Nissim Ezekiel’s Conception of Poetry

Nissim Ezekiel, one of the major poets in Indian English literature, has expressed valuable ideas on literature and life in his letters, critical writings and interviews. It is essential to know his critical credo in order to evaluate his poetry in the right perspective. He looks at literature in relation to society. In all his writings Ezekiel stresses the centrality of man in the universe and prefers poetry of statement and purpose. In American poetry of the sixties Ezekiel found "another kind of lyricism, an easy, controlled flow, not a surrealistic eruption, not a trance-like aesthetic dexterity but poetic reasonableness." "Poetic reasonableness" is the soul of poetry. This poetry expresses "a milieu and its culture."

Ezekiel praises the American poetic tradition "that can be traced back to Whitman. Its peculiar qualities belong to its time and place, a poetry of the utmost freedom, informality and freshness which expresses directly its own independent sensibility. No organized theory, no moral or social doctrine, no mask of reason or respectability, no imagist, symbolist or other technical imperative shapes the consciousness that secretes this verse." It implies that literature of a very high order can only be created in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom. In an essay, entitled Censorship and the Writer, Ezekiel says that writers should enjoy absolute freedom acting as "witnesses to the truth within them." The aim of literature is "discovery and expression of truth", which is entirely personal experience for the writer. The society that promotes literature should aim at "the development of human sensibility." A writer should be a man of convictions, upholding human values.. 

As critic and poet, Ezekiel advocates cultural synthesis. In an interview he said: "The problems of Indian writers are strange. They have to make a synthesis between the ancient and modern cultures." In Ezekiel's own writings a noticeable synthesis happens between the Jewish and the Indian, the Western and the Eastern, the urban and the rural. This synthesis is nicely expressed in Latter Day Psalms:

“The images are beautiful birds 

and colourful fish; they fly, 

They swim into my Jewish consciousness. 

God is a presence here and his people are real. 

I see their sins. I hear 

His anger.”  

Literature not only strengthens cultural contacts but it also promotes the understanding of humanity and its future. He says that a poet should be "authentically a creator and not a cultural inheritor." A poet, divorced from his milieu and cultural ethos, cannot create genuine poetry. He says: "All growth independent of one's environment has an alienating effect." He carefully avoids "the sophistication of the rootless" and "the parochialism of the native." In his poetry, he writes:  

“I have made my commitments now. 

This is one: to stay where I am, 

As others choose to give themselves 

In some remote and backward place. 

My backward place is where I am.” 

Ezekiel recognises "the primal stuff of which poetry and mysticism are made." However, he is opposed to the mystical poetry of Sri Aurobindo on account of the "Asiatic vague immensities" of the mystic and the confusion between art and ideology. He writes, “Vision becomes a substitute for logic and analysis. The experience of poetry is replaced by ideology; in this case that of evolutionary mysticism." Sri Aurobindo's is spoiled by mighty abstractions. Even in his Magnum Opus, Savitri Ezekiel finds embarrassingly bad dated in language, emotionally inflated to the point of grotesqueness and confused in ideas. Ezekiel in his reviews of The Future, Poetry, discards Sri Aurobindo's "peculiarly vapid and windy idiom" and the far-fetched coinages which he coined to express the transcendental realm. "Vision becomes a substitute for logic and analysis. The experience of poetry is replaced by ideology, in this case of evolutionary mysticism." He has courageously exposed the pretensions in poetry and criticism of Sri Aurobindo. 

As opposed to the confusion and obscurity of mystical poetry, Ezekiel prefers a poetry of "human expression." Man, the living centre in the universe, is also the centre in poetry. He boldly discounts "spiritual illumination" and "religious ecstasy" in comparison to human expression.. However, in his later writings Ezekiel makes it abundantly clear that religious experiences and human expressions are not after all incompatible. What he condemns is the denial of human vitality in the course of human illumination. Greatness of poetry lies in its humanising power. In Morning Prayer, Ezekiel prays: 

“Whatever the enigma 

The passion of the blood, 

Grant me the metaphor 

To make it human good.”

In his estimate of Eliot's poetry, Ezekiel recognises the poet's "central poetic and religious concern" as well as "the theme of human destiny." 

Ezekiel stands for simplicity clarity, coherence, lucidity and harmony in art and literature. He is opposed to incoherence and confused thinking and expression. He is averse to obscurity in poetry: 

“Attacks on obscurity in poetry are generally dismissed as anti-intellectualist. But there still remains giving obscurity and difficulty the benefit of the doubt on the ground that some profound truths can be expressed in no other way. Too many poets in the twentieth century offer only the difficulty and not the profundity, though it is not considered respectable in literary circles to say so.” 

There is no justification for obscurity in poetry. The complexity of modern life can be beautifully expressed in a simple form. Ezekiel prefers simplicity of thought and language in modern poetry. In rhythm he would aim at using "the natural, the flowing, the direct and the informal or conversational idiom." Ezekiel's fondness for simplicity is evident in Poster Poems. Each prayer, emanating from the recesses of his inmost being, finds expression in simple direction, for example: 

“Customer 

in the shop of the world, 

tourist from another planet, 

citizen of past and future, 

deceiving with appearances, 

passing as a human being.” 

Ezekiel agrees that normal modes of communication fail when certain kinds of insight (inspiration) are experienced. Here the writer may resort to obliqueness, which does not mean obscurity. An idea gains significance when it is presented obliquely: "But even the simplest idea has dimensions which verbal clarity distorts or altogether destroys. Many a clarified idea is an empty shell". To Ezekiel poetry is emotion and the poetic illusion can be clearly expressed by means of metaphor. 

Ezekiel recognises the importance of subjectivity in both poetry and criticism. It is common to both the creative writer and the critic. He writes: 

“The nature of the subjective, in particular cases, becomes a necessary part of every critical discussion. When it is substantial and not superficial, it is an important contribution to the understanding of a creative work. The subjectivity of the critic is then on par with the subjectivity of the creator. Both are equally creative and critical.” 

Commenting on Wordsworth's "Solitary Reaper", Ezekiel says: "We still do not know the experience till such time as we appear to have passed through a process resembling that implied in Wordsworth's poem." The critic should be capable of reliving imaginatively the experience rendered by the poet. 

Ezekiel denounces poetry as propaganda and he also suspects the bonafides of "versified knowledge." Knowledge in poetry is implicit and inseparable. He emphatically says: "A poem empty of knowledge is a poem that merely skims the surface of life." Although Ezekiel undertakes propaganda and ideology in poetry, he recognises the importance of ideas. He remarks, "Ideas are necessary in poetry but a mere formula will not do. The poet has to relate ideas to the materials of his individual poems so that they are not dissipated in mere statement but give meaning to those materials. "But the poet should not sacrifice image and sensibility at the cost of idea. The image, according to Ezekiel, concretely represents an abstract idea, and, thus, it contributes to the lucidity and clarity of expression. 

Real poetry reveals reality of a higher kind. Ezekiel says: "through poetry we experience a reality that is surely greater than the poetry. But then only great poetry can point to a reality greater than itself." In Hymns in Darkness Ezekiel writes: 

“Belief will not save you, 

nor unbelief 

All you have 

is the sense of reality 

unfathomable 

As it yields its secrets 

slowly, one by one.” 

Ezekiel recognises the elusive nature of poetry. It is "impossible to have a full and final view of the nature of poetry." It is elusive because it embodies truth in its personal and universal aspects. In "A Poem" Ezekiel says: 

“A poem is an episode, completed 
In an hour or two, but poetry
is something more.”

According to Ezekiel poetic truth "may be located anywhere between the strictly personal and the universal." 

Form is essential for poetry. There is close relationship between form and content. The conceptual character or thinking is concealed by the form, which is “not a dress, manner of style but an organic, integrated growth, a basic mode of expression in which thinking is not separate from all the other elements that go into its making." According to Ezekiel the form develops as the poem develops. The relationship between form and content is inevitable and organic. Ezekiel would like "to let the form develop as the poem develops. The problem is how to make a poem well without ending up with a merely well-made poem". A form is also among many things, a happening. It must be inevitable." Ezekiel remarks: “In writing a poem, I want to make or construct a pattern of meanings." The evolution of a pattern of meanings in the form of the poem. Poetry is communication. A good poet communicates not only messages concerning actuality but also ideality.