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Research Paper on Pictorial Poetry
When Sudha Dixit

colours fail to I play with words when I write prose. I make and erase images to depict my theme; but when there is no theme, when there is only emotion, then I do not play with words –

words play with me. Feelings flow like a river. They flow – sometimes they flow formlessly as a free verse, sometimes etching a structure with rhymes. Yet there comes a
describe feelings time when emotions are choked, no words take a shape. An image exists there – like a dream, a fantasy, filling my heart to the brim; struggling to come out and take

shape; to no avail. I see the futility of the strife and give up. Not exactly surrender but channelize the endeavour in a different form of art. I resort to painting my emotions on
of your portrait; canvas. What I paint is, actually, my poem which gets to express itself in resultant painting.
Poetry is a work of literature in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by use of distinctive style and rhythm. I read somewhere a very interesting
quote –“He felt a desire to investigate through poetry the subjects of pain and death.” The verbosity of prose writing may not depict the issue of anguish and loss by death
as sensitively as the lyrical genre of poetry. I would like to quote my poem –
He simply closed the door
your words Didn't see the strings he tore

By piercing my heart to the core,
elaborate Something died inside me, as
I turned my face to hide the hurt it wore

the realm of your I have seen People flinch whenever they read these lines or hear me recite them. They feel the pain these lines contain. I could have written pages and pages of prose
telling about my sorrow that would not have touched them as my poem does. So in the matters of heart poetry does have an upper hand. Still, sometimes when we come to
give vent to our sensitive aesthetic feelings, we may not be able to ink them, or even paint them; for the simple reason that our craftsmanship might fail to get the desired
body and soul. effect. Here the camera comes in handy. It captures the real form of a flower, bird, animal or an actual situation which portrays a human being in a particular frame of mind.

Just as in writing poetry we arrange words in a particular sequence, similarly while taking a photograph we have to check the play of light and shadow. This skill gives birth
to a picture that is sheer poetry. We may call it pictorial poetry. Poetry is the essence and description of human emotions and feelings. The perception of grief or deep
delight is converted into poetry.

The poetry can be vocal like music or it can be very taciturn – only that silence speaks volumes; it's louder than words. The pictorial depiction is the vocal silence that
compels the world to listen to it.

52 K.C. Sethi, Sunita Sethi Bliss 53