Trauma
as Touchstone: A Peep into K.V. Dominic’s Musings on Covid
Pandemic and Beyond
Dr.
Dharmendra Kumar Singh
ABSTRACT: This world of ours has been passing
through such a time, where owing to Covid-19, there are great anxieties,
agonies, pains and pangs in the heart and soul of everybody. There is chaos
everywhere. None and nothing is certain. Directly or indirectly, people
throughout the world have been so badly affected by it that they are crying for
their existence. Here, through this paper, is to see whether a literati
like K.V. Dominic can remain aloof from reflecting the trauma of Covid-19 in
his creation, and how his poetry collection Musings on Covid
Pandemic and Beyond (2021) presents the zeitgeist of Covid-times.
What covid is to him--good or bad is a matter of consideration too.
Generally, a Litterateur is also the part of this world so s/he could
not remain untouched from his/her society and his/her literature mirrors the
society. Theory of ‘butterfly effect’ is common to all. Such is with literature
too. Even though a small incident shakes the hearts and souls of the each and
every writer so greatly that it becomes the core of his/her creations. As a
result during this Covid times, hundreds of books dealing with banes and
boons of Covid-19 were written in various genres in various languages not
only in India but also in distant countries. Hence, an attempt has been taken
to trace out trauma as touchstone in Dominic’s poetry collection Musings
on Covid Pandemic and Beyond (2021).
KEYWORDS: Trauma, Covid-19,
Zeitgeist, Litterateur, Literati, Musings, Duex ex Machina
It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times ,it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it
was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of
hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we were
nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct
to other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that
some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or
for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. (Charles Dickens, A
Tale of Two Cities 9)
The path of the progress and development of human being is too thorny.
It is not smooth but brimming with various obstacles, uncertainties and
darkness. Many history and geography changing battles, wars, natural and man-
made disasters, tragedies, epidemics and pandemics fell on its way. Whether to
talk of Norman Conquest of England (1066), or of the fall of Constantinople
(1453), or of the WW I & II (1914-1918 & 1939-1945), or of the Yellow
River Flood of China (1887), or of the Shaanxi Earthquake of China (1556), or
of the Bhola Cyclone of India (1970), or of the Collision of the
Continental Crust of Indian and Eurasian Plates (about 50 million years ago),
or of the Chernobyl disaster of USSR (1986), or of the Bhopal disaster also
referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy of India (1984), or of the Great
plague/black death of London (1665-66), or of the Cholera Pandemic of India
(1852-1860), or of the Great Influenza/Spanish Flu (1918) and so on. All of
them directly or indirectly affected the poise and passivity of the world and
its people. World knows and history is its witness that pandemics and epidemics
are not rare but common. They have been continually knocking at the door of the
world in each and every century. History has seen and felt their existence. Sometimes
feeble and sometimes strong have been they but have been. Whenever and wherever
they arrive, their arrival horrified and terrified the mass. The literature of
the world says so, so says the world of the literature. Why to go for witness
on the buried pages of history when we ourselves are its witness, i.e., of
COVID–19?
Covid
-19 is an acronym that stands for Coronavirus Disease 2019.
It is also known as 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
It is the deadliest pandemic that originated in the end of the second decade of
the 21st century. Originating from Wuhan (China), this dragon has
wrapped the whole world in its fatal claws too fast and rapidly beyond the
human computation and imagination. It gave no time to the world to be alert. It
began to engulf the lives of the innocent people. Families after families were
engulfed. Cities after cities were de-peopled. Roads after roads and streets
after streets were deserted. Hospitals were over crowded. Over crowded were
burial sites, i.e., cemetery and crematorium. Public places–schools, markets,
halls and malls etc. were closed for uncertain times. It broke the mother’s lap
and wiped the vermilion from the forehead of the ladies. Issues were made
orphan and the old helpless. Uncertainty prevails everywhere. There was
uncertainty in everything. Nothing was certain whether it is life or earning,
food or learning, walking or talking. Everything was banned. People who were
continuously running after the goals of their aspirations were in the gaols in/at
their houses. The market of the rumors was high. Rationality was hiding behind
the skirt of the irrationality. All were patients and all were doctors. Rest
was silence for the rest. Noted lines from “The Lotus Eaters,” versified by Alfred
Lord Tennyson, the representative poet of the Victorian Age, present the
gloomy, lethargic, and passive mood and tone of the time of the days of yore as
well as of the masses of Covid time well:
Let
us alone. Time driveth onward fast,
And
in a little while our lips are dumb.
Let
us alone. What is it that will last?
All
things are taken from us, and become
Portions
and parcels of the dreadful past.
Let
us alone. What pleasure can we have
To
war with devil? Is there any peace
.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
All
things have rest, and ripen towards the grave
In
silence – ripen, fall and cease:
Give
us long rest or death, dark Death, or dreamful ease. (82)
Sad,
gloomy and pessimistic feelings and spirits that were hovering over the world
due to covid-19 affected the literaties of the world very badly. Its
effect was not only on their hearts and minds but also on their poetic world
and their creations. It is worth weight in gold, and not said in vain, that
literature is the mirror of the society and each and every age of the history
of (English) literature has been its representative poets/writers who have
represented their time with the reflection of the good and bad values, virtues
and vices, complexity of human conflicts, moralities and immoralities, traumas
and healings, ease and disease of their milieu in their literary works. The literature of the yore had also been
affected by the continual occurrences of the disasters, tragedies and pandemics.
From Homer’s Iliad (8th century BCE), Sophocles,’ Oedipus
Rex (c.429 BC), Boccaccio’s Decameron (1886) to Stephen King’s The
Stand (1978) and Ling Ma’ Severance (2018) all talk about
pandemics have. Besides all these, Daniel Defoe’s A Jounal of the
Plague Year (1772), Mary Shelley’s The Last man (1826),
Alan Edgar Poe’s Masque/Mask of the Red Death
(1842) and Albert Camus’ The Plague (1947) have the glimpses
of the pandemic. The history of the western literature such as it is offers
much in the way of catharsis, ways of processing story emotions, and political
commentary on how human beings respond to public health crises. Presenting the
chaos of the plague, Albert Camus in the opening chapter of the novel The
Plague writes: “Everyone knows that pestilences have a way of recurring
in the world, yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on
our head from a blue sky. There have been as many plagues as wars in history,
yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.…” (18). All these cited
works show the striking similarities between the current covid-19 pandemic and
the other old ones.
Indo-English poetry has also been
affected by the covid trauma and has been witnessing that the birds that
are sad still sing as the pandemic, Covid-19, shook the poets so badly that
they took pen to pen the pain in their poems. Chief among them are Dr. Debasis
Panigrahi, a bilingual poet hailing from Odisa. His heart touching poetry
collection is Mellowed With Years (2021). The next is a
Gujrati poetess Parul Khakhar. She wrote a dirge in 14 lines entitled as “A
Hearse Called Ganga”. Other poets also have tried their hands on Covid
poetry or poetry during Covid -19 in India. As Dr. Sudhir K. Arora, in his
research paper entitled as “Poetry in Quarantine or Quarantine in Poetry” has
presented a literary galaxy of forty poets with their golden glimming lines on
‘Virus Poems’, i.e., poems versified during the time of Covid-19 describing the trauma of Covid. Jaydeep
Sarangi, Syed Ali Ahmad, Dalip Khetarwal, Romila Paulath Singh, Srishti Sharma,
Sangeeta Sharma, S. L. Peeran, R. K. Singh, Sutanuka Ghosh Roy, and Rumpa Ray Ghosh have a good place and
position in this literary galaxy of
‘Virus Poems’. A bonafide poet-cum-critic
K. V. Dominic, hailing from Kerala, is one of them. He too could not escape
from the touch of Covid’s effect that resulted in his collection of poetry Musings
on Covid Pandemic and Beyond (2021). This
collection of his poetry consists of 43 poems out of
which 9 poems including “Coronavirus, Mightiest Wizard of All Times,” “Covid
Victims and Villains,” “Covid-19 Exodus 1, 2 and 3,” “Haiku on Covid-19,” “Mask
can’t Suppress One’s Hunger,” “Nitin’s Sublim sacrifice,” “Subaida’s Donation
to Covid-19 Relief fund,” and “Magnetism of Mother” are on covid and the rest
on the various subjects.
Before going through the poems of
Dominic on Covid -19, there is need to understand the terms ‘trauma’ and ‘touchstone’.
The former, belonging to medical field, is an emotional response to a terrible
event or incident causing exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation,
numbness, dissociation, and physical arousal variously with its three varieties
generally acute, chronic and complex while the later is a fundamental or
quintessential part or feature of a thing with which a test or criterion for
determining the quality or genuineness of a thing is decided. It is also
connected with the myth of ‘Paras Pathar’ that turns iron into gold besides it,
it is used for assaying precious metal alloys. In the field of literary criticism,
famous Victorian poet-cum-critic Matthew Arnold introduced it as a critical
term (‘touchstone method’) with the objectivity of critical evaluation by
providing comparison and analysis as the two primary tools for judging the
others.
After having a cursory glance at the terms ‘trauma’ and ‘touchstone’ one
by one, there is need to present the zeitgiest of the covid
phenomenon. In the words of the poet Prof. K.V. Dominic, “As we have been
passing through the agonies of the Covid pandemic since the end of 2019,
the writers all over the world have been affected directly or indirectly by
this vicious phenomenon. As a result, hundreds of books have come out during
this pandemic times dealing with the banes and boons of covid – 19.” (“Preface,”
Musings on covid Pandemic and Beyond. 25)
While Arora, in the style of Bihari and Bacon, says a lot about all the
related things to Covid phenomenon. He writes:
Quarantine
during Covid-19 has awaken the philosopher hidden somewhere within every human
being. It has not only given him sufficient time to think over this condition, but
also made him realize the truth of what he was and what he is. Poetry in
quarantine …offers a mirror for the poets to reveal not only what they see but
also what they wish to see also according to their mental attitudes which work
on observations and intuitions…poets…have given voice to their heart-felt
feelings and thoughts, experienced and observed while living in quarantine
during covid-19…” (“Abstract,” Poetry
in Quarantine or Quarantine in Poetry:
Various Thematic Shades)
Now, there is need to going through the
present collection of poetry to peep into for trauma as touchstone. First of
all, the title of the collection needs attention. The eye catching word of the
title is ‘musings’ that stands for ‘a period of reflection or thought,’ but
here it is chiefly on Covid the pandemic of 2019. Although this period of Pandemic
is not over, the thought of the intellectuals of the world is hovering over it.
Past is past but ‘during and beyond’ need care and attention. The musings of
the Covid period that the poet has described in this collection deal
with its banes and boons testifying with his poetic touchstone all
those deeds of the masses that they have done. The saying that “Every coin has
two sides” is also applicable to this pandemic and the poet has embraced its both
sides equally well. As in the very first poem of this collection “Corona Virus,
Mightiest Wizard of All Times” the versifier using the bathetic (bathos) lines
says that man is sublime. He is the mightiest of all the creations and most
intelligent but pity is this that he is impotent before too negligible and
invincible (but now as it seems) corona virus. As he writes:
Oh
human being,
Mightiest
of all creations!
Most
intelligent!
Emperor
of all beings!
How
impotent you are!
How
imprisoned you are!
How
swept away you are
By
too negligible
And
invisible coronavirus! (p.27)
Further
the poet describes the balancing nature of the nature and hints indirectly
towards the world famous naturalist, geologist and biologist Charles Darwin’s (1809-1882)
(‘survival of the fittest’) and the world famous economist Thomas Malthus’
(1766-1834) (three factors- war, famine and disease - of controlling the
population), theories. Describing the universal fact, he pens:
Balancing
is law of Nature
Survival
of all species
Based
on survival of the fittest
Homo
sapience is no exception
Nature
limits human numbers
Through
its powerful weapons:
.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
How
many will survive is yet to be seen
There
might even come an age
When
human species disappears
As
Mesozoic era of Dinosaur.
(“Coronavirus, Mightiest Wizard of All Times.”
Musings on Covid Pandemic and Beyond,
27-28)
These quoted lines remind the most
famous lake poet of 19th century William Wordsworth’s poem “Lines Composed
a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a
Tour. July 13, 1798.” In this hallmarking poem, the poet seeing the harmonious
nature of the nature writes: “Nature did never betray / the heart that loved
her.” (160).
Here (In the noted stanza), the
noted point is this that one side he (Dominic, the poet) weeps for the untimely
death of the people, on the other hand he curses for the unbalancing nature of
the man. To him, as it seems after going through this collection of poetry,
selfish man always imbalances the nature with his selfish indulgences while
selfless nature continually tries to make selflessly a balance herself in many
ways--flood, landslide, tsunami, famine, diseases and pandemic etc.
Nature again and again tries to dress the canker that man makes on her breasts
with false intentions again and again. In this process of balancing, the little
jerk that nature gives in various forms brings catharsis for man and this
catharsis to man is nothing but like a mother’s slap on the face of the naughty
baby with the intention of checking it (baby) from going bad. Knowing all this,
with the intention of giving a warning to man, Dominic, the poet, cries in
anger:
Viruses
were evolved
Even
before you were born
Who
asked you to kick
Hornets’nests
in jungle?
Why
did you tresspass
Coronaviruses’
habitats?
Is
not your greed
That
opened the Pandora’s box?
(“Coronavirus,
Mightiest Wizard of All Times,” Musings on Covid Pandemic
and Beyond, 27)
Further the poet thinks and writes that
nature believes in the universal theory of tit for tat too. As sometimes the
parents has to take hard steps to save their issues from going on the wrong paths,
in the same way nature too has to do so to avoid the unbalance in its/her realm
of harmony. His belief is in the theory of co-existence of all the creatures of
the universe, i.e., the eco-system theory (1935) of Sir Arthur George Tansley (1871-1955),
world famous British botanist and ecologist. This is why in “Haiku on Covid-19”
the poet Dominic playing on and with the words writes:
God
to human beings:
Mask
you wear is punishment
For
masking in your lives. (43)
Prima
facie, this deleterious death (covid-19) made no difference between the
poor and the rich. Those who came under its fatal and lethal claws, passed away
without any delay and distinction. The hallmarking lines that Thomas Gray
(1716-1771), the leader of the ‘Graveyard Poetry’ wrote in the poem “Elegy
Written in a Country Churchyard” are common with them but with a little ups and
downs. He believes that it was more harmful for the poor than the rich. The
music that they (the poor) faced turned their scale leaving next to nothing. It
was calamity to them while for the rich it was nothing but the sword of Democles
as they thought and tried to check the chariot of death with the power
of money. For poor people, it was penseroso but for the rich it was allegro
at first sight. Latter is before the eyes of the world. But now, there is
need to see how Gray and Dominic look it. Gray wrote:
The
boast of heraldry, the pomp of power
And
all that beauty that wealth ever gave
Awaits
alike the inevitable hour
The
path of glory leads but to the grave. (173 )
Dominic writes:
Poor
are easy preys of pandemics
Half
of the world population-
.
. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Worst
affected by lockdown
Incomeless
they live at government’s mercy.
(“Coronavirus,
Mightiest Wizard of All Times,” Musings on Covid Pandemic
and Beyond, 33)
What Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya in “Foreword” to Musings on Covid
Pandemic and Beyond writes about the effect of Covid-19 in Dominic’s poems
is worth-mentioning here:
Dominic
is very apt in his delineation of the impact of Corona virus. He calls it a
revolution or a forced change of social structure. Just as the advent of Jesus in the west
brought about a total change in all the
sphere of life and thought , and just as the industrial revolution effected a
radical change in every sphere of life and action , so does corona virus muted our times honored beliefs and way of
life. (15)
When the effects of Corona is talked/discussed,
it must be kept in mind that it affected each and every strata of the society
socially, financially, psychologically and religiously. Socially, the Covid-19
shattered the first unit of the society that is called family like the pieces
of glass. Shaking its roots from all the directions and uprooting it, It (Covid)
proved its fictitious and illusive (MOH-MAYA) existence. Pulling out the sapling of the relations, it
proved that all the relations of the world is/are only based on need - no more
or less than that. For instance, during that evigheden period, neither
parents nor children were ready to receive the dead bodies of their relatives
for cremation or burial. The dead-bodies were being thrown into the gutters.
This pandemic revealed that only money is the bond of the most of the
relations- no money no relation. Humanity is/was selcouth. Selcouth
was its philosophy. Execrable was its effect to describe in the words.
Notwithstanding in this aonaran period, the few social workers stood
first on the risk of their best to treasure the humanity and its treasures, serving
the masses sacrificed their best. With a toska, Dominic writes:
Coronavirus
created
Hundreds
of martyrs
Doctors,
nurses, health workers
Sacrificed
their lives
For
their people and nations
Many
have died of want
Of
personal protective equipments
Risking
their own lives and
Families
depending on them
They
worked and died for
millions of their fellowmen.
(“Coronavirus, Mightiest Wizard of All Times,”
Musings on Covid Pandemic and Beyond,
34)
Covid-19 is not only a global pandemic
and health crisis but also a global economy and financial crisis. Reduction in
income, rising in unemployment, and disruption in transportation services, and
ceasing of the production in the factories brought the world on the edge of
hunger and penury. None and nothing was wonderwall to the poor and the
needy. If there was something, it was only a drop in the ocean. Seeing the alew
of the impoverished people during this crucial period of pandemic, counting the
name of the poor, the poet writes in the poem “Covid Victims and villains” how
they are on the edge of penury. John the farmer, Krishnan the kind hearted,
Kurian the runner of the huge quarry, Lolan who leads pure veggie life, Salim
the owner of the little teashop, Shamans the exploiter of the ignorant people,
and many politicians who live on the donation of the poor people – all, all of
them suffer. Further in the poem “Covid-19 Exodus 1”, the poet describing the
universal plight of the family of Arvind the worker in a plastic factory in
Delhi, writes:
Lockdown
has drowned lives of
Millions
of labourers in the world
Several
millions are already unemployed
Covid-19
lockdown in India tumbled
Happy
life of Arvind and his family
Lost
job in plastic factory in Delhi
No
income now for daily life
Since
house rent has been due
Building
owner drove him out
.
. . . …. . … . . . . . . . . . .
Though
he has nothing left
.
. . . …. . … . . . . . . . . . .
Arvind
represents thousands
Of
migrant labourers on exodus
.
. . . …. . … . . . . . . . . . .
Absence
of the trains compelled them to walk
Alas,
the train itself took away their lives! (40)
The psychological effect of corona was too heavy for the people to
survive. It brought the whirlwind of depression, heart attack and death for
them. As, the hovering winds of the hopelessness and pessimistic feelings like
American Tornado swept away the vital air of the people from their mortal body
from this earth for forever. Coronaphobia and Ultracrepidarianism
were in full swing. People were leading a Midasian life. Corona was here.
Corona was there. Corona was all around. Nothing was safe. Everything was
infected with its various variants. The noted point is this that Corona could
not undo the people but its phobia did the work. These things are sometimes
directly and sometimes indirectly reflected by Dominic. For instance, the
traces of Covid-19 can be found out here too:
Jafer,
70, led dignified life
Worked
hard as head load labourer
Covid lockdown tore his
dignity
No
bank balance and none to help
Hunger
drove him shamelessly
Goes
with dirty mask from door to door
Fearing
police and rebuke of residents
Alas,
Masks can save from disease
But
can’t suppress one’s hunger!
(“Mask
can’t Suppress One’s Hunger,” Musings on Covid Pandemic
and Beyond, 45)
Commenting on the hollowness of the religions and its rituals, like a
true apatheist the poet in Dominic questions on God and His authorities
in the manner of Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), the Victorian novelist, who wrote
“God’s is not in His heaven; all’s wrong with the world.” (Chap. 37, lls-359. Tess
of the D’Urbervilles: A pure woman faithfully
Presented. Pub.1891).The poet in him too could not check itself seeing
the plight of the people lying (in) bated breath of annus horribilis
19/20. The result is that on one side he
hails covid-19 as a ‘miracle worker’ as it closed all the licensed shops that
were run on/by the name of various branded religions, on the other hands -but
not neglecting the existence of God- he advocates that God is pleased only with
love not with pseudo rituals and hypocrisy. Through the following mind
sparkling lines it (the poet in him) comes before our eyes:
O
Coronavirus
You
could easily do
Such
an inconceivable miracle
Which
sages tried
And
failed from ages to ages
Churches,
mosques, temples
Synagogues,
gurdwaras and
All
such worshiping places closed
Preachers,
priests, shamans, godmen
Have
sought shelter
In
their locked houses
.
. . . . . . . . . … .. .
God
can never be
Pleased
by rituals
Instead
He demands
Love
and compassion
Be
compassionate to
All
humans, non humans,
Nature
and universe
Coronavirus
has proved
Deficiencies
of religions
Religions
fail to
Cure
physical ailments.
(“Coronavirus,
Mightiest Wizard of All Times.” Musings on Covid Pandemic
and Beyond, 29)
Seeing the red tapism of the government
and its machineries, the gold hearted poet feels bee in his bonnet. He can’t
lie low. He does (as) what a poet can do. His pen performs the duty of its own.
As he has ever been follower of the saying ‘pen is mightier than the sword,’ the
result is that the faint hearted poet, without any hesitation, excoriates all
the related authorities in the noted but bitter and harsh words:
Why
is fate so cruel to the poor?
Haven’t
the governments
Any
prick of conscience?
How
can they ignore such piercing sights?
(Covid-19
Exodus 2, Musings on Covid Pandemic and Beyond,
42.)
To him, in this tenebrous time of
co-morbidity, exasperation and morosis, this catharsis of covid
is nothing but a tectonic blessing in disguise. ‘What God does good does’ and
‘when one way closes another opens’ are his advocacy here too. The noted lines
of his one poem wear his heart of his sleeves about Covid-19. As in the 5th section of the poem
“Coronavirus, Mightiest Wizard of All Times” he states that corona virus is on
the surface a blessing and not a curse because human life has once again been
in close touch with Nature vice versa. He versifies:
Lockdown
brought happiness and peace in houses
Children
get love and care of father and mother
Husbands
shower love on their wives
Wives
care needs of their husbands
Old
parents get proper attention and love
Pets
and domestic animals are happier than before. (31)
To him, the othicopa of this
cunctipotent Covid, as it seems, is more good than to be bad. As he
writes:
Oh
coronavirus
You
could rein well
People’s
attitudes of extravaganza
Made
them rational and frugal
Marriage
ceremonies and feasts
For
hundreds and thousands
Limited
now to a dozen or two
.
. . . …. . … . . . . . . . . . .
Since
churches, mosques
And
temples are closed
Millions
are saved of festival expenses
.
. . . …. . … . . . . . . . . . .
Coronavirus
has established
Vulnerable
nature of human beings
Virus
enters human body
Irrespective
of gender, age,
Race,
religion or nation
No
discrimination to poor or rich
A
billionaire or a beggar.
(“Coronavirus, Mightist Wizard of all Times,” Musings
on Covid Pandemic and Beyond, 32)
To him, Covid-19 is as revolutionary
as the west wind (Zypher) was to P.B. Shelly, the rebel romantic poet of
19th century. Like Shelley, Dominic, the poet is seen as a rebel who
wants revolution in each and every strata of society. To him Covid-19 is a
symbol of change in the very style of Shelley’s west wind. The poet is under
the direct influence of his time. Dominic being a representative poet of ‘Virus
Era’ can never be a ukiyo so he writes faithfully what he sees:
Oh
coronavirus,
You
have made revolution
In
all spheres of life
Academic
bodies have started
Online
classes, video conferences
Webinars,
online exams and interviews
.
. . . …. . … . . . . . . . . . .
People
are freed from use of cosmetic powder
Lipstick,
bleaching, dyeing and such
.
. . . …. . … . . . . . . . . . .
Since
civil law forbids people from spitting
Roads
are clean and rid of infectious germs.
(“Coronavirus,
Mightiest Wizard of All Times, Musings on Covid Pandemic
and Beyond, 36)
Dominic, the poet, is never pessimistic but always optimistic so he
believes in the evanescent nature of the virus. The saying ‘every cloud has a
silver lining’ is his hymn (Mantra). His poetry reminds People the poetic world
of Robert Browning, the Victorian poet. To him both life and world are full of
imperfection but in this very imperfection lies hope. He always sees the glass
as half-full. Being a true optimistic person, even though in/ during this
tragic period of pandemic, he thinks the best possible thing will happen, and
hopes for it even if it’s not likely.
According to him, far not are the days when this pandemic will come a cropper.
It’s his spilling optimism that makes him write such memorable lines:
Oh
mighty Coronavirus
Tiniest
in size
You
made history on earth
History
of human race
Divided
into two
Before
covid-19 (BC)
And
after covid-19 (AC)
Unlike
AD/BC or CE/BCE
BC/AC
is universal and phenomenal
A
new world is going to be born
A
new civilization and way of life
Change
for a better world or worse
Time
will prove within a few years.
(Coronavirus,
Mightiest Wizard of All Times, Musings on Covid Pandemic
and Beyond, 37)
Having
gone through Dominic’s poetry collection Musings on Covid Pandemic
and Beyond (2021), the traced out thing is that he never remained
aloof from reflecting the trauma of Covid-19. As a true poet, he has a sonder
so he feels it (the sonder).He never seems to be in a state of exulansis.
Undoubtedly, this poetry collection vividly reflects the zeitgeist of Covid
times not only of India but also of the whole world indirectly. Covid becomes
boons as well as banes, banes for those who lost his/her dear ones; his/her
riches; and bore its trauma- pangs and pains, and boons for its revolutionary
nature of opening the ravening eyes of man to this illusive world. Dominic has chutzpah
to hail Covid’s banes in this dolent time. To him, not in vain, its
boons are greater than its banes. It is not a wild goose chase for anyone to
trace out trauma as touchstone in present collection of Dominic’s poetry. Dominic
writes life in poetry. If there is life, trauma will continue to come. It
depends on man how he takes trauma—whether he makes it a touchstone to judge
his potential within. It lies with him to turn it into boon or bane. Rest lies
with Deux de machine i.e. En attendant Godot
that cannot be controlled. The plague is within. How to combat is the question.
This question is to be answered. The answer lies within man. That answer
becomes his touchstone. The above discussion can be concluded with the remark
of Albert Camus who writes: “Each of us has the plague within him, no one, no
one on the earth is free from it. We must keep endless watch on ourselves lest
in a careless moment we breathe in somebody’s face and fasten the infection on
him” (252-53).
Works
Cited
Arora,
Sudhir Kumar. “Poetry in Quarantine or Quarantine in Poetry: Various Thematic
Shades.” Creation and Criticism, vol.5, Joint issue 18 & 19, July to
Oct 2020. http://creationandcriticism.com/vol_05_joint_issue_18__19__july-oct_2020.html.
Accessed 15 September 2021.
Camus,
A . The Plague. Translated from the French by Stuart Gilbert. Retieved
from
http:www.24grammata.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/06/the_Plague_Albert_Camus-24grammata.com_.pdf.
Accessed 15 September 2021.
Dickens,
Charles John Huffam. A Tale of Two Cities.
Saraswati Printing Press, 1987.
Dominic,
K. V. Musings on Covid
Pandemic and Beyond. Authorspress, 2021.
---.
“Preface.” K.V. Dominic’s Musings on Covid Pandemic and Beyond. Authorspress,
2021, pp. 25-26.
Gray,
Thomas. “An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” Francis Turner Palgrave’s The Golden
Treasury. Clue Type Press, 1861. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19221/pg19221-images.html.
Accessed 15 September 2021.
Hardy,
Thomas. Tess of The d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman
Faithfully Presented. Wordsworth Editions Ltd. Pvt., Rpt., 1992.
Mukhopadhyaya,
Ramesh Chandra. “Foreword.” Musings
on Covid Pandemic and Beyond. By K. V. Dominic. Authorspress, 2021, pp.
7-24.
Tennyson, Alfred Lord. “Lotos Eaters.” Poems of Alfred Tennyson,
Poet Laurate of England.
Illustrated.Bostan:J.E.TiltonAndCompany,1872.https://books.google.co.in/books?id=g9jVPQXMRHOC&pg=pp7&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir_esc=y.
Accessed 15 September 2021.
Wordsworth, William. “Lines Composed A
Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.” Poetical Works of William Wordsworth
Together with a Description of the Country of the Lakes in the North of England.
Edited by Henry Reed. Janes Kay, Jun. and Brother, 1837. file:///C:/Users/91994/Downloads/ACCESS_GTW_WORDSWORTH.pdf.
Accessed 15 September 2021.
Dr. Dharmendra Kumar Singh is working as
an Assistant Professor in the Department of
English at Maharaja Harishchandra P. G. College Moradabad, affiliated to
M. P. J. Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India. His areas of
specialization include ‘Existentialism
and Thomas Hardy’& ‘Existentialism as an Educational Philosophy.’ Creative
writing both in Hindi and English is his passioned hobby. His research papers
have been published in various regional, national and international journals.
He can be contacted at dksinghdharmendra@gmail.com
