Syed Ameeruddin is a poet of new awakening and his poetry which is complex, evocative and emotive has been widely published, anthologized and critically analyzed by the critics of India and abroad. His edited collection Indian Verse in English is judged as the most representative anthology of our time. For his laudable contribution Ameeruddin has been awarded with Michal Madhusudan Award, Australia Day award for literature (1980) and other prestigious awards from Indai and abroad. Syed Ameeruddin, ‘… is a poet with vision, mission, fusion and transfusion to vigorate and rejuvenate the dejected and faded spirits like phoenix’, is rightly remarked by Shujat Hussain, an eminent critic. He is ‘emerged as a unique phenomenon for his poetic vision, spiritualism, vibrating dynamism, symphonic symbolism, complex imagery and above all for his humanitarian and metaphysical concerns’. (A Critical Review, 226 )
The latest collection Vision of Deliverance is before me for review and I find it too difficult to sum up the critically this magnum opus in few words. And yet an attempt is being made to look into the book in critical way. The collection has thirty poems and a few critical opinions on Ameeruddin’s poetry before and after the collection are incorporated for a better critical understanding of the poetry of Ameeruddin.
The first poem ‘A Prayer for My Grandson’ which is according to late Dr. K. Srinivas has ‘epic dimensions’ and though in the form of personal conversation the poet has beautifully mingled social consciousness, philosophy and predicament of modern life in the poem. We can see it in the following lines when he, addressing his grandson, says:
Who are you my little angel…!
Tears of blood
Roll into my eyes.
Where all this will lead-
And to what destination?
This fiasco of inhumanity
Will certainly lead-
To the symphony
Of demure sepulcher,
And to an orchestral cemetery-
A diabolic deluge!
A celebration-
Of vicarious vultures! (39-40)
Though the collection has poems of various tastes like, Nature (‘Moonlit Meanderings’), Nationalism (‘My India’), Spirituality (‘Mystery of the Divine’, ‘Vision of Deliverance’), yet the poems of love (‘A New Love’, ‘Drumbeats of Dampatya’, ‘My Beloved’, ‘Love Times’, ‘Your Eyes’, ‘Your Are a Beautiful Poem’, ‘Love Song’ and ‘Come Dancing Thine Way to Mine Arms’) have remained predominant in the collection. A fine example when poet referring mythological characters writers to his wife:
The rest is a ravishing history
Of nuptial bond-with a wiggling march.
I saw a sonorous Parvathi in you
And you perceived in e a vivacious Shiva
We Vis-à-Vis- and hand in hand
Crossed the travails and thrills of life
With melodies of devotion
And enchanting drumbeats of ‘Dampatya’. (180)
The title poem ‘Vision of Deliverance’ is the finest poem of the collection both from the points of view of idea and diction. The poem is replete with evocative phrases like ‘eerie furies’, ‘hoary diadems’, ‘phallic deliriums’, ‘trembling rills’, ‘rhythmic plethora, churny gurgles, canaled thunder, and purple holes, ethereal slumber, aspen pantomime’ on one hand and beautiful alliterative phrases like ‘alphabetic acrobats’, ‘labyrinthine lilts’ ‘scissoring slops’, ‘shimmering shrieks’, ‘smithereens souls’, ‘rottening riots’, ‘puerile play’, ‘vast vista’, ‘frenzied flash’, ‘tyrannous trance’, ‘luscious light’ and ‘gurgling galaxy’ on the other. This poem is coupled with lively similes, imagery and symbols to intensify the impact of the poem. The poem commences with the volley of questions of the protagonists resulting in Neti…Neti…Neti, and-
The Moksha! The Magfirat! The Nirvana!
The blow of ‘Soor’
The drumbeat!
The Shriek of Shankh!
Deliverance! Deliverance! Deliverance! (202)
The poem has universal appeal and charm which can captivate each reader’s attention and leave a lasting impression on him. The poem can be called perfect for it is rich in rhyme, thoughts and feelings. The deep-rooted Indian ness and philosophy epitomized in the poem has made Ameeruddin a mastercraftsman of our time.
To sum up, it can be said that Vision of deliverance is a book which gives us a glimpse of India, her philosophy and consciousness and establishes Ameeruddin among the finest poets of Indian English writing.
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