Poetry book “Storms and Breezes On Mortal Waves” by eminent Indian author Ambika Ananth is a captivating collection of poems that reflects over multiple human emotions. The other part of the book entitled as “Sweet Dependence has been painstakingly penned down by Dr. Yeshodhara Gopala Rao. The book co-authored by these two beautiful souls is a journey inward. Reading these greatly moving poems one is instantly reminded of the doyen of Romantic Age John Keats who remarks in one his famous poems ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ that heard melodies are sweet but unheard sweeter. In her mellifluous but poignant tone, Amiba waxes eloquent and croons of pains and pleasures. In her poem “Party Time”, there is palpable happiness everywhere leavened with glittering lights and perfumes, yet the poet seems to be ill at ease as she compares the ambience with just an artificial dazzle. The poet says,
“We wear a different cloak of falsity”.
To fit into our social groove”.
The poet Ambika has rightly taken a dig at the hypocrisy of modern day men which aptly reminds us of a famous Hindi number
“Jab bhi ji chahe nai duniya basa lete hain log
Ek chehre pe kai chehre laga lete hain log”
Such is the intensity of the pent-up emotions that they bring profuse tears in the eyes of your mind. The following lines from the poem “Come Back To Us” shed a plenty of light on the fathomless profundity of the pangs of separation from a loved one.
“ I wish I could wish you a Happy Birthday…
Alas! the wound in my heart is still bleeding,
raw and sore,
reminding me-
that joy is forever lost….” it is a matter of stupendous elation to witness the fact that both the poets have exercised the immense literary powers to the fullest which they possess due to the poetic license. Those who are the votaries of poetry understand the term poetic license fully well. It is a form of liberty the poets retain with which they mend the established norms of a language. The instances of syntactic and morphological manipulations are not rare to find in this book. The conventional structure of English Language has been bended deftly by particularly by Ambika Ananth to enhance the emotive effects of her poetic pieces.
“A Paradise of Pastures green,
Or deserts mercilessly sun-beaten,
Mad delirium or sweet ecstasies….
life is a canvas in motion…”
The suppleness of the verses draws our attention to the great poets like ST Coleridge and William Wordsworth but the poet Ambika is closer to TS Eliot who is hailed as the father of modern poetry. The way he has exposed the seamy side of modern day society, similar streaks, we find in Ambika. Here the poem “She” by Ambika has been dedicated to the birth of a girl child which is still not an occasion to rejoice over in many families. We come across a baby girl in the womb who is oblivious of the brutal realities of his berserk world. The poet reflects over the idea that ‘She’ is the personifications of innocence but unmindful of the bitter realities of this barbaric world. It would not be erroneous to remark that poets are the weird and wild creature of God, gifted with subtle and sensitive minds and it is their ultra-sensitive mind which makes them wallow in utmost grief.
Hence, the element of poignancy is quite conspicuous in this anthology as we read the pieces like “Unquiet Oceans Of Humanity ” wherein the poet takes recourse to the literary device of gripping imagery, personification and lends “innocence” the human attributes by saying that it is dying its death in its infancy. Here, it is pertinent to state that all of the poems have been artistically and aesthetically embellished with several poetic devices such as metaphors, similes, personification, consonance, enjambments and so on. While delivering a discourse on Poetic Language, David Crystal states in one of the literary conferences that Language charged with emotions is poetry. Quite in agreement with the eminent linguist, the language of this book is deeply emotive which warms the cockles of every heart. Therefore, it would be a delightful buffet for all the poetry buffs and will also give a lot of soul-stirring situations to cogitate over.
