Religious and Philosophic Aspects or Element in the Poetry of Ezekiel

Nissim's Wedding to an Individual System of Beliefs:

The poet brings to the established tradition of love, religion and the passing hour the modern attitude of the need for a commitment, an existential plunge into life, and of cold analytic disgust becoming more detached and ironical as he develops. His attitude to religion is rational, logical. secular and humanistic. His religion is a religion of love and charity, ideals which every religion cherishes and preaches. He was brought up in a mildly orthodox Jewish home which gradually became liberal Jewish. He attended the liberal Synagogue in Bombay until he abandoned religion altogether after leaving school. This decision to abandon religion reveals a keen, rational and analytic mind wedded to an individual system of beliefs.

His Firm Belief in Religion of Love:

He knows that the conventional system of caste and creed puts the people on the fire of violence and makes the wall of division Due to this system people cannot come together in the chain of love. He believes that all barriers dividing mankind should give way to the religion of love for all:

"And yet to speak is good, a man

Is purified through speech alone

Asserting his identity In all that people say and do."

His Claiming God's Love:

A study of The Hymns in Darkness and Poster Poems reveal Ezekiel's reinterpretations of the psalms for the modern man. The poet does not consider himself to be an alien or an outsider but exercises his will to claim God's love even though he knows that it will not come to him. In such poems as the following, the poet's mood is one of reverence and submission, but even here there is no desire to escape, no negation of life, but affirmation and commitment.

Philosophical Humanistic Approach in His Religion:

It is surprising how often the worst prayer occurs in the work of a poet whose approach to life far from being religious is one of philosophical humanism. His natural recourse is to prayer:

"If I could pray, the gist of my

Demanding would be simply this

Quietude. The ordered mind.

Erasure of the inner lie,

And only love in every kiss."

Not Following the Conventional System in Religious Poetry:

In spite of intense Consciousness of transgression, he still does not follow the traditions of purely religious poetry. His poems encompass a multitude of traditions of love, philosophy and religion that belong to different religions-Judaism, Hinduism and Christianity. But the conclusion is always similar:

"Deliver me from evil, Lord

Rouse me to essential good,

Change the drink for me, Lord,

Lead me from the waiting wood."

His Portraying God as a More Human Entity:

Ezekiel's unusual treatment and perception of God, is exposed in the Poster Poems. His concept of God is not the archetypal one or an awesome supernatural power, he in fact, has portrayed God. more human entity. He addresses God as one would address one's friend. Very often his speeches to God are full of wit and sarcasm.

His Exploration the True and False:

In several verses of the collection Poster Poems, he explores the true and the false in himself in order to understand the duality virtue and vice. In the poem Crow, the concept of evil engages his attention. The crow’s crowing is a metaphor for his sense of the innate sin and evil. He questions if it would correct to hate the crow, while we are hiding a crow within ourselves.

His Scepticism in Deliverance:

He is sceptical of deliverance, whether through faith in God's or through man's overweening confidence that he is the master of his fate. He underscores the need for humility and sincerity constant application of the questioning mind. Salvation is a question neither of belief nor unbelief. Human beings are subject to life and mortality.

His Integrating the Material and the Spiritual:

He never addresses God directly, nor does he beg for mercy. He does not pretend to be flying high, but has his feet firmly embedded in the earth, and his vision is fixed on the horizon, which is symbol of God. Neither the world nor the body disgusts the poet. On the contrary he is firmly devoted to both of them and constantly asserts his belief in them. The poet is not a religious or even a moral person in any conventional sense. Yet he has always felt himself to be religious and moral in some sense. The gap between these two statements is the existential sphere of his poetry.

Accepting the Worldly and Sensual Pleasures:

Ezekiel does not believe in the negation of the worldly and sensual pleasures. He has a strong feeling of belonging to the world. He enjoys the world of eye and ear. Neither the world nor the flesh repels Ezekiel. He is rather committed to both of them, and affirms his faith in them again and again. His poems reveal not only an awareness of his sinful self but also his constant pre-occupation with the supreme Deity:

"The vices l've always had

I still have

The virtues I've never had

I still do not have

From this Human way to life

Who can rescue Man

If not, His maker

Do thy duty, Lord."