The Tessellated Expression in "Soothing Serenades"

Poetry is a mirror, and the text is a vehicle so the poetic text is, in its essential existence, a big mirror. The mirrored existence is a generalized phenomenon and there are degrees of transfiguration of things according to the expressive mirrors by which they appear. Everything tries to present in a full transfiguration state. Poetry as anything also tries to present in a full transfiguration. The literary message also tries to present in a full transfiguration by pressing on the author to express itself at every moment of writing. Sometimes the idea takes several shapes to reach that goal. In tessellated system, the message appears in several clothes; it repeats itself in different textual figures. The texts in the tessellated writing are the shapes, the clothes and the visages of the writer’s message. So the tessellated system is a system of mirrors which is more complex than the other types of writing (AG Jaber, The literary expression, Arabic edition 2017)

From stylistic view, in the tessellated writing, there is a primary title under which the poems sit, and there are secondary titles; the poems’ titles. While the secondary title is basically thematic and reflects the poem’s theme, the primary title describes the poems, the writing, or the universal deep idea. Sometime the title of collection is the primary title and this type of tessellation is the external tessellation in contrary to the internal tessellation where the tessellation sections appeared in one poem and under one title. Tessellation in writing represents the aim of the idea in its attempt to transfigure.

It becomes clear with the new understanding of language and text that there are several aims in the writing; the authorial, the textual and the reader related aims which they influence the text and its final appearance. The most important aims in this complex system are the textual and the authorial or ideal aims, and the relationship between them is usually reciprocal (AG Jaber, The Literary Expression, 2017). The author always tries to balance these aims and their seeking for full transfiguration which prohibits any attempt to hide anyone of them or prevent its glory.

While the intellectual aims try to transfigure with full expression regardless the length of the text, the textual aims try to express the ideas with a biggest reduction in the size of text. If the author goes with intellectual conducting aim, the text will appear relatively tall while if he goes with textual aim, the text will be so minimal. But if the author makes a balance, he will produce a balanced text and the most effective tool is the tessellated writing.

The tessellated writing has many textual features and artistic elements. Here, in this review I will try to trace the tessellation features and its elements in the India poet Bhaskaranand Jha Bhaskar’s poetry collection "Soothing Serenades".

In the tessellated writing, the deep idea and the principal affair have appeared in multiple expressional systems with different deep and superficial textual structures which they always refer and point to that deep idea and that principal affair. These different expressive systems and by their unified target they behave like mirrors where each of them is a mirror to the other and this is what we call "the mirror language"(AG Jaber; Literary expression, 2017).

The tessellated text has been divided into many parts. For example, if it is a poem, it will be divided into multiple poems, that is to say; the tessellated poem is a system of multiple poems in one poem. If the division is so clear with secondary titles, this is the external tessellation but if the division is not clear and the mirror paragraphs are parts of one undivided poem, there will be the internal tessellation. I will study the internal and the external type of tessellation in "Soothing Serenades" using the quantitative analytic approach which depends of the statistic and experimental findings and by this attitude, the quantitative critique is a sold introduction to the literary science; "literology" (A. Jaber; The Literary Expression, Arabic edition, 2017). 

Bhaskar is an Indian poet; his poetry characterized by the high expressionism and a smooth symbolic writing with a fast bounding speed. In his sixty two poems collection "Soothing Serenades" a publishing of Authors press, New Delhi in 2018, Bhaskar has used a very expressive system of tessellation which is the emotional tessellation where the expressive mirrors are the feeling and the systems of emotions. In "Soothing Serenades" we find every paragraph imitates the other making a beautiful tessellated system. 

In fact, "Soothing Serenades" is full with the ideal, thematic and philosophic elements but our study is purely stylistic, so I will be away from any thematic or philosophic analysis and this can be a matter for other studies. The quantitative critique can hold many aspects of writing and in same time producing the tessellated critique but here, we will confine on the stylistic aspect.

In his poem "TO GODDESS OF LOVE" ( Soothing Serenades, Bhaskar p29) we find a very obvious tessellated system composed of three sections acting as mirrors; mirrors for themselves and for the central and deep message:

 

Section (`1):

"Dispel the darkness of hatred

From heart and mind of the ignorant people

And burn all weeds of their impure and lurid desires"

Section (2):

"Come and heal the global wound

Of violence, lusts and all ailments of hearts

With comforting and curing touch of divinity"

 

Section (3):

"Replete the world with your resplendent grandeur!"

We can see the pressure of the deep idea on the text, which is the seeking of universal redress and change. Yes, the characters, the times, and the places are different, but the deep message is one, and this is the tessellation system. And although the paragraphs have a uniform deep idea transfiguring clearly in each one but we can see the progression of transfiguration of that idea. We can see that the power and the desire to change become more potent, wider and deeper with the progression of the text. I had numbered the paragraphs according to their chronological presence in the text and you can see how the author transfers from a limited field of demand in the first section where he wanted the change to occur in the (hearts of ignorant people), but in the second section, the roof of the requests has been raised to  involve indefinite (hearts) which is more wider and universal than the field in section one; (the hearts of ignorant), while in the third section the idea occurred in its full transfiguration to request the change in all ( the world); everything in the world.

Although I thought that everything in the world is a rational creature and has a soul and consciousness, I was keeping the pronouns of the irrationals to give the symbolic tools their full transfiguration. The effect of personification of irrational pronouns is more potent than the using of rational pronouns for the irrational things, where it may be understood as a metaphoric use.

In a collective speaking; the sections have sought the redress and forming a mirrored system in a tessellated space.

Section one... the redress and change.

Section two... the redress and change.

Section three... the redress and change.

We see that the same idea has transfigured in three different figures in one poem with one title, so this system is an internal tessellation. But we saw the difference in the intensity and the fullness of transfiguration of the deep message, where it has begun limited then became wider and finally took its full transfiguration.

Section (1); limited field (ignorant hearts... then section (2); more wider fields (hearts)... then section(3); the widest field (all the world), where full transfiguration has occurred.

Limited (1)…wider (2)…widest (3).

                     

We saw in the past lines that Bhaskar has used two expressional tools to express his idea, or in more precise words we saw the deep ide has used two tools to express itself in the text; the first one is the tessellation system and the mirrored writing and the second tool is the progressive transfiguration. But there is another expressive tool we can notice in the text where we can see the progression in the immersion of the verbs which have been used:

 

Section (`1): Dispel,

Section (2): Heal,

Section (3): Replete.

 

As you see, from the view of immersion and harmony with the idea of redress and change; the first verb (dispel) suffers from a degree of estrangement while the second verb (heal) has a more familiarity and harmony but the third verb (Replete) possesses all the familiarity and the harmony. So there is a progressive expression in the usage of the verbs in the poem.

At this point, we can refer to two interesting things; first; that this harmony between the progressive transfiguration of the ideal expression and the progressive transfiguration of the verbal expression has produced an internal and deep music, and the second thing is that this action reflected the distinct literary experience of the author; Bhaskar and whether this action has occurred by conscious or unconscious activity, it is finally the result of the discriminate artistic experience of Bhaskar which is transfiguring and expressing itself in the text. And we know that literature is but transfiguration and expression.

In the poem "OH, ETERNAL LOVE!" (Soothing Serenades, Bhaskar, p30), a very obvious and expressive tessellated system has existed and it composed from three sections:

 

 

Section (1):

Let me be lost

In your ethereal being

Merged

 

Section (2):

Dissolved

Like sugar into the depth

Of the ocean

Blissful

 

Section (3):

Let me be

Far away

From the weary

And dreary times

Of life.

 

In fact I have noticed from my previous experiences in Arabic tessellated poetry that most tessellated poetic systems composed of three sections (The Literary Expression, A Jaber 2017). So it has been built in my mind an idea that the tessellated poems usually ended in the third section and if the poem has appeared longer with more sections there will be a new and different tessellated system.

 

In fact we don’t need much speech to show that the adjectives (lost. dissolved and far away) are not just expressions of same idea but they belong to one meaning field in the language system. It is clear that language in the universal conscious system has been divided into fields of meaning and although the number of these fields is huge but the process of language and communication is very effective and fast and in insensible moment the brain can reposit every word into its field.

 

There were metaphoric usages on the primary verbs in this poem, and the final idea which expresses itself in the text is the union with the eternal, as the title of poem has expressed "OH, ETERNAL LOVE"

 

Section (1): lost / In your ethereal being

 

Section (2): Dissolved Like sugar into the depth

 

Section (3): Far away /From the weary /And dreary times

 

In this poem we can find all the previous expressive systems, and this is also a mirror. We should remember and emphasize that there is nothing in the writing can happen just with coincidence and without purpose but the fact is that everything in writing is happening for a purpose; either conscious or conscious, and the repetition of same manner of deep structure of expression has pointed towards the style of the author, the genric and stylistic space of his writing and the transfiguration of the subconscious factors.

 

In "OH, ETERNAL LOVE", there is a tessellated system with mirrored writing:

 

 (1): lost / In your ethereal being… seeking the union and peace

 

(2): Dissolved Like sugar into the depth… seeking the union and peace

 

 (3): Far away /From the weary /And dreary times… seeking the union and peace

 

And when we notice that the union is with an eternal, deep and gladdening presence, we know that the union is with eternal peace.

So, the tessellated system here is so obvious and the mirrored writing is also clear, where every section is a mirror to the deep message and to the other sections. In addition to the tessellation, we can see the progression of transfiguration  of the idea where it started with lost in the ethereal presence, which represents an indirect expression then proceeded to more directivity where the dissolve in the depth (Of the ocean / Blissful …. That soothes / My soul) and lastly ended in a very direct message (Far away /From the weary /And dreary times).

The author, or in precise term the text transfers from a less direct state of explanation into a more direct one and then finally ends in a very direct expressive and this system represents a progressive transfiguration of the deep idea and the central message.

Beside this progression all of us can feel the other progressive system which is represented by the degree of existence and its solidity. And I said "all of us" because the system of feelings precedes the intellectual analysis and usually does not need it or the awareness to present, so the feelings can present and in a potent form without clear awareness or explanation. We can see clearly that the piece has stated with a faint existence (ethereal) then transferred to a more sold (dissolve in the depth) and then to a very high degree of solidity in existence (the weary and dreary times). Although the reactions to these different existences are different in negativity and positivity, this progression in existence represents a progression in expression. And although the progression in expression is a feature of transfiguration progression but due to its independency in emotional effect it represents an isolated system of expression which mainly depends on feelings and not on intellectual analysis. This point is so important which can be summarized by one sentence that while the recognition of the progression of deep idea transfiguration needs intellectual analysis, the realization of the progression of the expressive elements can occur without intellectual analysis where it depends on the emotional response  and awareness. That is to say as there is an intellectual awareness there is an emotional awareness. We recognized the progression of transfiguration of the idea (the eternal union) in ""OH, ETERNAL LOVE" by intellectual analysis and this is the intellectual awareness but we realized the progression of the existence and its related expression before the analysis and this was occurring by the emotional awareness and this represents the nonintellectual aspect of beauty and aesthetics.

 

From the above observations and when we returned to the title of the collection (Soothing Serenades; straight from the heart, a collection of love poems" with its smooth penetration, we can conclude that Bhaskar has a peculiar style in his disclosure and in introducing himself where he can reach full transfiguration of his message and his idea by a smooth and progressive manner and this is the attitude of the wise and quite man.

 

In fact we can talk more and more about Bhaskar’s art in his "Soothing Serenades" and there are many aspects to review and analysis, but our quantitative stylistic approach can put the keys in the hand of the reader to inter the aesthetic world of "Soothing Serenades" with confidence, and we should always remember that the aesthetic reading which primarily seeks the feelings is different from the semantic reading which primarily seeks the meaning. The themes and the semantic elements are just a vehicle of the aesthetic elements; the actual and the essential constituents of literature.