Stephen Gill’s The Flame: Poetics of Peace
By Dr. Sudhir
K. Arora
Stephen Gill’s poetic volume, titled, The Flame (2008) is distinctive in
itself because of its peace promoting spirit in the world diseased with
terrorism. The multiple-award winner Canadian poet Stephen Gill, who has his
roots in the centuries-old culture of the subcontinent
Harmonious relations are essential to make life worth
living. Such relations will succeed only when there is peace. There is no human
being, if he has a heart to feel, does not wish for peace. The poet in Gill
dreams of such a world where there will be peace. Peace is love—love for
relations, love for values and love for others’ feelings. Mark the excerpt for
his concept of dream world:
Where love is not
suffocated
and the twigs are not damaged
by the trotting swarm of savages (146)
Peace is one; its meaning is one. But different
persons use the word differently for their selfish end. They make it serve
their purpose and hence, misuse it by twisting its meaning. The more persons
there are the more theories there will be. It sounds very strange that a
terrorist in one country becomes a martyr in another country. What is the
parameter to judge? What is true? People misuse and interpret the concept of
peace to justify their actions. The poet
is well aware of this phenomenon. Very clearly, he offers his comment in the
Preface stating: “Peace has been the hunt of humans from the time immemorial.
There have been different theories to weave its rainbow. Some physicians who have appeared to give
directions have given their lives to light its candle. Some of them taught
unconditional love and some of them taught tooth for a tooth. Some prophets have taught to be neutral or
indifferent to the pains and pleasures of the world. Terrorists also talk of
peace. They believe that they achieve or will achieve peace by terrorizing
citizens. A breed of these terrorists, fed on religious fanaticism, is most
dangerously intolerant of the views of others. This breed is spreading fast and
widely all over the world. Those who believe in preparation for war for peace
have invented the deadliest weapons, such as nuclear bombs. Instead of peace, the world is coming closer
to the threshold of complete annihilation. No one wants that sort of peace,
except some morbid thinkers” (Preface 20).
Gill’s statement clearly reflects his ideology of
peace. Peace is constructive and anyone who preaches it for the sake of
destruction is not a lover of peace. Peace should be the goal of every person’s
life because it is only peace that makes life worth living. Those who spread
the poison of violence in the name of religion or jehad are actually Satan in
disguise. Outwardly they exhibit that they are messiahs but actually they are
not so. The poet calls them maniac messiahs whose intention is only to cause
destruction and to damage the smooth running democratic set up of a country.
Satan has tempted them and made them his own through the black magic of power
and gold. The common men are afraid of these maniac messiahs and find
themselves not in a position to resist because of terror that they have created
in their hearts. Both are to be blamed. The poet states: “The maniac messiahs
are misled individuals who generate the blizzards of fear and panic. Those who are silent are also to be blamed as
those are who adore these blizzards of fear and panic. Both commit horrendous crimes against
humanity as those who carry out sinister designs of these blizzards” (Preface
7).
The Flame is Gill’s offering to bring out peace in the world
which is in the grip of the monster terrorism. Harmony is the thread that binds
people together. The Flame, to the poet, is “the imperishable harmony” (32) which
causes prosperity in the world. He wishes for her
chalice which is full of peace upto the brim. He
likes to sip “the invigorating wine / of fruitful returns” (32) because he
knows that it is the liquor of peace that will make the barren land fertile.
Peace is the liquid which will make him quite constructive and creative in
design. She is a balance in creation and hence, remains calm. She is the white
lotus that comes from “the undisturbed waters / of uncommon patience” (36). The
pleasure lies not in snatching others’ things which the maniac messiahs do but
in giving things to others. The weak and the poor need protection and support.
Those who give hand to the weak are the followers of peace, hence, of the Flame
too. The Flame is the force that supports the exploited and oppressed. Mark the
supportive role of the Flame:
You are
the driving force that lifts
spirits from the ditches.
You are the creation
whose meaning is perceived
through the glasses
of peace (36)
Undoubtedly, the
Flame is the creation, a mysterious power that can be seen only through the
glasses of peace. Hence, the poet wishes “to awake under that dome / where / untainted
fountains” flow. The fountains that flow from her compassion can “pacify
unquenchable thirst” (45). The thirst when quenched leads to dreams which, in
turn, open the portals of his freedom.
Now, the poet takes the case of destruction caused by
the so-called messiahs. The Flame which symbolizes peace is attacked through their
explosion. “Time stopped when an explosion / blew up the simple elegance / of
my flame” (51). The terrorists attack temples, churches, mosques, schools or
any other place. The temple is ruined and pushed “into a grave of unfathomable
horror / by the avalanche of / the hate” (58). The innocent people become prey
to their destructive design. To the poet, terrorism which is “an extreme form
of ambition for power to rule others, is the work of organized groups that
carry out the bloodshed of innocent citizens to gain political, national or
religious power. They disregard human
life. They do not belong to any organized armed forces and therefore do not
follow any rules of the war. They strike whenever and wherever it is possible.
Often they call themselves liberators, separatists and jehadis. They shun democratic
means to achieve their objectives. The
values that are shared by law-abiding citizens are their targets and they come
from every community and background” (Preface 20).
At one time, the poet becomes hopeless and frustrated
and does not know what to do. These maniac messiahs release their destructive
power through robots like men who have no heart to feel and no conscience to
prick. The cries of the innocent seem to be a song to their ears. Under the
impact of Satan, they are tempted to do evil things. They have become so strong
that the poet feels that the mightiest armies cannot defend the freedoms of the
common men. He asks the citizens of peace to lament because these “robots
cannot be bridled / from the fortified bunkers” (104). He wants to know what these evil-lovers feel
in “tormenting the bird of peace / with the cigarette lighter of their lust / of
the butt of the rifle of their bigotry” (93). It is their lust for power that
tempts them to do ill. They have the deadly weapons to create terror. They are
the monstrous with curved nails “to damage the smooth-sailing ark / of
freedoms” (94). The questions: What do they want to achieve? What lures them to
dance with “the agents of carnage / on the mountain of emptiness” (94) torment him
again and again. No doubt, he becomes so emotional that he thinks that there
will be no end of suffering of the peace-loving people. But, the Flame makes
him hopeful and instills strength in him that he hopes that these so-called
maniac messiahs will come back on the right path. The Flame waits patiently for
the return of these prodigals. Satan, who vies for power to become God, takes
pleasure in deceiving people and making them his prey. But, God is always with
the innocent and peace-loving men. Hence, these peace-loving men are always
tested by Satan. The poet believes that peace always wins in the end and so, he
asks the people not to be harassed or feel frustrated because “Peace has been
tested / in the cyclone of the freshness / of early morning” (100).
Flame is the light that unmasks the mask of terrorism
and does justice to the people. If it had not been so, there would have been no
beliefs and devotion. There is power, the power of thunder that is more
powerful than the power of these maniac messiahs. This is the power of the
Flame. Hope comes to the poet when he feels the inner power of the Flame in
him. He shows his optimism when he utters:
Flame is still a
pyramid of justice.
Hope carves niches of
safety
around towers of peace
to lay eggs even today. (98)
In his vision for a peaceful world, Gill sounds like Tagore who sees a vision of
Where the mind is
without fear and the head is held high;
where is knowledge is free;
Where the world has
not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out
from the depth of truth;
Where tireless
striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream
of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led
forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action—
Into that heaven of
freedom, my Father, let my country awake. (Gitanjali
20)
Like Tagore, Gill also sees
a vision not of any particular country but of the world—the world of Peace and
Prosperity. He does not allow any kind of cruelty or terror. Sample the excerpt
for Gill’s prayer to the Flame for her light:
We need the softness
of your light
to weed out the spite
the dark
the frowning evil
the war
the misery
the hard days
and for dialogue to guide
the good to lead. (110)
He wishes to spread light of peace in the world and
expects that in the world of his vision, creeds will not be crushed and human
gods will not feed “the vultures of war”. He wishes to defend the freedoms and
expects that “the evil birds of bloodshed” (145) will not defile the nest of
his vision. He likes to seek “solace in a garden / where flowers bathe / in a
shower of peace” (117).
The maniac messiahs wear the masks of
sanctimoniousness which deceives the innocent people who are misguided to raise
weapons against their fellow beings. In a very satirically manner, the poet in
Gill reveals the truth about them stating: “How a spiritual person would start
killing even his own neighbors and friends seem to be an enigma to me. Perhaps killers have been fed with the poison
for earning points to enter the
They crush buds
with bulldozers
wearing the gown of sanctimony
to cover the nakedness
of their disease
that eats away
the flesh of peace. (134)
The palace of peace is converted into the palace of
terror. The sacred place which is known for faith and spiritualism urges has
now become the workshop for terrorists who operate their evil activities. Under
its ceiling, they have raised “the beasts of their twisted creeds” (142). Here,
there is no hope. What comes out in this sacred place is “the noxious emission
of no hope” (142). What can save the
people from so called messiahs? Gill replies to the question saying that only
the light from the Flame can save the humanity from the web of terrorists. It
is the Flame that will reveal the true face of terrorism. The united efforts
are needed to fight against the demon of terrorism. It is the light of the
Flame that can bind the people in one thread as it has “the binding force”
which can bind “families, planets / every atom / and every part of every
individual” (135). The rays of the Flame give warmth to the people who become
hopeful for the better future that will be free from terrorism. The poet thinks
that “Life disintegrates / where the rays of flame / do not reach” (135).
As the poet in Gill loves peace, he will like to
direct his steps towards “the shores of pure bliss” (152) of peace that comes
from the Flame. He likes to take a dip in the flow of the light of peace. He
knows that the way of peace is long but he likes to walk on it. He is
well-aware of the thorns of the way but he will pursue his “odyssey / through the
barren regions of the moor” (152) without being attracted to Satan’s temptation
of gold and power. He has his agenda—the agenda of promoting peace in the
world. In the Preface to The Flame, he has made it clear when he says: “I
believe that peace is the legitimate child of peaceful means. I believe that
peace is a powerful basic human need that is the other side of the coin of
love. All normal humans, no matter
where and how they live, aspire to peace” (Preface 21). God in the form of The
Flame is with him. He has set out his journey for a noble cause—the cause of
saving the humanity from destruction caused by the so-called maniac messiahs. It
is through his poetry that he has succeeded in connecting people, making them
aware of the evil intention of the evil doers. He recommends the magic of
united force to root out the evil. His poetic volume The Flame possesses all the characteristic features that make it a poetics
of peace as it talks of peace not in any particular nation but in the world. There
is no exaggeration in calling The Flame
a Bible of Peace which must be read by all in order to save the humanity from
destruction.
Works
Cited:
Gill, Stephen. The
Flame (
Gill, Stephen “Author’s Preface” The Flame (
Tagore, Rabindranath. Gitanjali. (Delhi: Macmillan India, reprinted in 1985)
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ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
Dr. Sudhir K. Arora teaches English at Maharaja Harishchandra
P. G. College, Moradabad affliated
to M. J. P. Rohilkhand University,