Nature
in Stephen Gill’s The Flame
Alka Agrawal
One tree
humans are leaves
God is the source. (Flashes 36)
The excerpt from Flashes clearly reflects Stephen Gill’s love for nature. Nature, which is an integral part of his poetic fabric, speaks itself through symbols that reveal the ideas and concepts which he wishes to express. The excerpt “One tree / humans are leaves / God is the source” reveals the principle of cosmopolitanism that considers all human beings as leaves of one tree, i.e. God. Such ideas expressed through nature can also be traced in Stephen Gill’s poetic volume, The Flame which is composed on epical structure covering 62 Cantos in eight parts in 152 pages. All the objects of nature, including the wind, mountain, trees, flowers, the birds like dove speak themselves when they get the touch of Gill’s fine poetic brush that makes them lively creating their image before the readers as well as the living picture of metaphors for which they are mentioned in the text.
Gill
believes: “A person is largely the product of the environment” (Shrine 25). When he talks of
environment, he points to the surroundings.
But, these surroundings find articulations better through the
objects of nature. As he is a sensitive humanitarian, he longs and prays for
“the elimination of man’s hatred for man from man’s heart, and the realization
of a new heaven on earth where human beings remain only human and humane purged
of all devilish attributes ” (Glimpses
190). Nature does not know such hatred and, hence, is his favourite
not because of natural scenes but because of his habit of sharing his feelings
with her. He writes poetry which is his
first love. In response to a question: “Why does he write?” he replies: “Ask a
flower why it blooms, ask the moon why it reflects light, ask
anyone why he breathes?” Even, he responds in a vocabulary taken from
nature. In Author’s Preface, he
writes: “It is a collection of the
flowers whose cultivator has roots in the centuries old culture of the
subcontinent of
No
doubt India is a land of ‘Unity in Diversity’ and its vast heritage of more
than 1618 languages, 6400 castes, 6 religions, 6 ethnic groups and 29 major
festivals, preaches for the principle of ‘Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam’. All earlier classics of
Indian Literature such as Vedas, Upnishads, Puranas and epics like Bhagvatgita,
Ramcharitmanas etc. speak of oneness with Mother
Nature. Stephen Gill’s The Flame though deals mainly with terrorism
and the possibilities of the options of peace never separates itself with the
depiction of natural objects. It also deals with the five natural elements of
Hindu mythology depicted by Goswami Tulsidas.
Shiti, Gal, Pawak, Gagan, Sameera.
Panchatva Mili
(That is our body is made of five elements of nature, namely, Earth, Water, Fire, Sky and Air)
Dr. T. Ravichandran has rightly analyzed Gill’s ecoconcern and emphasized the ecocritical reading. He comments: “An ecocritical reading of Gill’s poems suggests that there is an understanding concern for the earth, the environment and the nature …… Gill derives this (own) power by considering him as an integral part of holistic nature that is responsible for maintaining ecological equilibrium” (Discovering Stephen Gill 25-26). An ecocritical reading will help in understanding Gill’s love for nature. The Flame, if studied from ecocritical lenses, will reveal the secrets hidden in layers. If it is evaluated apart from nature, it will lose most of its beauty and charm. Nature descriptions, metaphors, images and elaborations add to its charm. The first part of The Flame which is devotional is also replete with Nature imagery. He praises the flame:
You are the monarch of the ray
that vibrates the carol
of the skylark in flight
and the raptures
of the brilliantly illumined waves
which frolic with banks while sunning. (The Flame 34)
He calls himself “the restlessness of the cloud” and the flame or God as “the lightning of thunder that kindles the fire of trust”. For him, God is nature and nature is God. He believes that Poetry is beauty and beauty is poetry. But everyone does not have the abilities to bring out gracefully the God within. It is a poet who gives that god a shape with the beauty of the language and Gill’s language of describing God is the language of Nature. Mark the lines:
You are the spectacular sight
of the first appearance of light
that dissolves discomforts
of the pilgrims of peace
and the order that blooms
in the creative impulse of nature. (The Flame 35)
The presence of God in Nature is not in the form of natural objects but is mingled to the extent that both have become one. It is impossible either to visualize or to imagine them who is who in the beginning cantos. God has created this Universe and there is beauty everywhere. That is what the Bible says in its story on the origin of the universe. After every creation, God said beautiful. There is beauty in every object and God is present in every object. Mark the excerpt for expressing this idea through the objects of nature:
You are
the softness of the radiant might
that melts the mist,
stirs the soul of clouds
pushes down the rain showers
which kiss the dry lips of earth
and the wordless sonata
that moves the sharp white beams
of the moon.
In creation
You are a balance. (The Flame 32)
Gill comments on poets that they are “painters who paint words instead of colours, or they are singers who use lyrics instead of using the movements of their hands, legs and facial expressions.” The Flame is coloured with the images which illustrate pictures before the readers who feel and see them virtually. Mark the images of God, wrapped with the objects of nature:
You are
the single inner sanctum
that sails
on the breast of emotion’s
unruffled ocean.
Amid the frigid draughts
You emerge as a wave of warmth
muffling me in the arms
of your affection. (The Flame 37)
The Flame is about Peace but along with the talk of peace, some concrete ideology and activities are also needed because “nature courts the night’s favor / for a feast of peace” (The Flame 37). Unlike faith in the worship of God, Nature also has the soothing effect and the poet in Gill longs for peace and calm in the world of terror, worry and pains. He wishes:
Sweetness of engaging charms
of flowers
and a robust fragrance of the morning
that calms my care. (The Flame 41)
For Gill, poetry is an unusual experience that shakes him thoroughly. He uses images to convey his experiences in a beautiful way and it requires a proper arrangement of words. Here comes the intellectual exercise that needs “dipping into the amazing world of words”. He employs nature and natural objects as they serve his purpose of articulations in a forceful manner.
I wish
to awake under that dome
where
untainted fountains
from the realm of your compassion
pacify unquenchable thirst
and where
dreams open the portals
of freedom. (The Flame 45)
Gill has personified the Flame in a unique manner. She is nature, the image of peace. One who comes in her touch feels the very peace in his soul. The poet in Gill wants to forget his pangs in the lap of Mother Nature and like Keats, he wants to enjoy complete rest there. Mark the excerpt:
I wish to end the odyssey of my woes
under that tree of your amazement
where
happiness does not take leave
and the shaken leaves
smell the fragrance
of the warm sweet clover
from the exalted heights of intensity
for the fondest hope to see
the fruit of peace. (The Flame 46)
From Part Two to Part Five, The Flame is about the destruction caused by maniac messiahs who, as Stephen Gill remarks , are misled individuals who generate the blizzards of fear and panic. They commit horrendous crimes against humanity. The poet in Gill states that a poem is by a human for humans about a deep inner experience that is symbolized through a language. With the power of his pen, the poet expresses his views in the manner as desired by the supreme divine power. In the case of Gill, the Almighty expects him ‘to do something for peace’ and The Flame is about peace. The terrible destruction caused by terrorists’ activities and their vibrant and heart-melting illustrations presented in Canto 15 compel the readers not only to think but also do something for the sufferers. Even then, the descriptions in this canto are not devoid of nature touches.
Gill himself declares: “I use flame as a symbol as I have used the bird dove” (The Flame 22). The use of imagery attracts the readers who are lost in the net of diverse techniques. As from devotional to horrible, the Part One changes into Part Two; in the same manner, nature also changes its attire from ‘soft and smooth’ to ‘raw and robust’ in this part. For instance: “the first sight of the first ray”, “spiders of sinister news crawl in and out of the cracks”, “the lush vegetation sprawl in the gulf of the spring”, storm “the bushes of disharmony leaves fly around”.
In the Second Part, Gill mourns:
The smooth surroundings
of the temple of my flame
have grown treacherous
in a thickening fog. (The Flame 49)
Before the bomb blast, like everyday, ‘birds chirped’ and ‘the sun rejuvenated on the stage of humdrum’ but suddenly ‘a frightening boom ….. rocked the structure of tranquility’ and then, “The birds that reposed / on secure boughs / flew in fear. / for days / sparrows, roses and dawns / forgot their songs” (The Flame 50). The waves of supreme disaster carried bodies dismembered with skin sand blasted off. Many lost their eyes, ears and fingers. A young mother, head swathed, was crying for her kids; another, naked from the waist downs. Wounded kids were crying on the grass and broken bodies discarded like hot dog wrappers. Cars crumpled, flipped and went into flames. Getting out of the car, a woman was burnt to death. Buildings blocks collapsed. Some one found a child’s finger. These depictions are the instances which stir the readers to weep. Nature who is Gill’s inseparable companion always joins him hand in hand:
The remnants of wrecked corners
looked grim
the sky wounded sadly
at the mutilated temple
pushed
into a grave of unfathomable horror
by the avalanche of
the hate. (The Flame 58)
The battering body of the abode of poet’s flame flaring in the dark baffles the world with an earthshaking revelation. Broken doors, interiors and glass materials spreading on the floors and pavements find the natural expression:
Bright as razors
it rained across the neighborhood
through a fog of white dust.
The coating of broken glass that glittered in the sun
crumbled under the shoes. (The Flame 60)
The fire fighters, police, helpers, social welfare organizations ‘toiled in chilly nights, fighting the smothering clouds of dust’ and ‘blood stains were washed by rains’. The fortunate living, unfortunately separated from their mother, father, children or spouse were carried to the refugee camps:
There were no wailing, no screaming over the earth shattering slaughter that pulverized the leaves of the young season ‘untouched by the outburst of cyclones.’ ‘Silence’ personified as a women, wanders in ‘the lonely corridor of the evening’ and ‘time’ indifferently ‘watches the ethical poverty of the zealots’ who struck random blows to ‘the beauty of my flame’.
Part Six of The Flame focuses on those people who are responsible for destruction. Gill thinks that the people who remain silent are also to be blamed. He is bold enough to ask questions from these maniac messiahs if they ‘hear’ the ‘silence of infants in the cradles of terror’; ‘share’ the ‘woes of mothers in the winter of their lives’; ‘see’ the ‘shreds of peace flying with the winds of the daggers’; etc. Wounded twigs, kisses of storm, indifference of cold are some expressions which are the enduring charm of Gill’s, unique blending of personification with natural objects. Nature stands just as a human being for him where lake ‘torments’, rays are ‘virgin’, and the sun ‘throws’ a mask of the blaze.
Even the hard – hearted terrorists’ internal feelings get the explanation embedded with nature images that perhaps they trembled within “as a leaf in the autumn” while “tormenting the bird of peace”. The poet is shocked, worried but not hopeless. He says: “The Passion of my rose / shall bloom / with fresh vitality” (The Flame 95). The climax of terror and death comes with nature again as:
Consecrated with blood
the grass and flowers
shall appear
from the lips of the child
and
The branches of the trees
shall be the limbs of the infant
whose light was put off
by the wildest winds. (The Flame 96)
Mountain ‘gives birth’ daily to another dawn, morning has ‘buried your elders’, birds ‘flew to teach their tongue’ and peace has been ‘tested in the cyclone of the freshness of early morning’. The panorama of grimness outlines the blueprints for the nest of tomorrow and:
The season of the dense fog of danger
standing as the wall of wadding
has dissolved
in the fold of the spring.
Skies
spread their prismic wings
over the forces of confusion
for new vistas to emerge. (The Flame 100)
Car bombs, mobility and might become the toys of the robots and with knowledge, easy money and weight they become maniac messiahs ‘breathing the stink of ferocity as a pastime they still the nightingale of freedoms uprooting the tree where the bird sings’ but ‘they cannot see opening to the sky as does a butterfly’. The poet in Gill yearns for the loss caused by the destroyers of peace. After extolling the virtues of the Flame, he portrays despair and, then, memorizes it. Terrorists loose suffocating gases from the sea of their insanity; storms hide the glow of hill with the dust and the albatross of intolerance flies over the flowers. Dr. Ravichandran comments: “When the poet has lost hope of redeeming mankind, he trusts that nature will resort to its own methods of survival. In this respect, he is inclined to believe that the plants and other objects of ecosphere have a unified breathing consciousness which to a large extent subscribes to Gaia hypothesis” (Discovering Stephen Gill 33).
The poet thirsts for the water that flows from unclouded tranquility and wants to hear the melody which floats in the blue lake under the golden canopy of God’s presence where the waves of human life flow once a week to bow in silence. The poet yearns:
Under the half-shut eyes of the
daybreak
smiling landscape
has lost the freshness of white daisy.
….
I do not hear any dove
or nightingale
the leafless trees
tear me apart. (The Flame 111)
The elements of nature are integrated and merged with each other in an effortless manner. Gill employs a technique to translate ecoconcerns into practical shape. Sometimes, he takes the help of figures of speech particularly similes and metaphors. Sometimes, he addresses nature directly. He addresses enemies of peace as ‘snakes of personal migraines’, ‘Reptiles’ or ‘Spirits of persistent plagues’. He finds relaxation and solace in a garden where flowers bathe in a shower of peace. He feels the feathers of a rose and God’s presence inside softly wrapped. For him a terrorist is like a ‘tiger’ fed on the flaunting fruits of terror in the bushes of unparalleled ignorance where he cannot hear the birds of freedom. Like Wordsworth, he utters:
Where daffodils shall never die
and the effervescent laces of my lyrics
stretch their endless wings through a
new universe of the brain cells
of imagery. (The Flame 123)
….
Like Skylark, he longs:
I wish to be a dove in flight
Above the black mud of fetters. (The Flame 126)
The poet calls himself a rose ‘tethered’ that needs tenderness, a root ‘unprotected’ that requires the breeze, a lamb ‘unclaimed’ that wants a good shepherd. The Flame is the result of the eight years of poet’s anxious care of these ‘robins’ of his art. In the last part of The Flame, the poet is ready to welcome God ‘hidden within the eyes of the stars, the breath of the breeze and the spirit of the muse’ and if he fails to see Him there, he’ll look:
within the petals of the rose
and
the wind that whispers
with the restless clouds
above the heights of the hills
I shall mark your shadow
also in water falls. (The Flame 131-132)
Five elements i.e. EARTH, WATER, FIRE, SKY and AIR find their complete expression in The Flame, as Gill remarks that, “Flame has been and it still is the main symbol in the Vedic Scriptures. In the Hindu Religion the Almighty symbolizes five elements. One of those elements is fire. People in the Vedic age worshipped fire and even now some Hindus keep the fire burning during worship” (The Flame 23). Mark the excerpt for the power of the flame that is the source of five elements:
Flame is light
and where there is no light
there is darkness of the grave
where vermin grow
on the bodies of speculative creeds. (The Flame 135)
The Canto Fifty Eight of The Flame is worthwhile to understand the five essentials of this Universe. Sample the few instances:
When the moon was out with its lantern
his mind more than ever
tossed on the ebbs
of a turbulent sea. (The Flame 139)
……
The sun receded further down
towards the earth
where
the sky appeared to be
hugging it. (The Flame 140)
…….
I am there
breeze around him whispered
“Where?”
In The Flame of your temple. (The Flame 141)
Just in the manner of Tagore, he aspires for peaceful dwelling, “where the dove flies without fear”, “the streams of youth do not cease flowing” and “where as a mad prophet in painful ecstasy”, he will “bathe in the mystical falls” to defend “the dignity of freedom”.
The
last canto of The Flame is dedicated
to Hope. “Without hope life is a
The echoes of their moans
shall bear no desirable flavour for me
because of the smell of my lilac
that is more animating
than their tempting promises. (The Flame 152)
To sum up, it is nature that has gone deep into the psyche of Stephen Gill so much that he cannot separate himself from her. His love for nature results in the use of the vocabulary of nature. Whenever he talks or whatever he writes, he cannot live without using the words taken from the world of nature. In his magnum opus, he has captivated all the shades of nature as he himself wished to assemble flowers of all hues into a single bouquet. This single bouquet is well placed because of the net of diverse techniques which have made the poem appealing to the reader’s sense and sensibility.
Works Cited:
Chambial, D. C. “Stephen Gill: Shrine”, Glimpses (A Selection of published
articles). Ed. Hamadan
Gill,
Stephen. The Flame,
Gill,
Stephen. Flashes,
Ravichandran, T. “Green Dove in the Shrine: Ecoconcerns
in Stephen Gill’s Shrine”, Discovering
Stephen Gill: A Collection of Papers and Articles (ed.) Nilanshu
Kumar Agarwal.
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