The Speculative Solemnity in Stephen Gill’s The Flame
R. C. Shukla
Stephen Gill is a celebrated poet of
international reputation from
Was the battle fought between Ram and Ravana a deed of violence? Certainly not.
Was the battle fought between the Kauravas and Pandavas in the presence of Bhismpitamah
and Dronacharya an act of violence? Certainly not. Both Ravana and the
sons of Dhritrastra were unpardonable because they
were maniacs. They became responsible for the incalculable destruction of peace
in their days. Hirankashyap and Kansa also belonged
to the same category. They were great enemies of peace and progenitors of
unforgettable violence. Gill deserves axiomatic appreciation that he has chosen
for his poem a subject that is as fresh today as it was thousands of years
back. it was the instrument of Flame in the hands of Rama and Lord Krishna which engulfed the demon of ‘Adharma’ and ferocity and Gill is sure that the same flame
will deliver the terrified mankind from the bloody hands of the modern maniacs
rejoicing destruction in the name of justice and peace. These maniac messiahs
are spread throughout the world with their blatant challenges to peace.
Stephen Gill has honestly observed that
“peace is the womb where the poetry of my passion grew” (The Flame 15).
He has also claimed that “The Flame is my extraordinary project” (The
Flame 19). His project is artistically concerned “with politicians,
reformers, peace activists, philosophers, prophets and others” (Ibid). Gill
links the life after death and bliss with a serious concern for peace. He goes
to the extent of saying that “God is the kind of peace in the Scriptures of
both the Hindus and Christians” (Ibid). It was the lack of security in the
country of his birth (the present
Expressing his conviction, Gill says, “I
believe that terrorism is the work of organized groups that carry out the
bloodshed of innocent citizens to gain political, national or religious power”
(The Flame 20). These organized groups do not have any regard for human
life. They practice violence whenever and wherever the same is possible. This
is extremely ironical that they call and consider themselves liberators and jehadis. They spurn democratic means in order to achieve
their objectives. The jehadi groups in
Gill very closely observed the activities of
these groups of brutal human beings. He says, “These groups hold secret
training camps where they exercise for physical fitness, learn to use firearms,
explosives and receive constant doses for their brainwash” (The Flame
21). The people belonging to these groups obtain money through organized
crimes, the sale of drugs and the misuse of funds of some charitable
organizations formed to cheat people and governments. Gill is of the opinion
that these terrorists make CD’s and movies of their heinous crimes to make
money. The poet has rightly said that “Terrorism has become an industry”
(Ibid). Since the cantos of The Flame are about the eternal Flame, they
will certainly help the readers to believe that “Hope is still alive under the
sun” (The Flame 22).
The history of the world is full of savagery
of a host of enemies of the gift of peace. To name a few, Changez
Khan, Nadir Shah, Aurang Zeb,
Adolph Hitler, Mussolini, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the
powerful President of the United States who caused irreparable destruction in
Afghanistan and Iraq, Jarnail Singh Bhindarwala, Prabhakaran were
messiah maniacs. These persons caused terrible devastation to demonstrate their
power. Azhar Masood, Baitulla Mehsood are the names of
the two Pakistanis who shall remain the notorious figures in the history of
Indian sub-continent. Hafiz Said is another person who was chiefly responsible
for the recent killings of hundreds of people in Mumbai.
One great example of violence in the Muslim
world was the massacre of Ali Husain, innocent
children and women by the commander of Yazid, the son
of Mavia. These killings took place in Koofa in
There is, on the contrary, a list of great
human beings who laboured all their lives for the
cause of peace. Mahatma Gandhi, Khan Abdul Gaffar
Khan, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Jesus Christ, Guru Nanak, Prophet
Mohammad, Hazrat Ali, Karl Marx, Lenin and Nelson
Mandela of South Africa fought for peace and freedom for a large number of years.
Marshall Tito, Colonel Nasir, Yasar
Arafat and Jawahar Lal
Nehru were some of the most prominent persons who endeavoured
for the establishment of peace.
The contents of The Flame present for
us scenic pictures of the different kinds of violence committed by the enemies
of peace. He has addressed Flame as “imperishable harmony”, “the softness of
radiant light”, “the luxuriating richness” and “the distinct fount” that feeds
“the ever-growing pangs of the sages” (The Flame 32-33). He has called
it “the sickle that uproots the bushes from the land of the ravens” (34). It is
for him “the boon from justice” (35) and “the white lotus that buds” (36).
These descriptions demonstrate the strong faith of the poet in the power of the
Flame. For him, it is the “undying glory of the prismatic creed that blossoms
peace” (41). The poet is so much in love with peace that his soul shall wander
waiting for the same. The poet is anguished to say that “the avatars of
savagery / mow down defenseless innocents” (48). He has said that “Time stopped
when an explosion / blew up the simple elegance of my flame” (51). Part fifteen
of the poem vividly pictures the pitiable picture of those subjected to
violence as “the wave of supreme disaster / carried bodies / dismembered with
skin sandblasted off” and “a man hung out of a window / blood from his head /
dripping” (52).
The long poem written by Stephen Gill
presents various pictures of violence done by the maniacs. He has written, “A
woman moaned on the ground, part of her leg was gone” and “A short man / with
one leg blown off / sat / looking out of the window / he died soon” (The
Flame 53). There must be no difficulty in understanding that the poet
has knowledge of all such scenes possibly when violence broke out after the
partition of India and during the massacre of the Sikhs on account of the
assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984.
Probably, no poet in English has so
steadfastly painted the scenes of violence. They are so much diverse and
detailed that, to a rapid reader, they may appear wearisome. It shall not be
wrong to say that there are many exaggerations in the narration of the events.
There is more fancy than realism when the poet says, “The sky wondered sadly /
at the mutilated temple / pushed / into a grave, unfathomable horror / by the
avalanche of / hate” (The Flame 58). Many scenes presented by the poet confound
our sense of understanding. It is, at the same time, quite certain that he must
have certainly seen the horrifying pictures when he says, “within an hour /
ambulances / excavators, forklifts / and trucks were everywhere” (63). In spite
of a truth explained above, the picture tires our attention. Any honest reader
of The Flame will feel that in spite of its poetic merits, the poem
suffers from a defenceless obscurity and vagueness.
This obscurity retards our acclamation of its epical nature. The period of
eight years is more than enough to simplify the facts and make them enthusiastically
understandable. However, the long poem represents Gill’s love of the robins of
his art. During the eight years, the poet drowned the chill of his present and
the ghosts of the past.
The
poet remains busy with the depiction of bestiality when he says: “the injured,
bloody and burnt / walked panicked and confused. / Wounded kids / were crying
on the grass / and broken bodies / discarded like hot dog wrappers” (The
Flame 55). The line, “After weeks in the hospital, / the infants returned
home / with a tube to breathe” (71) is noted for striking narration. The worst
which the poet saw were the corpses found with blankets “but the cold hands of
the winds / through the cracks / kept throwing them off” (73).
The visual capacity of the poet deserves
commendation. The pictures of the wounded and dead create pathos for which the
entire book has to be studied. The poet has not worked with imagination alone;
there is stark realism visible form the extensive description of the brutal
deeds of the men engaged in unending killings. The scenes depicted by the poet
are so much gruesome and hideous that the readers are stunned to learn about
the dismembered bodies in “separate bags”. According to Gill, “Several people
spent their nights / in sleeping bags / on cots or folding chairs” (The
Flame 83). The worst thing was that, “Days were filled with funerals / and
expecting / the missing to be recovered” (84). The entire scene was so much
appalling that “the forensic experts staggered / when they matched up hands /
jawbones / and flesh with names” (86).
Having seen the dreadful scenes, the poet
asks several questions. He asks, “Who can tell if the tender hands of the
toddlers / tried to strangle / the throat of the conscience?” (The Flame
91) He also asks, “Who can tell “if they, the maniacs realized, “how they felt
tormenting the bird of peace” (93). The part six of the poem is replete with
searching questions about the “open mouths, fractured skulls and half-shut
eyes” (95). Witnessing the frightful scenes or violence with his own eyes, the
poet opines that the place where the “dismembered limbs lie mocks the blindness
of the brutes” (97). The poet counsels the mothers of the dead children to shed
their tears with cries from the skies. What else can be said about the bloody
scenes? Gill further asks the mothers not to unfold the “bed of the past, a
broken image in the foggy mirror” (101). He says that “with knowledge, easy
money and weight, they become maniac messiahs / to snuff out the inner blaze /
breathing the stink of ferocity / as a pastime” (102). These people sting “the
nightingale of freedoms” (102). They also uproot the tree
where the bird sings” (102). The poet seems to blame himself for not
being able to have done any thing in such an outrageous climate of crimes
committed by the maniacs in the name of justified revenge. He wishes that with
great moral courage, the victims should rise above the depth of solitude to
bless the blotless bosoms for those “who have lost fathers to vultures of
bloodshed and freshen their withering faces” (108).
The poet is so much disillusioned with the scene of violence that he feels that
freedom can not be defended even by “the mightiest armies”. The poet
pathetically says: “Who shall water / the dreary fields of freedoms / turns
pages of hope / for battered handicaps / and prepare something daily / for them
/ on the fire slowing in the hearth / of emptiness” (109).
It is in the thirty fifth poem of part seven
that Stephen Gill has, in a distinctive manner, spoken about the light that is
needed by the people to weed out spite, the frowning evil, the tear, the misery
and the hard days governed by unbearable brutalities of the maniacs. He is of
the view that the mankind needs the grace of light’s presence to end bigotry,
cruelty, the fanatic howls, the fear, the sickness. The people need her support
“to revitalize the dying embers / of the fair and firm beliefs / that shall
build the temple / for today” (110). The gory scenes have so much disillusioned
the poet that he is not able to hear any dove or nightingale and the leafless
trees (orphaned children) tear him apart. The poet aspires that the light were
beside him. He also hungers “for the solacing vineyard of her sight” (112). The
light’s memory is the ‘wine” that matures in the cellar of his aspirations.
The poet requires light that “flickers from
a far off casement”. It is only in such a condition that he shall be able to
bury his quiet depression to build a shrine. The poet calls himself a spark
that “neither fully blames nor fully blows out”. In several ways, the poet
expresses his ambitions that can not be realized without light. He sees a dear
chased by a tiger who is fed. The hint is about the destroyers whose hunger for
human distress never ends like the hunger of the Talibans.
The expectations of the poet from the light of human kindness are unending. The light about which the poet talks can do miracles for the
welfare of mankind. It can renovate the entire personality of the poet
who is subjected to agony and fear on account of the devastation witnessed and
fancied by him. The poet hopefully says, “For relief, I kindle fire in the
stove” (The Flame 126). He also needs the “comfortable cocoon” of her
touch that “warms up ties frozen in distrust” (126).
The genuine ambition of the poet to get the
blessings of the Flame continues to tell him that he will certainly grow as a
human creature and shall feel animation. He wishes to swim in the vastness of
its symphonic form. The poet admits that the battle is unending and he needs support
from the Flame. He emphatically says: “caress me carefully. I am a rose
tethered. / I need tenderness. / Accept me readily. / I am a lamb unclaimed. /
I need a good shepherd” (The Flame 129). In a mood of great despair, the
poet shall not let the arrows of disappointment hurt him provided he gets
support from the light. He aspires to catch the glimpses of her elegance in the
“glow of the candles within the temple that he shall build for her. The Flame
is kind enough to accept even those deranged savages “who erupt the lave of devastation from the depressive corridors of
their oddest mania”. The Flame does not punish even the savage enemies of
humanity. Appreciating the Flame, the poet calls it “the binding force for
families, planets, every atom and every part of every individual” (135).
The eighth canto of Gill’s long poem is full
of veneration for the Flame. After the end of the era of brutalities, the
region is bound to become the palace of peace. In such a condition, even the
cruelest criminals undergo a change. Gill is full of hope of a better world to
follow. He asks the inflicted not to look inside through its openings “painted
within the pigment of poison” (The Flame 142). He advises people not to
come out of the bonds of their freedoms otherwise their memories shall be
troublesome to them because the “candle had been put out long, long ago” (143).
It is quite likely that coming out of solitude, the act would canker the sanity.
The poet empathically advises: “This is the palace of peace. Do
not come near” (144).
The Flame, in the changed scenario, will
distinguish itself like the epitome of her beauty and the dove shall fly
without fear. The lilies of justice shall appear in abundance and the storm of
youth will not cease flowing. The creeds, in such a time, shall not be crushed
and human gods (maniac messiahs) will cease to feed the vultures of war. The
canto is a confab not easily understandable. Gill is optimistic about the
absence of maniacs. He addresses the Flame which will stop the evil birds of
bloodshed. The scene of despair shall not be able to nail the tents. Love, the
poet hopes, will not be suffocated and the twigs will not be damaged “by the
trotting swarm of savages” (The Flame 148). The human gods will not feed
the vultures of war and the dignity of freedom will be defended. The angel,
unexplained by the poet, shall pursue his odyssey “through the barren regions
of the moor” (152). The smell of the poet’s lilac shall prove more animating.
The poet proudly calls his book “an earnest venture” and admits that the
eternal flame of devotion and purity “cannot be imprisoned within human bonds”.
This Flame of hope and devotion is sure to engulf the devilish mortals. The
poet points out the folly of the killers fed with the poison for earning points
to enter the
The poem, in all, has a great sweep, the
commendable flight of the poet’s imagination and his spiritual vitality that is
likely to stagger the understanding of the readers. Its scenes are realistic
enough to wobble the understanding of the readers. The style is gloomy and
sleazy.
Extremely rich in symbolism and the use of imagery,
Gill’s poem is an evidence of his astonishing merits as a poet. The use of new
adjectives and nouns from the beginning to the end is sure to establish Stephen
Gill as a poet par excellence. It is certain that no poet of
Not to say of Hoshang
Merchant, Meena Alexander, Bibhu
Padhi, Arun Kolatkar, no
Indian English poet right from Ezekiel to Kamla Das has been able to weave such a rich imagery in poetry.
The imagery of Ezekiel is chiefly devoted to ornamentation and of Shiv K. Kumar to the exhibition of his European
scholarship. The imagery of Jayanta Mahapatra, if we leave Relationship, is a laboured effort with little poetic appeal and Keki N. Daruwalla, the most
distinguished poet of the present, has failed to dismantle his image as a
Police Officer writing poetry.
Yes, the Urdu poets like Momin,
Mir Taqi Mir, Josh Malihabadi,
Iqbal, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Mirza Ghalib can be compared with Gill in the domain of Poetry
glorified by imagery. The progressive poets in Hindi like Sarveshwar
Dayal Saxena, Nagarjun and Dhoomal are much
inferior to Gill in this regard. They have written like propagandists than like
genuine poets. There are also numberless jewels of imagery in Lord Krishna’s
exhortations to Arjun and the helpless pronouncements
by Bhismapitamah in The Mahabharata.
There is, however, Ramcharitmanas by Goswami Tulsidas which excels all
these poets in the use of imagery. This is so particularly in the dialogues
between Kag Bhushund and Garuda in the Uttarkand. Even the
Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore fails to
achieve the status of Stephen Gill so far as the use of rich and meaningful
imagery is concerned. It is with the help of this imagery and embellished
figures of speech that the poet has endevoured to
explain his faith in the philosophy of existentialism greatly threatened by the
maniacs. The same philosophy was augmented by Franz Kafka and Albert Camu. Few examples of Gill’s imagery are: “the softness of
the radiant light”, “the luxuriating richness”, “the mother of the strings of that
touch that cuddles the infants”, “unruffled ocean amid the frigid draughts”,
“You are the vanity that is the pulsating vessel”, “Your eyes a seaside
retreat”, “The undying glory of the prismatic creed that blossoms peace”, “a
robust fragrance of the morning that claims my care”, “I am the restlessness of
the cloud”, “you dwell in the mysteries of my veins”, “the quietness over the
meadows” and “I wish to end the odyssey of my woes under that tree of your
amazement”. It is not possible to give the entire list of the poet’s imagery
which contains the various figures of speech and a very germane symbolism.
It is on account of the depth of his
approach, the great concern shown for peace and the morbid description of the
scenes of violence that Gill has gained reputation as one of the greatest
modern poets in English. However, he has not been able to offer us a very clear
and candid picture of the title of his book. He only speaks for the sake of not
easily acceptable justification that “Flame also symbolizes sharing,
compassion, sacrifice, courage and witness. I use flame as a symbol as I have
used the bird dove” (The Flame 22). The truth seems to be that Flame
stands for hope born out of the devotional spirit. Flame does not stand for
fire which burns the bodies of the dead or which Eustacia Vye uses as a gesture
of her presence in the heath to meet Wildeve. The Muslims give little
importance to the flame. They burn the candles or incense sticks on the mazars. The activity has been prohibited by the Prophet in Hadees. The flame, as a matter of fact, is the belief of
Hindus and Christians. The candlesticks or the earthen lamps used on festive or
devotional occasions signifies the faith of the people in their deities who, as
their hopes are, will save them from many problems and also grant their most
fervent desires. Gill says that he snugs where a
candle gluts with tears to mourn “your” absence. He again says “I am a spark
that neither fully flares nor fully blows out” (115). The use of the two words
“spark” and “flares” mean that the poet has used the word in the sense of a
sign of devotion and hope without himself explaining in what sense actually the
word has been used. At another place, the poet remarks “When hope sails on /
drooping wings / and a thick fog settles / over the slender shoot of thoughts,
/ you navigate to anchor my boat” (125). The poet says that “I shall catch /
glimpses of your elegance / in the glow of the candles” (132). He calls flame
“light”. He also says: “and where there is no light, there is darkness of the
grave” (135). Here, the darkness of the grave means ignorance which is
antagonistic to the flame. As such, my humble understanding informs me that the
poet has used flame as the symbol of hope represented by the worshippers of the
Lord with the help of a very soothing but pious light.
About the Contributor:
R. C. Shukla was born on