‘straw’ (a word from Eliot’s ‘the Hollow Men’). This way the line very powerfully presents an unspeakable state of modem man’s ‘citta’ (mind).

After talking about the widespread violence in the modern world; loss of values, ideals, joys, etc., in the present day pattern of life; miserable state of modem man’s mind. Now the poet is concentrating upon the actual life style of the people today in Unit No. 5 lines 12-15;

Sun setting down.
Foxes out for carcass.
Cold Wriggling.
Brain parched.

The stylistic strategies used by the poet here are:

(i) the omission of the verb ‘be’, and objects! complements

(ii) the use of humanising process through paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations. In the light of these facts, the units can be presented as follows.

Sun (is) setting down (in the hills) Foxes (are) butfor carcass (for their food)

Cold (are) wriggling (as Govt. levied new taxes, etc.)

Brain (is) parched (by worries & tensions, etc.)

The subject nouns above have to be understood not in their literal meaning but in the light of the breaking of the selectional rules and the overall context of the poem. In line No. 1 above ‘set down’ also means to scold, to rebutt and as such it should take (+ human) (+ animate) Subject, while here it is ‘sun’ without the definite article ‘the’ and which is (- human) (-animate). ‘Sun’ stands for energy, power. These days we have ‘solar energy! Naturally ‘Sun’ stands for the rich & the strong. Therefore, this line can be rewritten as ‘Boss is setting down the workers in the factory’. That is, the rich and the powerful are bossing over the poor and the weak. Then ‘foxes’ are proverbially known for their cunningness and therefore in the second line it would mean ‘shrewd and cunning people’ who are out to expolit the poor for their prosperity. The verb ‘wriggle’ in line No. 3 should take (+animate) subject, but it is (+abstract). So naturally here ‘cold’ as an animate subject would mean the poor and neglected people and these people are wriggling under sky rocketing prices, newly levied taxes and a host of other problems. In the last line the poet has shown that the modern man’s mind is parched. The poet has skilfully avoided the use of ‘the agent’ as the parching factors are many, e.g., worries, anxieties, tensions and so on. Thus these: four lines have very effectively highlighted the life pattern of the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, the cunning and the simple, etc.

Unit No. 6 (Lines 16-19) is as under:

Hands and wind
amputated
not severed
for SOS Hands.

The miserable physical and mental state of modern man is very precisely projected through this parallelistic structure, having an element of identity and contrast, viz., ‘Hands and mind’. The identity of pattern is quite obvious, i.e., NP and NP. The connection between the two is three-fold, viz, (i) ‘hands’ are concrete, while ‘mind’ is abstract., (ii) ‘Hands’ are the marginal parts of the body, while ‘mind’ the nucleus, (iii) ‘Hands’ are karmendriya, i.e., concerned with physical action, while ‘mind’ Jnanedriya, i.e. concerned with knowledge or thought processes. Besides, two more facts to be noted here are; (i) the physical and the marginal parts i.e., ‘hands’ take first position in this structure, while the abstract and the nucleous, i.e. ‘mind’ comes second; (ii) both these parts are diseased and hence amputated. Now these facts may be interpreted as follows:

In the present day world the physical and marginal parts like hands have not only equalled but also dominated the crucial and vital part like ‘mind’. This fact points to the modern ‘man’s thoughtless actions. Further, unfortunately both ‘hands’ and ‘mind’ are diseased and consequently amputated. This fact refers to the modern man who cannot think or find out solution for the existing problems and then put it into action. On the contrary, he like the passengers of a sinking ship is crying for help, and naturally the question arises who will come for help? Will there be second or third coming? The poet’s answer is firm and clear. According to him this help will be extended by ‘a poem’ as it comes forward and says:

Come,
I’ll be by you.

This is unit No.1 (Lines 1 & 2). At the very outset a question was raised; who are the dramatis personae; ‘I’& ‘You’ in the poem. And here is the answer: ‘1’ is ‘a poem’ who is ready to help ‘you’, the modem man, whose body and mind have badly been impaired. Poetry has been the saviour of man in the past and is ready to help now. Modern man cannot be restored to his earlier healthy state by industrialisation, mechanisation, democratization and so on. Only literature in general and poetry in particular can help him come out of the present ruthless rut.