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Lyric -
Lute
In this anthology, 125 selected
lyrics of Dr. Mahendra Bhatnagar are included.
According to Prof. Prakash Chandra Gupta, “Mahendra Bhatnagar
is a well-established poet. He writes of freedom, struggle,
victory of oppressed humanity and its vision of a new world.”
(‘Literary Half-Yearly’, Mysore)
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Nature is
invariably a back drop in Mahendra Bhatnagar’s poetry.
This volume resumes with such poem as ‘Gift Of Gold’,
in which the poet fills new zeal through nature:
“O, buds! wake up and get up, fill the gift in anchal,
Get decorated in golden appearance, fill sweet feelings
in red-roses!”
In the next poem ‘Song Of The Dawn’ describes the ruddiness
of the dawn. The poet addresses Dawn as queen in this
poem ‘Queen Dawn’:
“Whose face is filled with new hue of lotus,
As if carrying the feelings of satisfaction,
Blessed pleasing heart delighted
in sweet thoughts of her lover!”
Dr.Mahendra Bhatnagar presents himself as champion of
nature in several lyrics. He opines that we must spend
more time in the lap of nature. He has faith that there
is living spirit in nature which has a healing, soothing
power:
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“Sweet songs of birds
Crazy love of raptures
Inner most waves of modesty,
Illusive world may not be strange!”
(‘Pleasant Morning’)
The poet presents moon-imagery in his several nature poems:
“The moon is beautiful, charming, attractive
and fair-bodied,
Why is so absorbed; while the cloud is ugly and black,
Can anyone tell
how happened such an improbable this night?”
(‘Cloud and Moon’)
One of the most outstanding qualities of Mahendra Bhatnagar’s poetry is
his unfailing optimism. This optimism is reflected in several poems; viz
in ‘Support’, ‘Faith’, ‘Unstopping Feet’:
“In the dark night of despair no ray of hope glows!
Nowhere, now the stars in the sky shine,
All horizons of the earth invisible, afar somewhere,
But, I keep on going supportlessly somewhere, constantly!”
“Darkness will not raise head now,
The sky will gleam with light,
Our notions are inspired by resolute object!”
(‘Faith in Democracy’)
Infact optimism seems to be forte of the poet because it encourages him to
ride the tough tempestuous sea of life. He does believe in destiny and
that man is a mere puppet in the powerful ever tightening grip of destiny
yet he encourages one to live with grit and determination:
“The tune of sorrow will be silent,
The desire of pleasure will materialize,
Inequalities of every kind will end, now!”
(‘Faith in Democracy’)
Inspite of his optimism, determination and dauntless faith Dr.Mahendra
Bhatnagar can not ignore the fact that modern man leads a life of
isolation. Inspite of modernisation, every person is lonely in the world.
Poet Mahendra Bhatnagar is a philosopher. So like a true philosopher he
sees everything objectively without being biased.
Dr. Bhatnagar’s poetry is a mass of random reflections delineating his
thoughts and feelings at any given moment. So the momentary thoughts can
be pessimistic or optimistic as the occassion propel him. His poems are
expressions of painful frustration of modern middle and lower classes and
also the pressures and strains on the human condition and of humanitarian
approach of the poet to war the inhuman values and situations of
contemporary life. His aspect has been reflected in his several poems.
The poems of this volume reveals a startling clarity of vision, profound
insights and is full of allusions, irony, paradox, humour, taunting and
satire. The poet has deep compassion for humanity and his poems strive to
bring solace, peace, faith and courage to the society we live in:
“Forget all differences of the world
Of colour-caste, of money-rank-age,
Only echo in all directions
the sound of victory of human glory and greatness,
Demolish today
the pride-fort of false dignity!”
(‘Song of Equality’)
Dr. Shaleen Kumar Singh, Dr. Kalpana Rajput and others have translated
these songs skillfully.
Contributing Author: Dr. Ram Sharma, Lecturer
in English,
dr.ram_sharma@yahoo.co.in
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