Page 39 - Expanding horizons (pictorial poetry) 27-8-18

Research Paper on Pictorial Poetry

Prof. Bina Singh

When your Poetry is the pursuit of the truth that is man's knowledge of himself and the world around him. The truth of poetry cleaves to us as a necessary part of our existence, for they

concern man's relation to man, on the one hand, and his relation to the external world Nature, on another hand. It is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge. In order to
look narrates breathe this knowledge and achieve joy with moral gain, poetry has adopted various styles of expressions. Today, this fine spirit is portrayed through visual pictures,
giving poetry an effective style called pictorial poetry.

a story; Rabindranath Tagore paying tribute to Walt Whitman, once said," Whitman is the highest name…Whitman gives me pictures- pictures!" Tagore's statement speaks about
the picturesque magnificence of Whitman's poetic art, its graphic pictorial style depicting the physiognomy- the external. Because Whitman believed that each exterior is
the physiognomy of the being within- it's the true image. Thus, he writes:"I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the Soul.” He meant to say that he regarded each
with equal reverence. He further explains in his notebook claiming," most writers have disclaimed the physical world, they have not over-estimated the other or Soul, but
have underestimated the corporeal. How shall my eyes separate the beauty of the blossoming buckwheat field from the stalks and heads of tangible matter?"

your words Whitman's above-mentioned claim gives an authentic evidence to his passionate indulgence in achieving poetic beauty to his lyrical compositions through pictorial
images. His poetic canvas depicts images drawn from the physical world around, giving them the verbal colours, enhancing the magical beauty of his poetic landscape.
The spell of his verbal picture is so vivid and graphics that one does not read but visualize the creative picture. Two illustrative pieces of evidence of his masterpiece
make you compositions prove visualization is the essence of poetry. Firstly the poem titled 'To A Locomotive In Winter', achieves remarkable pictorial exquisiteness when he writes,
"Thy black cylindrical body, golden brass, and silvery steel/ Thy ponderous side-bars, parallel and connecting rods, grayling, shuttling at the sides.....The dense and
more stunning murky clouds out belching from thy smokestack, thy knitted frame, thy springs, and valves the tremulous twinkle of thy wheels....".The images describing the structure, the
movement powerfully effective, depict a precise and exact picture of the train. Its huge structure and powerful movements find an elaborately vivid description portraying
the real and true image of the locomotive. The graphic picture with verbal deftness gives an enchanting picture of the train.
William Blake precursor of romantic revival in the 19th century, both a poet and a painter and a romantic mystic is undoubted, universally acknowledged for his verbal
painting portraying intense sensuous images depicting beautiful panorama of ethereal splendour. There is a medieval magic in the style of Blake's poetry. His poems are
alluring to both eye and ear, and his poetry is, for the first time described as the poetry of sight and sound. Each poem is a jewel casket, beautiful in itself. Blake's poems are
pictures like the landscapes of Cezanne, having fathomless depth, that deeper one looks more deeply at the images which come forth. Traditional symbols are given a
different connotation by Blake. Thus, the sunflower represents the longing of a youth for freedom in love, whereas a Lily is a symbol of the purity of love and the sick rose
becomes the mysterious evil. His masterpiece, 'The Tiger' is a graphic visual reflection of the tiger in its opening lines:

26 K.C. Sethi, Sunita Sethi Bliss 27