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CH APTER V I C O N C L U S IO N Romantic revival in nineteenth century England was the reaction against a reason-dominated period. The sense of revolt: involved in this react.! on had endowed the English mind with a new inquisitiveness with which it had learnt explore the unknown Plasticity of possibilities Romanticism of the human is a to intellect-. fruit of this inquisitiveness. But, Romanticism in Assamese literature was the conscious established adaptation itself in of an ideal Chat the world of thought:, had and already as such, emergence of Romanticism here did not. demand the exertion of mental faculties Romanticists the in the same way as in England. in Assam had to face Che intellect: in harmonizing Yet', the arduous exertion of two different: traditions and also in harmonizing the past with the present:. "The late entry of Assam into the fold of British rule and the slow pace of English education in the province prevent.ed a sudden exposure of the Assamese to Western ideas which could otherwise have taken the traditional society of l Assam by storm". Che Renaissance traditional And this is the reason that the wave of Chat: had basis swept: over unshaken. But this Assam, had exerted a left the negative 1. TiloCCama Misra : Literature and Society in Assam, Omsons Publications, New Delhi, 1987, p. 185. 272 influence as well. The Indian mind is conditioned by a sense of permanence and t:hus wants, to some extent, of translating the human potentialities in the power int o act:ion which the Western mind had acquired through endless struggle with uncertainty. aspirations The of faiths man of and all beliefs, time had and struggles found their reflect: only and place in English Romantic poetry. ...Indian Renaissance suppressed hopes middle class dreams of could and that aspirations could boundless characterised the never of colonial aspire individual English a t:o the freedom Renaissance. late entry into the colonial the that: Assam's fold and her doubly subordinated position as a hinterland of Calcutta, made the limitations of the movement which has literary been cal led 2 Renaissance, even more pronounced . and social the Assam Thus Assamese poetry found its fountain partially blocked in spite of an equally wide purview matter. It also could not English Romantic the poets' constant under the poetry commitment caution inimical in the choice of subject- achieve and to acquired by Bengal preserve accompanied attitude the fluidity natural by of 2. Ibid., pp. 239-240. because of identity a feeling of the British rule. positive aspects of the traditional over1ooked. their stability to with insecurity must But the not. be 273 , . .the st;rong bonds of tradition that were cherished by iI:s prominent: representatives gave it a distinctly nationalist: charact:er. It: was because of this character that the Renaissance which took place in Assam during the the early certain decades of distinctly pan-Indian hues nineteenth the local despite twentieth as the well fact synthetic has already phenomenon. There process of synthesi zing occurred in the century literature commonness. product of late said is two or Assamese humanistic more and It that, been said, was is a peculiar about t.he cultures that: had early to have literature is that: twentieth a universal a composite flowed along with the British rule and the spiritual down to us from generation it: 3 the seems tradition broader that: Romanticism nothing nineteenth of Assam. "Modern the been and acquired as originally inspired by Western ideas. It century to India values, handed to generati o n " .^ As has already some of the prominent: characteristics of English Romanticism were present: in profusion in the ancient: Sanskrit literature the perception of which generated a deep veneration immediate and love adaptation. for our Moral pioneers of the new ideal own past. The commitment- would to accept: or reject present: not urged allow the any of them. Hence a whole hearted endeavour was made to create something 3. Ibid., p. 241. 4. Trailokyanath Goswami : 'Lakshminath Bezbaroa and the Assamese Literature in the Fourth Decade of the Twentieth Century* in Lakshminath Bezbaroa, the Sahityarathi of Assam, e d . Maheswar Neog, Gauhati University, 1972, p. 93. 274 new which Whatever naturally the acquired positive or the the synthetic negative character. qualities of the Renaissance may be, the Assamese Romantic poets could work out a perfect synthesis of all. Though the overwhelming bias of the Renaissance towards secularism is a well-established fact, most of the Assamese poets could maintain a uniformity between the old and the new tradition; and Lakshminath Bezbaroa had accomplished a marvel in this respect. Each poet has his own concept general; a careful study of the whole gamut works reveals particular it. period The views determine common the in of in of his creative the prominent, poetry poets of a characteristics and also the nature of that particular trend though it: is really a difficult task to answer the question as to what poetry is or what: it: should be. Though the Romantic poets are very often accused of sentimentalism, indolence, and, at times, obscurity caused by excessive imagination, each of the English Romantic poets had, in fact, a very clear vision of the nature and purpose of poetry. The principle of poetry is that: of Wordsworth— is the spontaneous overflow of powerful mostly accepted "all good poetry feelings". 5 It is also "the first and last of all knowledge"^ Shelley defined 5. William Wordsworth : English Critical Edmund EC Jones', London, 1965, p. 6. Ibid., p. 16. 'Poetry and Poetic Diction' in Essays (Nineteenth Century) e d . , (1916) , Oxford Universit y Press, 5. 275 it: as the "expression of the 7 im a g in a tio n " . For him "A poem 8 is t:he very image of life expressed in its eternal truth". Byron, in passion. Keats shared his Don Juan, identified Wordsworth's imagination and view poe!:ry in spontaneity when he with his says emphasis that: "If on poetry comes not as naturally as leaves to a tree it had better not: q come at all". Arnold emphasized "poetic truth" and "poetic beauty". In spite of the apparent differences of their views, the Romantic poets were bound by some common norms attributed to poetry like exercise of imagination, beauty and emotion, truth, spontaneity of expression, simplicity, and the like; they love of intensity of and these they observed in their creations. The magnitude of views and their equally extended applications expected in Assamese already discussed. in English Romantic poetry cannot in equal Yet: term due to its Assamese founded on vague abstraction and, Romantic limitations poetry in truth, be was not: the poets had to be more alert: because of their pronounced commitment:. Lakshminath Bezbaroa expressed his view of poetry clearly in his discussion of Assamese language and literature. He believed that, poetry should possess subtlety 7. P.B. Shelley : 'A Defence of Poetry' in Engli sh Cri ti ca 1 Essays (Nineteenth Century), ed. Edmund D. Jones (1916), Oxford University Press, London, 1965, p. 1 0 2 . 8. Ibid., p . 109. 9. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (Third Edi ti o n )(1941 ) , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989, p. 293. 276 of thought, freedom of expression and spontaneity. He also held that, poetry should have universal appeal and it should be able to reflect the limitless infinite within the bounds of the finite. ^ Like the English Romantic poets, he could follow his theory in his own poems very aptly. His 'Kavifa' is a beautiful expression of his idea of what poetry is and this is quite in conformity with the views of the English Romantic poets. Ratnakanta Barkakati in saying that true literature shared Bezbaroa's view should always be also advocated the subjective nature and universal poetry. 12 views of Other Assamese poets though their poetry also have poems; free. appeal of expressed (vide He their 'Kavita' by Durgeswar Sarma ) and as can be expected, they are similar in nature, as the ideal itself was a conscious adoption. In its growth Romanticism individual exertion The Assamese poets establish in strong Assamese poetry to the extent followed individual had of English set ideals conviction above involved Romanticism. and thus norms in the manner of the English Romantics. their competence in giving local not: could not: the common They showed colour to borrowed traits and their poetry never gave any idea of incongrui t:y. 10. Lakshminath Bezbaroa : Lakshminath Bezbaroa Granthavali (Part II), ed. Atulchandra Hazarika (1970 )> Sahitya Prakash, Guwahati, 1988, pp.1864-65. 11. Ibid., p . 1863. 12. Ratnakanta Barkakati : Ratnakanta Barkakatir Gadya Sambhar, ed. Jogendranarayan Bhuyan, Lawyer's Book Stall, Guwahati, 1977, pp. 258-259. 277 Lakshminath Hemchandra Goswami, Bezbaroa, the Chandrakumar three persons Agarwal a ushering and in the Romantic ideal into Assamese poetry had imported quite a few prominent characteristics of English Romanticism. A love for the glories Chandrakumar opened of our past in Agarwala and love a new horizon for the Bezbaroa, in humanism in Goswami had Hemchandra incipient Assamese Romantic poetry. One salient feature of English Romanticism is the extraordinary exercise of imagination and it: sanctioned such an all inclusive range to the mental faculty that it even included reality itself into its realm. believed in an ulterior "The Romantic poets reality and based their poetry on it, they found it in different ways and made different use of it". 13 Thus the Romantics dreamt: of a better and happier world to come on which to build "Utopias" of the future. Butmost; of the Assamese Romantic poets, as inheritors of traditional Indian philosophy conceived of this happiness in a world beyond this world. Most; of pantheistic belief of Indian philosophy. soul, belief in rebirth, desire in a world beyond— and and Ratnakanta evinced fulfilment of unfulfilled Nalinibala Devi, Barkakati. These a Immortality of the these form the burden of poems of Chandrakumar Agarwala, Sarma them poets many Durgeswar along with 13. Mourice Bowra : The Romantic Imagination (1950), Oxford University Press, London, 1976, p. 13. 278 Ambikagiri Roychoudhury proved spiritualists mysticism though of Agarwala's Chandrakumar intense love density of thought, and also longing there his is of English Romantic and beauty, that of combined other In this poets poems. His the to others. nature of yearned respect, he is more in comparison the with his innate object mystics and between lent a mystic touch to his whereas realization of God. mystics difference Agarwala transcendental is beauty themselves the poems mystic for the akin to the other Assamese poets. Shelley was also a mystic of beauty. Though Supreme Power is the realization the object, than Chandrakumar Agarwala, they did not: show the! r absorption of of the and union Assamese they rejected based indifference to terrestrial in the object: of devotion. their their of this terrestrial While submission, is fundamentally ennobling 14. S.N. of illusion Nalinibala not on the that an of Devi's beauty in Even in a state to f:his world. U p a n i s h a d s , they negates poems R o y c h o u d h u r y 's an active, principle other the worth world. Ambikagiri "mysticism philosophy doctrine mystics the like their English c o u n t e r p a r t s , of elevation they did not want, in attachment While with poems intellectual formative, life" profess establish theory; creative, Roychoudhury Dasgupta : Hindu Mysticism Banarsidass, New Delhi, 1987, p. humble it elevating could (1927), IX. that: is and extend Mot i Ia 1 279 his vitality to any field of human though!:. He could even endow his frustration with a new prospect. He found himself and Jatindranath Dowerah lost himself "If Nalini teaches instils Devi's courage poetry into us". If us in frustrated faith, unity is love. Roychoudhury's the essence of Nalinibala Devi, diversity is the essence of Roychoudhury. The English Romantic poets glorified both the soul and the senses. Browning seems to be vindictive in establishing the love of this world and life, but is equally earnest about the great ness of the soul • How good is man's life, the mere living! How fit: to employ All the heart: and the soul and the senses, for ever in joy! 'Saul ' The represented extreme by verges Nalinibala of Devi soul and and sense, Devakanta as Barua respectively, seem to meet: in Ambikagiri Roychoudhury. Romantic poetry is based on love— love of man, love of nature, love of beauty, love of life and this world, and also the love of the world beyond, love of the past: and also of the present, and love of freedom. And this is true of Assamese poetry as well. Love of man had reached its culmina tion in Chandrakumar Agarwala. Yet: exact counterparts of Simon Lee or the Leech Gatherer of Wordsworth are nowhere t:o 15. Hem Barua : Assamese Literature, National New DelhT^ 1965, p^ 1 6 4 . Book Trust, 280 be found in Assamese poetry. Nostalgia, another Romantic feature, is present' in i-he poems of most: of the Assamese poets with the exclusion of Ambikagiri with the past; Roychoudhury. Roychoudhury he is, as is usual is not occupied of a man of action and energy, a man of the present. On the other hand, forms the Rajkhowa. is essence of Raghunath Like in English poems, evident in conspicuous Assamese poems Choudhary and nostalgia Shailadhar reminiscence of childhood of the time and is most in Raghunath Choudhary. Raghunath Choudhary, in his treatment: and love of nature, almost attained the perfection of Wordsworth and Keats. The jovial mood and effusive nature of his poetry are indicative of the simplicity and spontaneity characteristic of Romantic poetry. Concept: of nature in Assamese poetry is generally Wordsworthian expressed in the poems revelation of Nature Wordswor !:hi an poetry. and sense, of not: of the Tennyson critical and as the "living essence" has not: been achieved type Arnold. Yet; in the exact in Assamese In no Assamese poet's work nature performs any role in creating any complex psychological situation or mood as it did in Browning's poems. The English Romantic poets, particul ar 1y Words worth, were keen in delineating the critical analysis of the 281 mental processes. This is not: present: in Assamese poetry though there are very minute observations of the different: moods of the human mind changes in Raghunath the and its external Choudhary world. could reactions to In the manner transform the acute the natural of Keats, feeling of agony into thrills of joy in the bosom of nature. In Wordsworth's poetry, "more perhaps than in that: of any other man, we frequently find images and sentiments, which we have seen and felt particularly reflecting on them, by him, a thousand and which, times, without: when presented flash upon us with all the delight and surprise of novelty".^ This applies, very aptly, to the poems of Raghunath Choudhary. For Byron, poetry is identical with passion : Thus to their extreme verge the passions brought: Dash into poetry, which is but: passion. 'Don Juan' Due to the 1imitations already discussed, Assamese poets could not glorify human passion in the same way that the English poets did. Yet Ambikagiri Roychoudhury's poems, both mystical and patriotic, almost overcame this limitation It was because of their attachment to tradition that poets 16. James Montgomery : Romantic Bards and British Reviewers ed. John 0. Hayden, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1971, p. 30. 282 like Byron and even Keats could nor: become favourite with t:he Assamese poets, though the influence of the -latter, on most of them, is more than manifest. It was in the poems of the last Romantic poet Devakanta Barua only that human passion, in its real intensity, flashed brilliantly. Yet the Assamese poets more than made up this weakness with emotion heightened by tradition. equal intensive nature of the national They often expressed contradictory emof'i ons wi t:h intensity. Choudhary. both the This is most evident. in His poems are equally impressive the moods of joviality and Raghunath in delineating melancholy. feelings are present: in Jatindranath Dowerah Contradictory also. implorations to forget: the past, and remember the Both his same evoke equal sympathy in the mind of the reader. Whether simplicity and Shelley's their philosophy familiarity, 'Love's Romantic for poets the for Wordsworth's philosophy' from or had early 'Lucy' enchanted period to the the decline. Lakshminath Bezbaroa, Durgeswar Sarma, Bhuyan and Atulchandra Hazarika were their and Assamese period of Suryyakumar fascinated by the 'Lucy' poems, particularly the second and the fourth in the series for 'Love's which they Philosophy' Assamese poets. had had rendered also equal Lakshminath Sinhadatta Deva contributed to Adhikari Assamese them poetry with Assamese. attraction Bezbaroa, and into for Durgeswar Ratnakanta translations the Sarma, Barkakati of this 283 beautiful poem. Daffodils' In !:he inspired Chandrakumar same one Agarwala, manner exquisite Dimbeswar Wordsworth’s poem Neog by and 'The each of Kamaleswar Chaliha- as it: has been already pointed out:. It has already been mentioned that: the transla tions by the Assamese poets were from their heart in such a manner that they had achieved the status of the original. It was because the import of the Romantic ideal into Assamese was based in the form of real influence mostly and hardly in the form of imitation. Imitation is an uninspired mechanical work. Both Socrates and Aristotle defined poetry as imitation. But: the term "imitation" carried a significance, in their dialogues, modern context. different Their from theory was and wider supported than by Locke on. As has been mentioned in the first, chapter, ticists rejected Locke's that reflects the mind is lamp, the contribution adoption of to the analogy of the external "a the objects. radiant objects Romantic ideal mind Their projector it later the Roman as a mirror analogy for the which perceives".^'7 from in the English the makes In a their Assamese Romantic poets proved themselves true followers of the same in this light as well. Another analogy of the thinking mind used by the English Romantics is the Aeolian lyre. 17. M.H. Both Wordsworth and Abrams : Preface to The Mirror and the Lamp : Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition (1953), Oxford University Press, New York, 1971. 284 Shelly used t:his analogy perception as composition". well 1 ft "as a construct: as for the for the poetic The Assamese poets had used the mind in mind in 'Bin' for this image, very effective use of which is evident in the two poems under the same title, 'Bin-Boragi', by Lakshminath Bezbaroa and by Chandrakumar Agarwala. One of Assamese poets' and the new who Classical poets to factors that had worked behind the wonderful accomplishment in uniting the old is Choudhary shape the freedom had retained like modern of lyric expression. the Kalidas with and his It was Raghunath influence of yet. had given consciousness the great a unique of the new Blake and conceived the tradition formed by the English influence. Most of the English Romantic Shelley being the prominent: two role of the poet, as a prophet poets, among them, or a seer. Chandrakumar Agarwala evinced profound faith in such a role of the poet-. Lakshminath Bezbaroa, Hemchandra Goswami, Hiteswar Barbarua, Ambikagiri Roychoudhury and even Nalinibala Devi shared such belief. Jatindranath Dowerah, Nalinibala Devi and Ratnakanta Barkakati wi t:h their self-absorption and love of isolation, represented the intensely personal note that had begun to resound in Assamese poetry in the second phase of 18. Ibid., p . 61. 285 the post-Jonaki solitary man inherent, in era. all The germination through English fact, in its two of the image Romantic more of poetry precisely a was defined features, individualism and subjectivism. Idea of the poet's estrangement is most: prominent in Pater and W.B. Yeats. For Pater "the estranged morality of artists is the only genuine kind". 19 W.B. Yeats conceived the poet as the antithesis of the man of action 20 and Jatindranath Dowerah responded to this Yeatsian formula best. As political has been mentioned and social in set-up, the fourth during the chapt e r , the time of the emergence of Romanticism in, or rather migration of if: into Assam, did not encourage the pursuit of pure aestheticism. Thus Romanticism in Assam could not. evolve into any complicated form like aesthetic Romanticism in English poetry. Though the chief inspiration behind Assamese Romantic poetry was nature in her wide expanse in the vastly rural and agricultural Assam, it was humanism with which it had marked its life-span; Chandrakumar Agarwala, poetry ended and with it the achieved greatest Devakanta its perfection humanist: Barua, in in Assamese another great: humanist. With the publication of the magazine Jayant i under the 19. editorship of Chakreswar Bhattacharyya Frank Kermode : Romantic Image, Routledge Paul, London, 1957, p. 22. 20. Ibid., p. 25. and and Kamal Kegan 286 Narayan Dev 1iterature from was the year heralded; 1943, and a with new that age in Assamese Romanticism in Assamese poetry came ho be regarded as a mode of poetry of the past. 21. 21 Goblnda Prasad Sarnia : 'The Progressive Movement in Assamese Literature' in Contribution of Writers to Indian Freedom Movement:, e d . N.V. Krishna Warrior, Indian Writers Union, Arunapuram, Kerala, 1985.