Growth of Short Verse

Growth of short verse in the West marks the literary trend reflected by gradual replacement of five-act play by the one-act text, novel by the story and the epic by ballad, elegy, ode, sonnet, etc.

Financial constraints of publication activities and the paucity of time available to readers led to the abridging of one-act play to a short scene, curtailing of story to a mini piece and the condensing of poetic expressions to quintet, quatrain, triplet or couplet forms. In the transitional period octave, seplet and sestet texts were also attempted. A few poets toyed with nine-line verse even. But such exercises kept losing to the shorter forms.

Short verse is discussed herein broadly and not in the context of its growth in any particular language or form.

Lengthy presentations had been in vogue in the past when time was not controlled by watches. Usually they commenced with an invocation to a deity and were compiled to humour rulers for seeking patronage. The aspirations of modern world stirred by the concepts of equality and the dignity of individual are radically different from those of medieval age. The writer has a mission to tell something new, valuable and elevating. The electronic media have knit the world into a global community. People seek concise and precise texts for instantaneous rapport.

The shifting by writers from classical to modern languages brought them closer to people. Kabir is prominent among the poets in northern India who adopted short verse in the form of couplet (doha) for communicating with the masses. His diction was simple. The topics he chose concerned everyday life. With his poetic utterances he became a saint as well as seer. His couplets composed in the fifteenth century are still vibrant. Kabir did not believe like the western writers of that period that access to poetry was exclusive privilege of the elite.

Sheikh Saudi is among the Persian writers who popularised short verse in the form of quatrain (called rubai or chopai). His erudite predecessor Omar Khayam through his Rubait (plural of rubai) eulogised wine, beauty and love. His texts added pleasure to the leisure of the rich. Sheikh Saudi, instead, responded to the yearnings of people at large. Gulistan-e-Saudi, comprises short stories interpolated by couplets and quatrains for highlighting the message contained therein. They excelled even the parables in Hebrew for amusing and arousing the readers. The impact of his scholarship was so profound that it influenced people upto Indo-Gangetic plains. Reference to his quatrains and dictums enhances the charm of social discourses.

Quintet (tanka) and the triplet (haiku) were cradled in Japan which remained isolated from a greater part of the world till the Second World War. The literary wealth of Japan got known abroad after its post-war reconstruction. People of ‘The Land of Rising Sun’ have certain peculiar qualities, not known to the inhabitants of other industrialised parts. Guests are invited not for feasting but for watching the beauty of moon, star-lit sky and the sparkling expanse of sea. A few words are exchanged but the charm of natural surroundings is absorbed for acquiring equanimity. The tankas and haikus in Japanese contain the wisdom of such a sublime union with nature.

It is evident that the Asian languages groomed the growth of short verse and it is a valuable contribution to world lore.

Tanka, being a five-lined piece, offers greater scope to the poet for defining and illustrating his topic. But it is losing ground to haiku which is becoming popular due to its shorter size all over the English speaking world. Its other acceptable characteristic is that it conveys its message with spectacular effect.