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REFLECTION OF AN INDIAN POET
Prof. Dr. Frank Tierney
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*Appeared in The Canadian
India Times,
edited by Hamadan Darwesh
In 1842 Alfred Lord Tennyson published his long
interior monologue, locksley Hall. Among the themes
expressed in the narrator's reaction to the first half of the nineteenth century
is a prophecy of the formation of the United Nations: a prophecy of world
federalism:
Till the war drum
throbbed no
longer and the battle flags were
furled in the Parliament of man,
the Federation of the world.
Throughout the poem the speaker expresses public hope
and private despair. In his first volume
of poetry Stephen Gill expresses this same timely and significant theme of
world unity. But there is variety of theme and tone in these twenty- four
poems. He writes of childhood, youth, maturity and love. Most poems, however,
contain at their core the need for love between persons and nations.
There are anti‑war poems like "War is Fraud" :
Made a hero
for the orders
and the kills
on the fields.
In the prison
often thought
about the war
and its fraud.
This poems is typical of Mr.
Gill's subject matter and forms. This capsuled
expression of heroism is juxtaposed against a fickle society which at some moment
elevates to heroism and at another relegates to prison. Ironically, neither
condition is the fault of the character in the poem. Although the ostensible
subject is war the poem's deeper meaning is the corrosion of sensibilities and resulting injustice and
intolerance. The sparse form and bare imagery reinforces the emptiness of human
relations. But this style is representative of most of Mr. Gill's poems. And appropriately so. Because most deal with those fleeting
moments of human contact in which selfishness and irresponsibility are
manifest.
There are other views of life in this volume; and Mr. Gill captures the one
meaningful view‑- love. This view is the vantage point of solutions to
personal and world disharmony. One short example is the poem to "Mother" :
Message of delight
Image of sacrifice
You are highly
prized
This life and
pleasure
I owe to you.
Although the book's prevailing tone is cynical of
mankind's contemporary attitude, there is hope for those persons and nations
who transcend selfishness, aggressiveness and opportunism. There is, in Mr.
Gill's mature work, a public despair but private hope. Survival and growth of
the person and the nation begins with inner enlightenment, inner awareness of
the principle of survival-- love.
But
there is in Tennyson's poem and Mr.
Gill's volume a hierarchy of values. The first and most important is, as John
Henry Newman insisted, "growth with in." This growth requires spiritual priority. This
principle leads man to personal, national and international harmony through an
understanding that comes from love.
Mr. Gill's book
reflects his personal experience.
He is a member
of the Board of Directors of the
World Federalists of Canada and is editor of the Canadian edition of
international publication World Federalist.
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*Dr. Frank Tierney is a professor of English
Literature at the University of Ottawa and also a poet.