The Poetry of Ram Sharma-Chief Features

The Poetry of Ram Sharma-Chief Features

Ram Sharma pseudonym of Nobo Kissen Ghose (1837- 1918) was a great but less known Indo- Anglian poet. A study of his poems shows that he was mainly a poet of man and religion. He sympathizes with the state of men in society and glorifies them who are worth to be glorified. As a poet of religion, he is spiritual, mystic and devotional. The thought of his religious poems is nothing but the poetical transcription of Hindu philosophy.

His poems ‘Lines Addressed to James Scribblerus’ (he was an English editor of Calcutta Daily) is a poem written on an individual. In this poem, the poet displays the personality of James Scribblerus. The personality of Scribblerus was wayward like an eccentric person. He was born in a ‘garret’ which means he came off a very poor family. He was fed on low rations. In search of his livelihood, he left his homeland England and came to India where he had been happened to do a variety of works. He served as a ward-boy, as a driver and so on. Someday he taught the students as a teacher and someday he preached sermons like a prophet and sometimes he begged like a beggar. He hated Bengal and even he hated his own son and abused his children. Many detested him and called “foul-mouthed dunce”. But the poet sympathized with him and said that though he was a fool he did no ill to anybody. The poet says:

”All detest the bore, the foul-mouthed dunce

Let him jeer on and be a jackass still,

The brute may bray and vex, but do no ill.”

The Poetry of Ram Sharma – Chief Features

In ‘Memory of Swami Vivekananda’ is another poem on man. In the poem, he expresses his love, devotion and praise to Swami Vivekananda, a sage-like teacher and preacher of the late nineteenth century. Swami Vivekananda was loved by all and was greeted by all wherever he went. His life on the earth was brief, only forty years. But this brief span of life was full of noble deeds. The poet glorifies him and laments on his premature death.

”Blest be the memory of the bright and brave!

Weep on, my country, ov’r thy Vivek’s grave.”

The Poetry of Ram Sharma – Chief Features

The second outstanding feature of his poetry is the note of religion. Ram Sharma was well-fed on the Hindu scriptures and being influenced by these scriptures his inner soul was more inclined to spiritual thoughts than worldly matters. ‘Music and Vision of the Anahat Chakram ‘is one of the finest specimens of his spiritual poems. In this poem,  he says that the soul is the vital thing of everything. There is no difference between the souls of beings and God. Nature and her activities are the expressions of One Almighty God. The poet says that he hears the sounds of conch and cymbal in his heart which come from Divine Power. In the poet’s words:

”Sometimes the sound of conch I hear, 

Of song and gong and cymbals clear,

As from a distant fane or shrine

Of some benigant Pow’r divine.

And this too, cometh from within

Where soul adores the self unseen.”

The Poetry of Ram Sharma – Chief Features

In another poem entitled ‘Bhagobati Gita’ the poet expresses the mystic side of religion. In it, he shows his own mystic experience with Durga. He says, at a Divali night, he was sitting in his chamber alone meditating on the mystic power. Suddenly a bright lighted vision appeared in front of him. He did not heed to that; instead, he mused on still. He saw that the bright lighted vision was nothing, but Durga, the mother of the goddess herself who is the primeval force of everything. She is eternal power. She is life and death. Countless Brahmas, Vishnus, Shivas are fed on her breast. She sheds countless orbs of light and enlightens the universe. In the words of the poet:

”Victory to thee, Adyasakti, Primeval Force!

Of all things and beings thou art mother-sire and source

Energy eternal! Thou art life, and thou art death

Which are but the rhythmic variations of thy breath!

Countless Brahmas, Vishnus, Shivas at thy breast are fed!

Countless orbs of the light Thy beams, o mighty Goddess shed!

Thine, this universe, thy law its full string’d harmony!

Salutation, salutation, ever unto Thee!”

The Poetry of Ram Sharma – Chief Features

The language of his poems is easy and simple. He uses fewer figures of speech. His poems are generally rhythmic without regular prosody. To say in brief, linguistically his poems are less poetic. Sometimes he uses alliteration and onomatopoeia to make the reading of his poems canorous. 0 0 0

The Poetry of Ram Sharma – Chief Features

N.B.  The article ‘The Poetry of Ram Sharma – Chief Features’ originally belongs to the book ‘Indian English Poets and Poetry-Chief Features‘ by Menonim Menonimus. The Poetry of Ram Sharma – Chief Features