Self Unveiled

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I deem it a great privilege to write an introduction to the collection of poems entitled 'Self Unveiled' by Prof. Shrikant 'Prasoon' who happened to be my favourite and dear student while he was doing his B. A. English Hons. course at M. S. College. It is really a difficult task to be objective and fair while reading his poems, for close proximity with the poet is likely to prejudice my reading of his poems. In a scientific age when the stress is on the study of the objective world, there is a natural deepening of the distrust in the discoveries of the subjective faculties of the imagination, and the emotions and their creations. They are considered remote from the world of practical affairs, having no aplication to our daily problems. Sub-jective creations are considered, at best, picturesque fringes decorating the real fabric of life, created in a playful and irresponsible mood by unorthodox individuals who are considered incapable of fitting themselves into the main stream of life.

The heresy about the artist, living in a world of illusions which he helps to create, dies hard. Man is prone to forget that his interest in and regard for even the objective world and its phenomena come from deep subjective sources. He is even more prone to forget that a work of art, a poem or a picture, a song or a statue, is the ordered summation of varied experiences, brought into form from the chaotic and unforseen, and freed from all that had no value or relevance. It is pertinent to point out that for the correction of our distorted vision the reading of poetry is today more necessary than ever before. Modern mercantile people require the corrective lenses of art before we can see things in their right proportions and places.

While reading these poems attention will have to be focused not only upon their intrinsic qualities but also upon the gradual evolution of new perceptions, giving rise to new conventions, upon the changes in idiom, tone and rhythm. The poems in this anthology 'Self Unveiled'; have their own artistic fullness and maturity. Prof 'Prasoon' has not followed any rigid metrical form; he has used a variety of metrical forms which have their own rhythm, sonorousness, flight of fancy and perfection. He has used liberally a wide range of verse forms. Prof 'Prasoon' has employed some uncommon rhyming schemes. In his poem 'Professional to Cosmic Redress" the last word of each stanza rhymes with the last word of all the subsequent stanzas. I have noticed that the first and the fourth lines have fewer syllables and rhyme together while the remaining two lines of the quatrains have similar rhyming pattern and have a greater number of syllables. Moreover the first and the fourth lines of each stanza rhyme alike as is evident in "For Extinction." "Live with All" is marked by novel rhyme pattern. The poem has two stanzas of Seven lines each. But both the stanzas have only one sentence each. In one of his poems Prof 'Prasoon' shows his concern for killing weapons being manufactured by advanced small and big countries.

This is a proof of his deep concern for the safety of mankind and futility of war preparedness. At places he doubts man's wisdom but ultimately he believes man will shed his killing instinct and be guided by reason and live peacefully. The poet is deeply disturbed by the gradual loss of age-long tested human values and so at places his tone is ironical, satirical and skeptical and so he writes. to change a man into an antelope To decorate it with a dope." I believe these poems will jolt the readers' common sense, put a mirror before them and arouse in them a feeling of common good and universal brotherhood.

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