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    K. V. Dominic's Write My Son, Write--Text and Interpretation: An Exercise in Close Reading
    K. V. Dominic's Write My Son, Write--Text and Interpretation: An Exercise in Close Reading
    K. V. Dominic's Write My Son, Write--Text and Interpretation: An Exercise in Close Reading
    Ebook78 pages48 minutes

    K. V. Dominic's Write My Son, Write--Text and Interpretation: An Exercise in Close Reading

    By Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

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    About this ebook

    "Write My Son, Write" is K. V. Dominic's longest poem, in 21 sections taken from his collection of poems entitled Write Son, Write. Dominic unabashedly tackles every-day issues of India such as the social injustice of poverty, man's crass exploitation of natural resources that ought to belong to everyone, terrorism, and the eternal beauty of the natural world. This poem is the manifesto of Dominic's views and philosophies.
    About this work, K.V. Dominic writes, "People today are crazy after materialism, and divinity in them is being lost to such an extent that they give no importance to principles, values, family and social relations, cohabitance with human beings and other beings. Instead they are trying their maximum to exploit their fellow beings, other beings and the planet itself. If it goes like this, the total destruction is not far away. It is the duty of the religious leaders, political leaders and the intelli-gentsia to inject the lost values to the masses and thus preserve this planet and the inhabitants from the imminent devastation. Instead, majority of these leaders become mafias and inject communal and corruptive venom to the minds of the masses. Corruption has become the hallmark of these leaders and influenced by them the masses also deviate from the right track to the evil track. And who will save this society? Writers, particularly poets who are like prophets."
    Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya's commentary provides the most complete critical analysis of the poem, section-by-section and line-by-line. Born in 1947 Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya M A (Triple) MPhil, PhD is a retired college teacher now residing at Howrah, West Bengal, India,. A Bilingual writer (English and Bengali), he has been writing on different subjects for the last thirty years. He seeks to retrieve the wealth of poetry when it is a revelation. Dr. Mukhopadhyaya regards K. V. Dominic as a poet of a seer.
    From the World Voices Series
    Modern History Press

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherModern History Press
    Release dateJun 1, 2016
    ISBN9781615993055
    K. V. Dominic's Write My Son, Write--Text and Interpretation: An Exercise in Close Reading

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      Book preview

      K. V. Dominic's Write My Son, Write--Text and Interpretation - Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

      Part One

      My son,

      I have a mission

      in your creation,

      God spoke

      to my ears.

      Why do you

      look up?

      Look at the tip

      of your pen.

      I am the ball

      of your pen;

      I am the ink

      that flows

      on the paper.

      Write, my son,

      write.

      Write till

      I say stop.

      EXPLICATION: The poem opens with the lines—My Son / I have a mission / in your creation / God spoke / to my ears. Any creative activity has some purpose. In other words, the creation is not a leela or sport of God. Nor is it fortuitous. Be that as it may, it is a voice from heaven. No wonder the poet looks up. He seeks to find the source of the voice. The voice in response saysywhy do you look up? Look at the tip of your pen. I am the ink that flows on the paper. Write, my son, Write. Write till I say stop. This is a revelation. This is a shruti or voice from God that has been embodied in the Vedas and in the Koran. The first known Anglo-Saxon Christian poet, Caedmon, was an unlettered herdsman. One day he was fast asleep and saw a dream, in which an angel asked Caedmon to sing in praise of God. From that day onward, he began to sing in praise of God, and translated the Bible into the Anglo Saxon language. And here also, the voice of God commands Dominic to write. This shows that the voice of God can be heard even today, in our Godless, materialistic society. However, the voice of God tells the poet that he is the ball of the pen and he is the ink of the pen. In other words, the poet’s tool, and his words, are God himself.

      This is archetypal imagery. In the ancient myths of India in the puranas and the Mahabharata, God gifted weapons to heroes, enabling them fight the evils in the world. The greatest warrior of the Mahabharata, Arjuna, was blessed with such weapons by the Fire God and Lord Shiva himself. Here, the poet’s pen is God himself, and the poet’s ink is God himself. When we worship any deity, we worship the weapon also that the deity carries. We worship the trident when we worship Lord Shiva; the trident itself is God. This is a bit of paganism. The pagans see a dryad in every tree and a naiad in every water ripple. The poet’s instrument of writing and the ink used are God. Thus the poet is a demigod. Instead of sword and arrows, our poet is blessed with a pen. Well, the pen is mightier than the sword. One wonders whether this weapon for the poet is intended to fight against a sea of troubles. Is it a preparation for an Armageddon in which the poet is supposed to take part to fight the many troubles that ravage our existence?

      The pen could be interpreted as the living body. The ink could stand for the blood and the breath of the body. The poet might be likened to the individual soul or the jivaatman residing in the body. And the voice from heaven may be the one omnipresent soul or Brahman presiding over existence.

      We may grant that the human body and its blood are God, or divine. However, the soul that resides in it does not pay any heed to the will of God. Maybe that is why the activities of the individual soul have created such havoc in our world. God had a purpose in creating the universe. But because of the individual souls residing in the body, because of us, God’s designs are being frustrated. This is a world view. God therefore selects the poet, a man among men, and commands him to write until God asks him to stop. Thus the poet here is the chosen seed of God. In ancient times, poets and prophets were deemed as one. A poet is a prophet. In Sanskrit it has been said, kavih kraantadarshih.

      Part Two

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