The Poetry of Nizamat Jung–Chief Features

The Poetry of Nizamat Jung–Chief Features

The Poetry of Nizamat Jung– Chief Features

Nizamat Jung (1871- ?) was a major Indo- Anglian poet with a difference. His poems are mainly religious in which mystic notes predominate and it is the main thematic characteristic of his poetry. His mystic poems are romantic in treatment like that of William Blake. A mystic is he who believes in the existence of human soul, the soul of nature and the Divine Soul (Soul of God) and believes that human soul can communicate with the Divine Soul through the soul of Nature. In other words, to say, mysticism means the unity or oneness or likeness of the human soul, the soul of nature, and the Divine Soul. It is the highest and ultimate stage of any religious faith, especially of Hinduism and Islam. Nizamat Jung’s mysticism is an output of the influences of both sects. During his lifetime, Nizamat Jung wrote and published five volumes of poetry as- ‘Sonnets’, ‘Islamic Poems’, ‘The Legend of Faith’, ‘Medina Mementos’ and ‘Rudel of Blaye’- all are characteristically religious in theme.

His ‘Prologue’ is a poem in which he experiences a mystic vision of God in open Nature. Like a sage, his soul is weary of human society and its din and bustle, its inhumanity and indiscipline. So he comes out of home and seeks peace and chases after the Divine Soul. The poet says:

”My soul was wandering through Eternity

Seeking within the depth and on the height

Of Being one with whom it might unite

In life and love and immortality.”

The Poetry of Nizamat Jung– Chief Features

‘His Spirit of Light’ is another worth quoted poem dealing with a mystic note. In this poem, he says that it is the Soul of God that shows the right path of redemption and He guides human soul to God (Himself) and thus the mystery of life comes out. He says:

”Spirit of Light from starry mansions straying,

Whose flight is o’er his world of woe and strife,

On, on thy course, to mortal hearts conveying

God’s meaning and the mystery of life!”

The Poetry of Nizamat Jung– Chief Features

The poet thinks rightly that when a human soul becomes sense trammeled or weary of the problem of life then it takes shelter in mysticism through which he desires to get peace of mind. The poem entitled Soul-Weariness is such a poem in which he says that all beings including the poet also with the objects of Nature is the symbol of One God. The poet writes:

”That I, a fragment sundered and afar,

May feel life’s essence in all things that are

But sings and symbols of Thy Deity!”

The Poetry of Nizamat Jung– Chief Features

Like those poems analyzed above, his nature poems are also mystic. But his nature poems are not like that of Keats or that of Wordsworth or other poets prior to him. He is bold enough to utter the existence of God in Nature.

Besides being a romantic-mystic poet he is a patriotic poet also. In some of his poems, his love for his motherland is expressed either plainly or in the manner of an elegy. ‘Golconda at Sunset’ is such a poem in which the poet reminds and glorifies the past rich heritage of India. He says:

”Bereft of power though not of fame

Custodians of the past, they stand

In mournful grandeur yet to claim

Dominion over the subject land.”

The Poetry of Nizamat Jung– Chief Features

Stylistically his poems are simple. He uses nature imagery very often, but nature in his poems stands as a symbol of the Divine Soul. His poems are free from the trammels of figures of speech except for some familiar similes and alliterations. The following lines may be invoked as an example of simile used by him as-

”As one who wanders lone and wearily

Through desert tracts of Silence and Night.”

The alliterative phrases and words are like- “masques and minarets”, “garb of grey” etc. The construction of his sentences is sometimes complicated, incongruous and difficult to annotate. And it is the main demerit of his poetry.

In conclusion, it is right to say that he is great not as a religious poet but as a nature mystic poet.  0 0 0

The Poetry of Nizamat Jung– Chief Features