A Note on Stephen Gill’s The Flame

Dr.Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal

While editing my recent book on Stephen Gill, I found that a note of feverish anxiety runs through his creative works. This ambassador of peace is perturbed because of the destruction of calm, peace and tranquility in the world by the maniac messiahs. The same distaste for ‘the avatars of savagery’ is to be found in his latest poetic work, The Flame, which is divided into eight parts and sixty two cantos. The following expression from the thirteenth canto is sure to touch the innermost chords of the reader’s heart:

There was an arm and a head

and a woman’s leg

from the knee down

the rest was buried under the rubble.

A body appeared

to have been through

a meat grinder.

There was an open chest cavity

beside a headless torso.

The just-quoted lines exhibit the presence of the senseless and chaotic violence, pervading the human society. Gill’s heart is ever crying, for this ‘blood-dimmed tide’ of carnivorous violence is devouring the humans.

I hope the book may enlighten the flame of compassion and sacrifice in the human society, filled with ‘remorseless forces of brutalities.’Another important point about this book is its autobiographical preface, which outlines the growth of Gill’s career as a writer. Gill’s experiences may serve as instructive prescriptions for the budding and upcoming writers. One such experience, which he shares with the readers, is that he always keeps ‘a notebook to put down any striking word or phrase that comes across during a talk, reading or from anywhere.’

Besides, the preface of the book is marked by extraordinary candour and frankness of Gill. How many intellectuals and writers can confess as truthfully as Gill has done in the following lines:

My one problem was my early education that did not help me gain self-confidence and skill. It was my early education that remained a serious obstacle in my life. I had attended the cheapest schools that were run by governments. In these schools, the media of instruction was the local language. English was touched nominally at the elementary level without any emphasis on conversation…

My question is—Do the other writers and poets have the same courage and moral strength to speak in such a candid manner about their earlier career and life? Gill has done it in The Flame. It shows the man behind the words—a good natured man with a transparent heart.

The Flame, from the pen of such a man, must be read by the citizens of the world to eliminate ‘the jungle/ of deafening disorder’ from the hearts. I strongly recommend this book to the people of all nationalities, communities, classes and castes. If language is the barrier, it must be translated into several native languages. The intellectuals and writers must come forward to translate this monumental work into several other world languages.

Dr.Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal is Senior Lecturer in English at Feroze Gandhi College, Rae Bareli, (U.P.), India. His book Discovering Stephen Gill: A Collection of Papers and Articles is to be released shortly.