A View of The Flame Unmasked

Jasvinder Singh

*The Flame Unmasked ( Stephen Gill’s Epic Critically Examined), edited

by Dr. Sudhir K. Arora, Prakash Book Depot, Bara Bazaar, Bareilley, (U.P)

pages 230 paperback, Rs.200, ISBN: 978-81-7977-357-4

The Flame Unmasked , an assessment of Stephen Gill’s epical poem The Flame, is a collection of eighteen research articles by eminent scholars from India. Stephen Gill, a contemporary literary luminary, is an Indian Diaspora, settled in Canada. Several good critical studies on the works of Stephen Gill have been released lately. This is one of them. Dr. Sudhir K. Arora provides a brief account of poet’s objectivity in his preface:

Stephen Gill’s The Flame (2008), which is distinctive in itself because of its peace promoting spirit, offers a comprehensive poetic study of destruction caused by the maniac messiahs, despair out of this destruction and devotion to fight against it with the united efforts under the guidance of the eternal Flame. The poet invokes the Flame, depicts the havoc and destructive scenes, calculates the loss, studies the maniac messiahs psychologically peeping into their hearts and finally offers his stand of pursuing his odyssey.

Everyone knows that flame in a lamp provides light, and it is placed in a temple at the time of devotional prayers. It has its own sanctimony as it enlightens the soul. The fire as a flame which consumes the dead persons in a crematorium is also sacred, but the fire that is used for mass destruction is highly condemnable. The maniac messiahs use it as their tool. Scholars from Indian colleges and universities evaluate this epical poem, examining the poet’s objectives and richness of language.

The Flame delves on different aspects as seen by Dr. R.C. Shukla, a poet and an academician in Moradabad,(U.P), by Dr. Sandhya Saxena who compares it with Milton’s Paradise Lost, Dr. Sudhir K. Arora’s who presents a perceptive analysis on the basis of ‘Rasa Theory’, and a lack of human values in maniac messiahs by Dr. Madhubala Saxena, an academician in Moradavad. Dr. G.L.Gautam analyses the poem, comparing it with P.B.Shelley’s Triumph of Life. Dr. Anuradha Sharma compares with Ramcharitmanas touching terrorism in both. Dr. Anuradha Sharma is a scholar and teacher at Navjivan College in Gujarat. Among the other perceptive studies, I can include Dr. Chhote Lal Khatri, and the comparisons of Dr. Satish Kumar and Anupam Bansal with the Flame of Bhagwad Gita which makes the book a thought-provoking study. Dr. K.V. Domnic, Dr.K.Balachandran, Dr. Arun Kumar Mishra, Dr. G. Dominic and Ms. S.J.Kala, Ruchi Aggarwal, and Dr. Alka Agarwal also analyse the poem from different prospective. There are not many studies of Stephen Gill’s poetry from the point of nature. In this respect, the contribution by Dr. Alka Agarwal is notable, and also notable is the comparison of Dr. Sudhir Arora with the Prophet of Khalil Jibran.

A close study of the art, craft and message of The Flame makes The Flame Unmasked immensely useful reference work for scholars and lovers of modern poetry. This critical study is a tribute to The Flame and its poet Stephen Gill who has dedicated himself to the cause of peace and human concerns.

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Jasvinder Singh is a New Delhi based freelance journalist, poet and a literary critic. He has six collections of poems to his credit.

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