A Fine Example of Classical Tradition in Contemporary Scenario

Mirage is the second poetry collection by Rupesh Singh, the first was The Wind Knocks at My Door which was highly appreciated by scholars of English Literature. He is a budding poet, a PhD scholar of English Literature in University of Allahabad. He writes poetry as a passion to satisfy his emotional self and has been writing since he was a teenager. He writes in English and tries to publish his poems have been published in reputed literary journals and anthologies in India and abroad.

Rupesh has dedicated the poetry collection to his brothers, Rajeev and Sanjay with utmost love and gratitude. Mirage is a Poetry book which belongs to the classical tradition of longer poems. The book comprises of verses which have same theme running parallel, with many sub-themes from the beginning till the end. In the first verse, he seems to be a seer questioning about life and somewhat answering that life is like an esoteric book, as the lines indicates:

What is life?
Is it an esoteric-book?
Or, is it an ephemeral history?

This reflects his philosophical blend of mind reflected in the form of verse. In the second verse, he addresses God as a manufacturer, instructor and vanguard. This is a unique example of use of modern imagery. In the third verse, he is giving multiple meanings of life. He is himself asking question and seems to be confused giving various answers as he says; life is a dull space of emptiness, or a mere flame of glittering candles, or a half extinguished notion or a search of salvation. But he is not able to satisfy himself with the answer. In these verses he has used both optimistic and pessimistic notion revealing his utter confusion.
In the next verse, he is calling the Almighty God to come in his gloomy life and make him happy again. In the fifth verse, he is comparing life to a blissful rain, or a drop of nectar from the ineffable-heaven, or the parching-light of sun, or reasoning cascades of elevated-mountains, or illusion of embodiment or it is humming over the flourishing flower, or it is water of flowing-river. In these lines he has used various natural symbols showing his inclination towards Wordsworth. In the next verse, he is crying because God has not arrived. As the lines state:

I wept and cried whole day
For you, O My Saviour!
But you have not arrived
The sweet and sun-drenched days have gone
And the gladsome evening came

This is the extreme of devotion depicting poet’s religious attitude. In the next verse, he has used Bergson theory of time comparing human beings with bats who search for their existence. In the eighth verse, he is calling Lord Krishna and in the next verse confuse about life and asking whether it is illusion or divine intuition, where human beings are moving and moving aimlessly and are caught between tightly-jaws of death. In this poem, he is revealing his belief on re-birth as he is saying that one dies to take new birth. These themes of calling God and searching the meaning of life is being carried on in all the verses in Mirage. It seems the poet is highly religious and philosophical in thinking. 

In Mirage, the poet is searching for the meaning of life from beginning till the end and giving myriad answers and comparing life with various things but is not able to satisfy himself by his own answers. He is also calling God in different to come in his life and bless him with happiness. He is greatly inspired by English literature and from time to time we see many references from various classics of Shakespeare, Dante and other writers in his verses. He has also used concept of Gita to justify his philosophical self. His verse clearly states that he is not only inspired by Indian philosophy but also of world as there are reference of many Western philosophies in many verses.