“Lost”, a deftly structured poem, is a dramatic monologue in which the speaker is speaking to his beloved about his innermost feelings. He is deeply in love with her and with a view to enjoy her physically, he fondly caresses her body in order to induce a mood of love making in her by exciting her sex centres. It is one of Mahapatra's finest love poems with a powerful undercurrent of sensuality.
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| Poem, Lost by Jayant Mahapatra | Critical Analysis | |
In the first stanza the speaker's melancholy mood is described through vivid images. It is the time of evening. His room is dimly lighted and drowsy silence is enveloping the entire atmosphere. The speaker feels depressed. However, he fully recognizes his beloved in “the half - light wandering round the room.” In the second stanza the speaker describes how he fondles her body, especially her sex centres, for arousing her sexuality. He wants to learn what she experiences when he caresses her body. Does she feel drowsy, calm, silent, pain or pleasure through the intriguing movement of his finger tips on her delicate body? His intention is to induce a mood of love making in her by caressing, clasping and embracing her body. He closely and minutely observes the impact of his caresses on her body. He feels that her radiant presence seems to impart some kind of pleasantness to the season but his own breath is hard and unwelcome like a touch of stone:
“I watch your body case off the seasons
stretched out as the stone of my breath,
going nowhere.”
In the next stanza the speaker points out that his “hands move on” her body in search of sensual pleasure, resulting from the close physical contact with her. At this juncture he wants to know whether he should reminiscence such experiences which he enjoyed in the past with her or with some other woman. He shuts his eyes and is lulled into thinking about his sexual exploits in the past. The present does not satisfy him.
In the last stanza the speaker says that while he is fondling her, her body is “shrinking in space” because she is not in a responsive mood. His initial self confidence in her vanishes just as a defect may occur in the mechanism of a toy, causing disappointment and sorrow to the child who owns the toy. He is in a fix. What would be the result of this physical contact? Would it lead to a welcome development or to some kind of crisis which might shatter their relationship.
The poet is in a disturbed condition of mind and does not know what to do. He swings between confidence and loss of confidence.
“Like a misplaced watch, this half - light
Where was I when I lost it?”
“Lost” is noticeable for many highly suggestive and picturesque expressions which reveal Mahapatra's enviable command over English; for example: “the evenings heavy”, “half - light wandering round the room”, “lulling silence”, “your body keeps shrinking in space” etc.