Now, It Is The Father Of All Poems!

Better Late Than Never, Welcome Sudha!

Dear Sudha,

You came in exactly at the moment I started missing you. What you said is right. It may take quite some time to have the meaning of this poem - I mean not the word-meaning, but its implication for us subjectively - to reach our hearts.

I will let you a secret now. I am not going to post another great poem this Saturday. Instead there will be a fresh round of commentaries on this work. Because one week is too short a time for Kipling's immortal work.

And you have correctly remarked about the following line and I think you have correctly underlined it.

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise

Since I am using every post in this thread to substantiate the great meaning of this poem, let me take this single line now. (Again, as I said to Kamla, please don't think that I am teaching. I am only sharing my understanding).

As I was reading Kipling's lines, I could remember the characters in my life who lived those lines, either positively or negatively (and then it was a more powerful lesson). I am sharing one of the characters here.

He was a highly sociable man. He was the centre of attraction in every gathering. He became the Rotary Governor. But he failed in his personal business. That was okay. He is leading a comfortable life. His son is in the US and his daughter happily married.

But the problem was his attitude to life. He would always try to look too good and more than that talk too wise. I used to love the jokes he cracked. Even the profane jokes had an admirable brilliance about them. But he was so tensed every time as he was particular that his joke should be the best.
This led to building up a lot of internal tension. Result: he had a heart problem as he was touching fifty and had to go for an emergency bypass surgery. At that time his business was not doing well and he did not have enough money. Fortunately his friends in Rotary helped. He is now all right.

I know the Doctor who treated him. He said the heart ailment was due to his "centre of attraction" syndrome; or to use Kipling's words, "talking too wise" syndrome.

regards,
sridhar

 

Have Posted a New Thread

Dear ILites,

Enough of relaxation. Now lets get back to work. I have posted a thread which is a reverse example in the series of Marriage and Emotional Needs.

The example I have quoted is as real as real can be.
Now I am waiting for your response. Sushma is waiting for your advice.

regards,
Varalotti
PS: I do find that the father of the poems has not had enough support from ILites. Normally if a movie runs well it runs for a longer time in the neighbourhood theatre. But here in IL the laws are reversed. I will not be posting another classical/great poem unless enough number of people read this and comment this. So till then you will have the same show running at Saturdays with Varalotti.

 

You did wonders to my ego, Purnima!

Dear Purnima,

I need not even eat for the next three days. Your words have made me full. Thanks a ton.

Because I named this thread Father of All Poems, I think ladies are afraid to come near it. Or having come they are silent. And your silence, you have beautifully explained.

Now I have a policy of explaining a few lines of the poem in every reply of mine.
So we look at these wonderful lines,
Or being lied about don't deal in lies
Or being hated don't give way to hating.
The wordly rule has been to return a lie with another and return hatred with even more intense hatred. When this is done the vicious cycle goes on and on. But great people have been able to break this cycle.
Once Gandhiji was given a bunch of papers in which two Englishmen had written so many nasty things about him. The Englishmen told him with their typical politeness,
"Mr.Gandhi, you need not take all of what we have given you. Just take whatever appears good to you." What audacity! I would have slapped them on their face, which is returning hatred in the same tender. But Gandhiji smiled, took of the pin that held those papers together returning the papers to them.
"Of whatever you gave me I found only this good enough for me. Thanks."
Not only they hang down their heads in shame, but hatred was driven out of their minds.
A saint saw a scorpion struggling in water. He took pity on the poor creature and lifted it with his hand. As the scorpion came out of water it stung him. The saint could not bear the pain and the scorpion fell into water again. Then he lifted it for the second time and got stung again. The scorpion also fell into water. The same thing was repeated many times.
A bystander asked him "Why are you helping that venomous creature?"
The saint replied, "Sir, the Scorpion is acting in accordance with his true nature and I, with mine. "
These incidents can partially explain the truth contained in those great words.
Thanks once again, Purnima.
Varalotti

 

Sorry, Dears, I am a hard task-master!

Most Gracious ILites,
You have known me as a soft writer. But my profession knows me as a hard task master. I think a time has come to play that role to get this classic poem into your hearts.
I have lined up another classic work for posting this Saturday. But to feed more when the food eaten earlier is not digested is a cardinal sin. So now, dears, we'll spend this week in reading this poem again, again and again.

And in accordance with my policy of commenting on a few lines whenever I post in this thread, I have taken up the following lines:

If you can bear to hear the truth you have spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
When the second world war was on, some vested interests in America wanted to build an atomic weapon. Historians now say that it was something as unnecessary as the recent attacks on Iraq. Yet the vested interests badly wanted an atomic bomb.
So they took up the matter with Albert Einstein, who was then the world's most respected scientist living, and asked him to write a letter to the US President about Atomic Bomb. Einstein wrote a general letter about the capabilities that America had and the uses of atomic power, both for destruction and construction.
The letter was the truth spoken. But it was twisted by knaves. And the American Congress, the President were all trapped in that twist. America made the bomb and dropped it on the unsuspecting public of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when the war had almost ended. At least they could have stopped with one bomb. They used the second bomb because it was made with a different technology. A few thousands of people were made guinea pigs to test the technology.

Einstein was upset. That was one regret which he carried to his grave, and who knows, probably beyond too.
But he did not blame the US President or anybody else. He blamed himself for having written that letter. That letter ushered in an atomic era where absolute destruction within ten minutes became a technical feasibility and a practical nightmare.
A similar story is told about Saint Thiayagaraja. He sang a beautiful number on Rama and Sita. And one day when he was walking on the streets of Thiruvaiyaru, he was shocked to see his song sung by a man and woman dancing on the street, something similar to our "Record Dance". He came home and wept before his God. He did not blame them. His devotion was the truth. And the dancer was the knave who twisted the devotional number into a romantic one. The great Saint silently bore it.

Ladies, please do the homework, at least this week.
regards,
Varalotti