Anil Paba
Poetry has a deep underlying symbolic message and it often serves as an analogy to significant life events. Love Enigmatic is one such collection of love poems which has been composed by Ashok Kumar Sharma who is serving as a Sr. Lecturer in English in Govt. Hr. Sec. School,Thial, District Udhampur in J&K.
As suggested by the title of the book, this anthology of 63 poems deals with the sublime & platonic love of a passionate lover for his shy & diffident beloved, who, on the other hand, resists his advances due to social and moral obligations. The book begins with an exhaustive description of various dimensions of love which is the basis of all life, as it is only this emotion which binds all the living beings to one another. The preliminary treatise to this anthology titled The Enigma of Love is worth a read. Here the poet has tried his best to unfold the enigma of that mystic love which makes the ones who love always bind inspite of the distances. Various instances have been cited in the poems where the lovers, irrespective of their age and social positions, epitomised love with total devotion and surrender. The poems under study may sometimes make the readers ponder whether the poet is being autobiographical and giving a vent to his own pent up feelings. Giving a free rein to his sense of aesthetics, he delineates the physical charms and divine beauty of his beloved in ornate words by using various figures of speech. While going through the poems, the reader finds a gradual transformation of the lover from being a lover being enamoured of mere physical beauty of his beloved into a mature lover appreciating beauty in a metaphysical manner and finally into a spiritual lover as illustrated by the following lines:
A secluded spot luckily they find
And some secluded moments too
Worldly taboos they never mind
To them only worldly love is true.
( The Passionate Kiss, Poem 6)
How do I describe what thou art to me
Thou art to me my soul & every breath
Thou makest me this world feel & see
And on thou depends my life & death.
(What Thou art to me, Poem 23)
How lucky God made me to be
Two loveliest moons I daily see
One in the sky I watch from the earth
On the earth, the other has taken birth.
( To the Moon, Poem 59)
One also definitely comes across some very beautiful lines of literary worth which have profound significance as far as the contextual and conceptual aspects are concerned. The following lines, for instance, have a universal appeal:
One may listen as the other chatters…
But separate they would be never…
– ‘You Are Not Far’
A hundred words says a kiss on the cheek…
And thus , doth the beloved’s heart woo…
– ‘The Language Of Love’
Love is not that doth change with time…
It is a feeling of total devotion sublime…
That goes beyond place, time and ages…
It douses the fire that in the mind rages…
– ‘The Cosmic Love’
Love is cold and dangerous fire
Fraught with consequences dire
Its smoke is made of deep sighs
The lover always sits in the eyes …
-‘Love Canker’
One smiles when no one is around…
Hears a lot when there is no sound…
‘Love Canker’
The cover of the book is aptly designed to engulf the subject matter thematically. The printing as well is appropriate but improvisations are still needed on the font part as its a bit small for the elderly to be comfortable with. On the whole, the poet has made a good effort to drape his thoughts in beautiful, apt and appropriate choice of words. Various rhyme schemes have been employed by the poet to render beauty to the poems. It also testifies the poet’s command over the language in which the poems have been composed. On the whole, the book is worth every penny spent on it and is a must read for those who wish to read love poems & are interested in unravelling the enigma of love. I congratulate Sh. Ashok Kumar Sharma for his contribution to the field and wish him all the very best for his future endeavours.
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