UENL 207 General English II MCQ

Elements of Composition By Ramanujan

Elements of Composition By Ramanujan

A. K. Ramanujan was not only an enlightened poet, but also a philologist, a folklorist, a translator, a scholar and a playwright. Well-versed with the languages of Kannada and English, Ramanujan had done a fair amount of research in the languages of Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit. A firm believer in a non-standardized and local form of Indian literature, he wrote a compilation of his poems in his book “The Collected Poems” and was posthumously awarded for it as well.

Introduction to Elements of Composition:

“Elements of Composition” is a poem that skims through the life of the poet in small events that are placed according to the timeline that his life follows. It is an ode to the life that we all live; of how we all are just composed of elements that give rise to our birth and later, on our demise, become one with those same elements that spouted our existence. The poet touches upon different components of memories, from nostalgia, to affection and later of an overall experience, all revolving around the concept of the “Tree of Life”, which believes humanity to be closely interlinked with nature. 

Setting of Elements of Composition:

Ramanujan, who was known for encouraging local and experimental creation of literature, narrates this poem to support an unconventional truth about how life is not limited by time or by form and keeps changing constantly to hold the circle of life together. The lines “self-tangled in love and work” and scary dreams, capable of eyes that can see” talk about the play of emotions that bind the individual with its journey in life. A nature of constant change is also vital in the life of a being, described by Ramanujan in the lines “Only by moving constantly, the constancy of things” and further goes on to describe events in his life that involved this change, like the changing of his uncle’s fingers while he narrated stories to him in their shadows, or like the changed expression of panic on his sister’s face moments before she is about to get married. He further narrates that as he passes through life, he takes what he finds and also leaves back affections, seeds and skeletons only to return to his natural composition, that is, the earth’s soil from which he had first sprouted.

Summary of Elements of Composition:

Ramanujan’s poem revolves around the theme of the “Tree of Life” and is also an ode to the process of life and evolution itself. Ramanujan talks about the vital nature of change in the journey of life and goes on to describe instances in his lifetime that transformed through time. He begins his poem with his creation through the elements around him and ends with his statement of diminishing his existence with his reunion with those same elements, thus watering the hypothetical “Tree of Life”.

Critical Analysis of Elements of Composition:

The poet describes his firm belief in the circle that life follows, illustrates these views beautifully through events and situations from his life that support his conception. He involves the reader into his world of amalgamation where nothing is constant. He provides insights through instances in his life that makes this poem an honest review and thus brings the reader up-close and personal to his thinking. The poem describes emotions and memories as lessons and simple joys that life has to offer and truly asks of the reader to treat life like the God given gift that it is believed to be.

Central Idea of Elements of Composition:

This poem written by A. K. Ramanujan is an ode to the concept of the “Tree of Life” and how life begins with the death of another. The poet talks about events from his life that kept changing, much like his belief about life “only by moving constantly” lies the “constancy of things”. He believes that he himself, like every other individual and organism, is made up of the elements that surround him and will later decompose only to become one with it.

Tone of Elements of Composition:

The poem begins with Ramanujan describing his creation as a “self-tangled” amalgamation of not only the 5 elements that Hindu mythology believes in but also the elements listed down in the periodic tables used by scientists. He further narrates about the ever changing nature of life and how only if we ourselves keeping moving and changing with it, do we see the “constancy of things”. He then goes on to describe events from his life, like the changed expressions of his sister when she realises moments before her wedding about how her life will change forever and of how the riots in Nairobi has changed the way the residents live there. He later says that he passes through these events as they pass through them and on his demise, he shall decompose and become one with the same elements that once created him.

Conclusion:

Elements of Composition is a poem by Ramanujan that celebrates God’s art of composing organisms and the concept of the “Circle of Life” to show how beautiful and naturally connected the components around us can be. The phenomenon of old life decomposing to give rise to new life is illustrated perfectly with vivid experiences that also portray change as an equally important component of life. Ramanujan has crafted this poem skilfully to show the beauty of life along with the connection of an organism with its surrounding elements to play a major role in not just birth and death but also the entire purpose of evolution.

The Lotus - Toru Dutt

Sonnet-The Lotus

Love came to Flora asking for a flower

That would of flowers be undisputed queen,

The lily and the rose, long, long had been

Rivals for that high honour. Bards of power

Had sung their claims. “The rose can never tower

Like the pale lily with her Juno mien”-

“But is the lily lovelier?” Thus between

Flower-factions rang the strife in Psyche’s bower.

  “Give me a flower delicious as the rose

And stately as the lily in her pride”-

“But of what colour?”- “Rose-red,” Love first chose,

Then prayed, -“No, lily-white,-or, both provide”;

  And Flora gave the lotus, “rose-red” dyed,

And “lily-white,”- the queenliest flower that blows.

                                                                ~Toru Dutt

Explication of “The Lotus”

               Toru Dutt was an educated young woman who had traveled to Britain and France during her childhood.  British literature and culture influenced her and is demonstrated in various work by Toru, including “The Lotus”.  In the poem, Toru presents the idea that the lotus is the most beautiful of all flowers in order to establish superiority of the Hindu religion over other world religions.

“The Lotus”, begins with a conflict between the rose and the lily flower.  The goddess of love, Aphrodite, approached the flower goddess, Flora to create a flower who would undisputedly be the queenliest of all flowers.  Both the lily and the rose, used their “bards of power” in their fight over the queenliest flower title.  Bards is associated with Gaelic spiritual power traditions of England, Scotland and Ireland.  Toru uses Greek and Roman mythology as support for her Hindu beliefs and to establish her stand.   The rose is described as never reaching the level of the lily flower, because the lily has a strong willed demeanor.

               In line 8 of the poem, we reach the climax where all the flower groups form cliques in a bitter conflict within the soul’s essence.  The goddess Flora is given a task of creating a flower as “delicious as the rose” and “stately as the lily in her pride” (Dutt, 82)    Lines 9-14 of the poem, describes the solution to the problem of finding the queenliest flower of all.   Toru has Flora create a flower that is both red as a rose and white as a lily.  As a result, Flora creates a flower with the characteristics of a rose and a lily combined and created the beautiful lotus flower.

               Why did Toru chose the lotus flower as the queenliest of all flowers?  The lotus is a national symbol of India and the Hindu faith.  The overall theme of the poem is the pride of India’s culture and Hindu religion. The idea of Hindu being the ultimate religion of the world is the main focus of “The Lotus”.   Hinduism is polytheistic in nature and beliefs are practiced through idol worship.  The idols can be human, animal or natural, such as the Sun God. Each idol has a form of symbolism, which represents knowledge, wealth, and strength among a few things (Mullatti)  Toru wanted to acknowledge her Indian background for others to understand her love for her native country India.  Although she had traveled and received her education abroad during her childhood, she still believes India to be her home.   Indian tradition explains the lotus flower springs not from the earth but from the surface of the water and will remain pure and unblemished, not matter the impurity of the water.  The purity of the lotus expresses the idea of supernatural birth and the appearance of the first created entity from the ancient waters of chaos, thus the lotus is observed as the medium of the Hindu creator Narayana and his second being God Brahma (Mitra & Kaporr, 126).    Toru uses the idea of Greek and Roman goddesses to create a western understanding of Hinduism and its divine faith of the lotus.

               Toru had an ability to excel in her writing at a young age and is one of the most famous Indo-Anglican poets of India.  She mastered “The Lotus” in a Petrarchan style by separating the poem into two divisions, the Octave and the Sestet.  Toru was able to present the problem of searching for the queenliest flower in the octave, which was composed of the first 8 lines and resolved the issue by creating the lotus in the sestet, which consists of the last 6 lines.  She uses the rose and the lily in the poem to describe the West and the East.  The “lily” is a representation of the white race and the “rose” depicting the reddish skin tone of the eastern race, such as her native India.  Thus the poem “The Lotus” indicates a fusion between the West and East (Dutt, 82).  Although Toru herself was raised as a Christian with western ideology, she was able to relate herself back to her Eastern roots of India in the sonnet.  The lotus is a representation of Toru and her cultural encounters living in Western Europe (Dutt, 82).  She interlaces her Western experience and education in order to create herself as her beautiful native Indian lotus flower.