Sources of Poetry

8/11/2019 Sources of Poetry

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In the name of ALLAH the beneficent and

the merciful.

SOUR ES OF

POETRY

Sources of Poetry are a hot point of

discussion now a day. Many scholars are

working on this topic .This study will

highlight the sources of poetry to

somehow but not complete. It is an

attempt to explore the sources of poetry

on a miniature scale.

A humble Effort by GHULAM MUSTAFA

Roll no: s-13-3407(M-Phil Eng Literature

LAHORE LEADS UNIVERSITY LAHORE


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INTRODUCTION: Poetry comes from the soul of man. It is

the best expression of someone feelings, thoughts and

emotions in the form of words and verses. Poetry is a kind of

music which gives pleasure and delight as well as information

about man and his or her surroundings.

Although poetry is a work of imagination and creativity whichis artistically drawn. Poet belongs to humanity and he is

affected by his or her surroundings. Being a genius gets more

and more knowledge in the form of experiences.

Poetry and problems are intermingled in a society in which a

poet or poetess lives. Poetry gives the sufficient solution of

problems. It shows a new scenario, a panorama where

everything is clear and enjoyable.

In this universe, everything derives knowledge from different

sources. Poets are persons with deep thinking. They see

everything from an analytical and philosophical point of view.

Poetry like others derives its knowledge form this universe

and collect data from each and every corner of the world,

processes the data and gives a verdict but not decides yet

judges and gives arguments in the case.


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According to my point of view, poetry gets knowledge and

data from these sources.

Social condition of the societyexcites poets to write

about the problems of society, its absurdities and follies.

They satirize and point out the weaknesses of people

,there thinking and ironic ways in an interesting ways

and compel us to think(Rape Of The Lock By Alexander

Pope) is the best example about the manners,

behavior and attitude of the people of that vary

society

Religious scenario of a societyis helpful to collect data

for poetry. The poets satirize the ironic religious life of

people and their false attachment to the religion and

religious thoughts. Again popeand the Father of English

language Chaucershow the bleak picture of religious

people, clergymen and nuns. Popesatirizes in a

poisonous way and the Chaucerin a very pleasurable

way. For references Canterbury Tales and Rape of the

lock reflect the religious condition of society, divine

poetry by John Donne is also shows some religious

aspects in his religious poetry.

Political condition of a society: political condition of a

country and character of politicians excite the

imagination of poets. They satirize the follies and

absurdities of politicians. For references Surrey, wytte,

pope.


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Economic condition of a society: The poets are

representatives of a common person and highlight the

poor condition of people and bitterly satirize the cruel

capitalism and its harms. William Blake, poetry is an

evident of this point. He satirizes the cruelties of the rich

people.

Cultural condition of society: poets highlight the

cultural aspects of their society and show its importance

and influenceson people.

War and disintegration: Wars isolated the modern man.

The poets are very sensitive. They look from different

point of view. They show the influences of war on

people and their relations. War has bloodshed and

devastation. (Philip Larkin in his poem xixiv) shows the

war effects on people in the poem Mr.Baleeni. SeamusHeaney also shows the effects of war on the people of

Ireland. Postwar poetry is an apt example of this.

Nature and its beauty: Nature excites the imagination

of poets .Romantics are called poets of nature and

Hardy proves hard on man. William words worth wrote

rustic poetry and its natural beauty. S.T.Coleridge,Shelley, Byron are also lovers of nature and its beauty.

John Keats says truth is beauty and beauty is truth.

Women and Children: The pity condition of women and

children in all over the world inspires the genius to write

against the authorities who are cruel to women and


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children. They raised voices in the rights of women and

children. William Blake poetry is an apt example of this.

Judicial System: The judicial procedure is a source of

literature especially the poets who feel from the core of

heart and put themselves at the juxtaposition of those

people. Poets raise the certain questions and unveil the

cruelties of judicial system

Industrialization and urbanization:These two figures

make the people materialistic and there is no sense of

humanization in them. Everything is based on economic

type relations. This grim situation hurts the hearts of

sensible persons and they mourn at this devastating

condition of society and their members. These two

things affected the lives of people at large scale. William

Blake and many others condemned these two figures.Present, past and future:The poets bring example from

the past and compare it with the present and suggest

something better for future to ensure a good future for

humanity. This type of literature has a humanistic

approach and theory.

Experiences of life:A person gets many manyexperiences in his or her life and the genius one

expresses these experiences in form of verses which is

very useful for people to come. Hardships and sufferings

of life affect a lot and a poet gets a catharsis through

verses. All of the poets express their feeling after

undergoing such like situations. The experiences of the


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poets are very useful and become paste for cuts. Mir

Taqi Mir, Mirza Ghalib in Urdu express their feelings and

experiences of life in their poetry very well. Their poetry

has universal appeal and the wishes and expectations

are same all over the world.

New trends in society and cross culture:Ideal world is

very beautiful than the real world. Everyone wants to

acquire facilities and comforts in life. New trends are

very attractive but have also faults which are harmful for

a nation, like European ideas and ways of life comma

system of government were not fruitful in subcontinent.

Their secular ideas were dangerous for Orientals. So the

poets like Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Haali and Akbar

Allah Abadi condemned such like ideas trends of

secularism in their poetry and this is called religioustheory to see the text from the eyes of religion and the

theologians. John Donne religious and Devine poetry is

also an example of this.T.S.Eliot inclination towards the

religion in his theory another example of this.

Govt institutions:Lack of management, idleness and

in efficiencies of govt institutions compelled to raisefingers on their attitudes. The poets brought in light

their follies and absurdities of these institutions in their

poetry. Pope and William Blake raised certain objections

on their performance.

Emotions and feelings of failure people are also

sources of poetry. The tone of such like poetry is very


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sad. There are complaints in such like poetry. Pessimism

is a bright theme of this poetry. Such like of poetry

remembers the compulsion and the weakness of people

in this universe and the theory of absurdisim work

behind it. In Urdu poetry Mir Taqi Mir is a living example

of such like poetry.

Pride and prejudices are source of poetry, the genius

laments on this two bad qualities and habits of people

especially upper class and their cynicism. These qualities

give birth to class conflict, anarchy and hate among the

humanity. These are real danger of war and threat of

separation among same races. Pride and prejudices gave

birth two world wars which affected the lives of the

people at a very large scale. The theory of love and hate

works behind it.Broken hopes: Hope is strong tool and source to face

hardships. Hope keeps a person alive in very bleak

situation. There is disappointment, anxiety and

frustration. A person expresses his/her ideas in a very

gloomy way and his/her attitude toward become bitter.

This is a pessimistic kind poetry. In Urdu poetry Mir TaqiMir is an example of such like poetry. He was a deprived

and displaced person and his hopes were shattered.

Uprising of people stranded:when wealth comes in

middle class society. They flourish and their business

grows with this. Now they want to change their

standard of living but many things do not suit them and


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they become a symbol of humor and ridicule. When

industrial revolution came in Europe and middle class

set up their business and change their way of life. At this

point they showed certain stupidity. They were ridiculed

by poet and author. Especially pope hit a very hard on

such like society and provides a chance to ridicule on

them.

The life of common people and their ways of life almost

ignored by poets and they considered it mean poetry

but in modern age poets made common people subject

of their poetry and gained popularity. In Urdu and

Punjabi poetry the poets portrayed the town people,

their behavior attitude in this shape of verses in

subcontinents Nazir Akbar Abadi especially made a

common people the subject of poetry and now gained awide popularity modern English poetry also made the

life of common people the subject of their poetry.

Ignorance of people:Many poets make the ignorance of

nations the subject of their poetry. They want to awake

them from slumber. They give them a lesson of self

respect if they recognize their abilities and stand tomake them a strong nation. This kind of poetry is

national and reformal poetry. The poets give example

from past to make them strong .In English poetry Waldo

Emerson. In Urdu Iqbal and Haali in India are apt

examples of such like poetry.


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Metaphysics, Hell, Paradise God and anglesare

sources of poetry. Epics are written to highlight the

importance and role of these figures in people life.

Milton in Paradise Lost. Homer in Iliad showed the

importance these figures in their poetry. In Urdu poetry

Shahnama Islam by Hafeez Jalandhry, Halli and Persian

poetry are examples.

Sex and Sexuality:Is and other source of poetry. The

poets and poetess express their feelings, expectations

about the opposite. They express the beauty their

beloved and lover. A poet says wajude zun say hay

kainaat main rung. ExamplesDonne love poetry and in

Urdu Ghazal is clear example. It is an esthetic poetry.

Ethics and Morality: These are sources of poetry and

many poets and poetesses made subject ethic andmorality of their poetry. It is earnest desire of these

geniuses that man must be harmless and civilized on this

Earth.

Conclusion:There may be and can be other sources

of poetry as poetry is a mixture of God, Man relationship

relation of man with man and man`s relation with this

Universe. Man is a central figure of this Universe and

without man everything looks valueless. I gathered

some scattered elements belong to sources of poetry

and left other sources which were not in my view left

these points for people to come. I did my best to collect


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exact data about it, if you find any fault with it please

give me suggestions to make it better.

(Waiting for suggestions)

Ghulam Mustafa

0300-8022230

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Sources of Poetry