The Issue of Truth and Light in Literature - Essay Example

Truth and Light “The Light is more than some abstract, unknowable energy force. Light is Truth. If Light is truth, then darkness must be lies. Each and every lie we tell to ourselves and others casts the shadow of separation upon us. Every time even the most minor deception is revealed and the truth is made known we are re-united with the Light. So, Let there be Light. Those are the words by which you can create your own magnificent world.” [1] The above quote mentions that Truth and Light are the two words which are closely associated with each other. Light is the symbol of truth and knowledge, while darkness is the symbol of the false or ignorance. When Lorna Goodison, the Caribbean poetess states, “"Poets are the ones who should write about truth and light," She means that the poets should tell the truth which is the light. The poets according to her are always near to divinity. The ordinary people live a life like the small insects in the fruit of Umbar.* They don’t want to come out of that. They don’t know that there is an infinite divine world beyond this small material world. Poets are the people, who can think emotionally, and that is why they can reach nearer to the divine things and abstract things. They can keep themselves far from the materialism and the worldly pleasure and try to get the real divine pleasure. She wants to reveal from the above statement that the poets are philosopher and they should always tell the truth of life. Beyond materialism there lies the real truth of life which every individual needs to think. *Umbar - A fruit in the category of fist, but it is not worth to eat because many insects and worms are hiding inside this fruit. Basically it is found in India. In her poem “Sister Mary and the Devil,” Lorna describes the tranquility and serenity of the last truth and that is Death. It is the universal truth that every living thing on the earth is bound to die or end some a day. We are living the life with pride, greed, and haughtiness and it is going to end one day. We are taking nothing with us after the death. When the signals of our departure come to us from the divine powers we have to leave. This is the truth and the poets are capable of understanding it. Here in this poem she also exposes the concept of dualism. The body and the soul are two different things and the body is mortal while the soul is immortal. “Let the dead, bury the dead,” means let your body dead and buried but the soul will remain forever. This is a typical Hindu philosophy of dualism which is reflected in Hindu literature and scriptures. The poetess is much matured in her thinking. In her poem “My Will,” also she propounds the same theory of mortality. She knows that the intellectual gift she has got is the grace of God. She thinks that the God gifts such as intellectuality, nobility of mind, values are the gifts of God and they are more precious than gold or any material things. That is the reason why she wants to offer these gifts to his son before she dies. Thus she gives a very true message to her readers that the material things are useless and the real happiness lies in the values and nobility. Both of these poems incline towards spirituality having a philosophical touch. The other poems, written by Lorna, are basically related to the subject of femininity. But again the concept of truth and light is described in a very uncommon manner by the poetess. The futility of the material world and temporary happiness of the mundane world is described in her poem. Basically Lorna Goodison is the poetess who has focused on the sorrow of the Caribbean women. She has focused the unlimited agony and sufferings of the women from her culture. Lorna is very honest in telling the truth in her poems. Basically Lorna Goodison was aware of the fact that the words are like weapons and they have a tremendous capacity to awaken the people and that is the reason she urges that the poets should write about the truth and light. It means they should be candid in expressing their feeling and they should make the people aware of the various social and cultural issues through the power of the words. “Wedding in Hanover” is also a poem where through the bridal ceremony the poetess has reflected the Caribbean culture. The culture is passing from one generation to another and here the focus is on the pious, innocent nubile damsels. She has described the importance of the virginity in her culture. “Later, dressed in shads of bougainvillea Newly cleansed by The family river, The elected virgins Attended her, and the bride is virgin as the river.”(Wedding in Hanover)[2] As mentioned above Lorna was a typical feminine writer and her focus was mainly on the liberation of the women. She directly attacks on the society as well as the judicial system in which women is tortured. She throws the light on the tremendous strength of the women. She gives the example of many women to prove that the women are very strong. “Some have suppressed the strength of men. Imogene has the strength of ten, She has sent the gunmen into bowed retreat. And Irma who raised the red flag like Mother-Banna Suck more bullet for the party than any man.” [3] (Poem “Judges”) In the poems basically the concept “truth and light” is constantly reflected. She is very straight forward in her opinion and reveals the truth by giving strong evidences so we can say that her poems are based on truth and light. She throws the light basically on the unjust done on the women by the society. Thus her poems are basically to bring light in the life of the women by awakening them with the help of the strong weapon of words. The second poet here we are going to consider is Derek Walcott, a noble prize winner poet who also used his poetic verses for expressing the truth. Truth is always bitter but yet it is truth. Derek Walcott calls verse as hard as the sand and at the same time they are clear or true as the sunlight. There is no hypocrisy in his verse. “Verse crisp as sand, clear as sunlight, Cold as the curled wave, ordinary As tumbler of island water ;” [4]( Islands) This poet through the poem wants to reveal the authenticity and the power of his verse. In his poem “Prelude,” he portrays a boy who has infatuation about the island. This is the story about the conversion of a boy into a young man, conversion of the island which was once a paradise into the concrete jungle. It is symbolic. The poet here tries to depict the journey of man from innocence to experience, from ignorance to knowledge, from heaven to material world. But this is the truth of the world. Change is an unavoidable phenomenon in the world. Sometimes because of the knowledge the man has to suffer a lot. In such case knowledge is always not related to clarity, transparency or light. But the contradiction is that sometimes the light of knowledge can led the man to the path of darkness. [Fall of Adam and Eve from paradise to the earth] “A city’s Death by Fire” is the poem which reflects the anarchy of the modern world in which the peace has totally lost. The bitter truth of today’s world is vividly depicted by the poet. The peace, love has no place in the chaos of the world where man has lost his humanity. Even if this is bitter it is the truth with which the entire mankind has to face. “All day I walked abroad among the rubbled tales, Shocked at each wall that stood on the street like a liar; Loud was the bird-rocked sky, and all the clouds were bales torn open by looting, and white, in spite of the fire. [5] While talking about truth and light Walcott here is very concerned about the loss of light and truth and expresses his grief about the darkness spreading all over the island where the Ibo people are living. They are staying and are being tortured and their condition is like the Jews under Hitler’s rule. The hope is lost and again this hope is the symbol of light. People are wandering in the darkness of despair. It is a vivid picture of the political scenario through his poem “The Ibos, you see, are like the Jews, very much the situation in the Hitler’s Germany, I mean the Hausas’ resentment.” I try to see (“negatives”) Derek is the poet who rather prefers to focus on the real world rather than romantic world Thus Derek is like a committed person to the statement, “Poet should always write on truth and light.” The poets such as Derek Walcott, Lorna Goodison, Martin Carter and Eric Roach all are the realistic poets and they always are very much open to the readers and that is the reason why their styles appeal the readers. The real life is always depicted in their poetry. It is always a vivid picture of the society where anything can happen in real life. In his poem, “Flowering Rock,” Eric Roach says, “Beauty famous in the slums; the hungry boy who tomorrow shall become the country’s hero.”[6] That is the reason why all of them can be called philosophers. The openness of Carter’s character has been called by some critics as ‘Carterite thought.’ Kwayana expresses about Carter, “ (the theory of) surplus value and the motion of the stars are as real for him as the buried slave wanting to speak again.”[7] Thus the statement “Poet should always write about truth and Light,” by Lorna Goodison is very much applicable to the above poets who are always rebel and tell the truth of the material world and sometimes they play a role of philosophers and try to find out the final truth of the universe which is beyond imagination of the ordinary people. Sources: [1] Renee Bledsoe, Addiction Alchemy (Truth Quotes, http://www.thepoweroftruth.com/truth_quotes.html [2] “Wedding in Hanover, by Lorna Goodison "Selected Poems" [3] “Judges,” by Lorna Goodison "Selected Poems" [4] “Island,” by Derek Walcott "Collected Poems 1948-1984 [5] “A city’s Death by Fire,” Derek Walcott "Collected Poems 1948-1984 [6] “Flowering Rock,” Eric Roach "The Flowering Rock - collected poems 1938-1974" [7] (pg 17, Stewart Brown, Introduction) Read More