A
Handful of Solitude
The
Sunny Poems-Exodus: Homage to Moses the Messiah
By
Gobinda Biswas
Progreesive
Publishers
Price:
Rs 100/-
Reviewed
by: Shubhaiyu Chakraborty,
Assistant Professor in
English,
Sudhiranjan Lahiri
Mahavidyalaya
Majdia, Nadia.
A magnum opus is not
restrictive to any theme, any time or as a matter of fact to any civilization.
It is timeless with multiplicity of subjects some of social concern, others
catering to the delight of serious academicians. The Sunny Poems by Gobinda Biswas is a Pandora’s Box that calls
forth immediate attention of poetry lovers. The poet seems to be imbibed with a
romantic sensibility in his ability to recreate ideology on one hand. On the other
lies a deep rooted modern philosopher who hankers for happiness that goes
beyond materialistic pleasure, something unknown in the present era. All the
eighty-six poems of his maiden anthology are stand-alone individual gems that
can also be woven together in the form of a necklace.
The opening poem “To My
Love, My Saviour” is full of classical allusions, is a mixture of Shelley in
approach and Keats in content. The references to Mephistopheles, Icarus, Scylla
or Charibdis calls forth literary scholarship. The allusions continue further
in the sixteenth piece in sequence entitled “Between Scylla and Charibdis” and
in the poem entitled “Clytie and Apollo”. In no time the readers are teleported
into war affected Iraq, the death toll and a rhetorical question-‘Will it
continue forever…?’ “Context-Iraq War”, the following poem takes us back to the
world ‘where men sit and hear each other groan’ It is a contemporary take on
Wilfred Owen and the ‘Pity of war, the pity that war distilled’. The piece
“Agony of a Child of a Militant” takes the readers a step further to this
anti-war theme. The poet deftly takes the theme of agony of the child and
shifts the platform- war shifts and working parents take its place. Thus,
“Inner-conflict of a Little Child of Employed Parents” appears.
The third, a sonnet
entitled, ‘To My Stella’ and another “In Search of Pure Love” seems to be a
tribute to the Petrarchan sonnet form and to the creator of Astrophel and Stella. It is to be noted that all Bengali poets owe
their respected to the mighty and colossal Tagore, Gobinda Biswas is no
exception. The brilliantly balances the influences of the west with his
oriental subject matter even though they are not restrictive to petty
regionalism.
The poet recalls the
Christian faith at the very outset as the anthology is sub-titled as “Exodus:
Homage to Moses the Messiah”. He takes the theme forward in “Kind Jesus” and
“You are Our Moses, the Liberator”. He seems to believe that the only way to
end misery in every form is hope. He is a new Blake in the making in “Pangs of
a child –Labourer” which resembles “Chimney Sweeper”. But the poet cleverly
liberates himself from being the torch-bearer of one particular religion. He
also believes in the philosophy of Sri Chaitanya and Buddha. He poet advocates
socialism, fraternity and serenity that he feels key to world peace.
Interesting amid such
variety of issues, the poet never forgets to pay tribute to the persons
responsible for his success, be it his parents or his teacher. His two poems
dedicated to his teachers and the one dedicated to his father are more than
subjective.
Through million years
our plant has evolved an ecological system that accommodates the organic and
inorganic world through a system of interdependence. Fredrick Engels in his
essay “Dialectics of Nature” has pointed that “All nature from the smallest
thing to the biggest, from a grain of sand to the sun, from the prostita [primary living cells] to man
is in a constant state of coming into being and going out of being”. Homo
Sapiens is the latest product of evolution; but the newcomer, after mastering
the universe, has spelled the doom of other beings who have a natural right to
exist on the planet. Within a small span of time, human civilization has
colonized the earth, its atmosphere, its water, land, organisms and plundered
its resources, to convert the world, after consuming it, into a vast sink. Life
has become endangered in this vulnerable planet. And none of conscience can
shrink his / her responsibility by simply avoiding such problem of mammoth
proportion. “Trees Fall and Lament” caters to such ecological concerns.
Overall, The Sunny Poems-Exodus: Homage to Moses the Messiah is a fascinating read that has every
potential of being the manifesto of global peace and we are eager to listen to
more from him.
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