Re: Another poem I like by Machiraju Savitri
Srikanth Bandi (srik@lig.di.epfl.ch)
Tue, 17 Jun 1997 17:28:08 -0600
First, I should state that I am not well versed in
poetry discussions as I have read very little of poetry
sadly because it never interested me.
But every now and then I read on the web,
if only accidentally. So my comments are
bound to be very rudimentary.
You, thus, have been warned!
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Only way I judge something poetic is whether it is
appealing on reading some vague way or the other.
Over all, it is appealing and sounds rather well.
It is difficult to express this in terms of 'telusA'
type discussions which usually go over my head.
First, simplicity of the language makes the presentation very clear.
In fact some 'vacana kavitvamulu' I have come across
distinguished themselves from normal prose solely by virtue of
being written in a complicated language. That way, when I read this
I did not consider this as a poem. (I do not mean to this as
an insult as some anonymous nettor has done, but as a personal assessment)
But this is not clearly prose either. To me it
sounds more appropriately like a 'gEyam', 'pATa'
or something like that. Rather a beautiful song, I must say.
Apart from clarity of language what is even more appealing
is clarity of an idea (or thought); and the demonstration
of the power of the language that a complicated process
can be expressed so clearly and succinctly.
Lastly, the expression of the contrasting conflicts the nation is
subjected to is hard hitting. Freedom vs slavery,
solidarity vs opportunism, strength vs weakness, poor vs rich,
trust vs betrayal. It is like a black and white picture in which
sharp contrasts between light and shade intensify feeling.
This said, some non-poetical remarks:
What is written is correct only in an extremely abstract way.
Not more than that. It is hardly representative of a real process.
So judged by reality, the poem doesn't offer much.
At the same time I feel that all art forms have to present reality
in an abstract fashion. This is precondition.
That, this poem fulfills this very well IMO.
-srikanth
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