Poet of the Week

[podalangai]

I'll PM you, Prabhu Ram. I don't want to divert too much attention from the topic.

[P_R]

Got it Thanks podalangai.

[P_R]

Poetry is serious business.Supposed to ruminate on heavy aspects of life, the weight of human existence, the milk of human kindness that makes the misery bearable and not to be missed is the morning dew and sunshine that reflect Nature's hope in new beginnings. Within this framework the temperament that is required to read poetry may be described by the odd expression "studied exuberance".

Humour is supposed to be the other end. A trifling to kept at a good distance from the any notion of literature - particularly poetry.
The unspeakable limericks, the passing rhymes can at best be parlour games and after-dinner funny-liners. Not poetry. Nowhere near the stirring of the soul.

After constructing the above straw-man I present to you the poet of the week who punched him dead: Ogden Nash.

The great American champion of 'light-verse'. He was known for the near traditional rhythm in his poems and the appealing sense of humour. But those who do not take humour - not to mention craft- itself to be sufficient argument for admittance into the hallowed halls of literature : Nash has more. As, I hope, we will proceed to see during the course of this week, many of Nash's poems came have more to offer beyond the first laugh. Here's a taste:

The Ant
The ant has made himself illustrious
Through constant industry industrious
So what?
Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic acid

[Shakthiprabha.]

So what?
Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic acid

Humour is difficult, to bring humour in poetries more so.



I am waiting to relax more.

[P_R]

SP Of course humour is a great relaxant but Nash actually challenges you.

Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic acid

remind me of

தோற்றமும் பொய்களோ
அதன் குணங்களும் பொய்களோ in Bharathi's நிற்பதுவே நடப்பதுவே.

As you are a person inclined towards philosophy you may like - even if not agree - with that poem. That whole poem, as you would know, is a Bharathi raising questions about reality versus sensory perception and finally settles in firmly on perception (காண்பதல்லால் உறுதியில்லை/காண்பது சக்தியாம் அந்த காட்சி நித்யமாம்). In the course of that quest he throws the line about தோற்றம்-குணம் at us.

Consider an ant - the form in which it exists can be dismissed as Maya. It is just a three dimensional object and can be conjured by illuson. But what about it's nature (குணம்) ? Can that also be conjured ? Doesn't its nature seem to be an attribute of the ant. But is the nature a conscious choice of the creature or is it also a mechanical fact ?

Would you be calm and placid
If you were full or formic acid

Perhaps not. You perhaps can't be a slob, you can't help but bite if you are an ant. Quit the traditional allusions, the didactic recommendations to learn from the ant to be busy, just stop trying to understand and fit into a human context every damn thing you see and care to write a poem about. Just observe. With the hopeless inadequacy that you can never become the observed or feel what the observed feels. You can only get a bit closer thanks to a good poem.

That's what makes Nash very special for me.

[Shakthiprabha.]

I supp thats where judging, 6th sense, differentiating and the whole mecahnism of BRAIN AND INTELLECT comes into picture!

EVolvement of nth order.

Most of them dont achieve though to perfection

[pavalamani pragasam]

An attempt at empathy? Putting oneself in the shoes of an ant? Attributing human intellect to an insect, a demonstration of milk of human kindness? A reasoning ant is an interesting idea!

[podalangai]

The Ant
The ant has made himself illustrious
Through constant industry industrious
So what?
Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic acid

This reminds me of a Norwegian poem by Inger Hagerup, a wonderful poet who is in many ways similar to Ogden Nash - she wrote poems that were simultaneously funny and profound. The poem I'm thinking of is called "Mauren" ("The Ant"). Vasavi will know the one I'm talking of. It goes something like this:

Little?
Me?
Far from it.
I'm exactly big enough.
I fill myself compeletly,
length and width
and from top to bottom.
Are you too big for yourself
perhaps?

[pavalamani pragasam]

Wow! That is a classic statement of self-confidence!

[podalangai]

Back to Ogden Nash, here're a couple of lines I rather like from one of his poems:

The only incurable troubles of the rich are the troubles that money can't cure,
Which is a kind of trouble that is even more troublesome if you are poor.
Certainly there are lots of things in life that money won't buy, but it's very funny -
Have you ever tried to buy them without money?