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Any poet would like to be
applauded mostly for his literary brilliance and be appreciated for his
literary craftsmanship. Each of them likes to know that his poems are well
accepted by the readers. That is quite natural. Actually, a poet waits patiently
to see how many readers like his poems. With the advent of the internet it has
really become easy to find out if many readers like a poem or not. It has
surely become even easier nowadays to publish poems, reach a wider
audience, see how many readers are favouring our poems and receive any
appreciation what we consider as a proof of our literary merits. That not only
boosts up our confidence as poets, satisfies our own personal ego but also
can help grow our self-esteem to such an extent, that we may begin believing
that we are very good poets.
This particular belief is necessary to pursue any literary work. But an overconfidence is not a good approach to poetry. It may satisfy our ego, but it also blocks the path to further developments or makes us blind and we don't look around any longer but start following our ego which leads us to nowhere. The blind faith of being good poets, or writers only can bring to mediocrity.
Unfortunately, the majority of poetical productions in the internet are just mediocre literary exercises. But even though this is the real state of affairs, yet we know there is also few poets and readers as well, who try to break the shackles of mediocrity. They are well aware of the present conditions of literature around the web publishing spheres. Now one also wonders how can we break the shackles of literary mediocrity. Yes, we can do it, do it through literary criticism.
Literary criticism is that field, which can safely guard us from that overconfidence which we have already discussed in details. It can also help us to develop our literary skills constantly. A true poet should never take it for granted to be good enough. He can only develop thanks to his improvement in literary knowledge. Without which, the growth of any poet is not possible and his poetry can never survive. It is only the literary criticism which can help us to survive as poets and guide us through our literary development to the proper directions. So, for our own self-interest we should accept a good literary criticism of our work and welcome the ones who can judge our literary works. Any poet needs to know the actual value of his poems. But who can assess our literary productions? A literary critic can assess the true merits of our literary works. So why shouldn’t we appreciate literary criticism of our work? The evaluation of our poetical production can save us from mediocrity.
Critics can evaluate our writings on the basis of real literary merits to bring positive changes in our poetical creative skills, try to highlight the different aspects of a writer’s piece of writing but also his probable limits. This may eventually help us to make necessary adjustments. So, true literary criticism of our works actually propels us forward for further enhancements.
Unfortunately, most of the poets hovering around the internet and social medias, abhor literary criticism. Their sole interest lies in receiving appreciation of their works without any criticism and go around their blind faith of being good enough to be a poet. Their self-esteem and overconfidence make them blind. Actually, this hampers the path of their literary development. Although most of them have inherent potentialities of literary merits, yet without harnessing that potentialities they remain dwarfs in the literary field.
These poets believe in a spontaneous expression of personal feelings and emotions, according to them the main purpose of poetry is to convey them either in rhythmic or in non-rhythmic form. They aspire to just narrate a story, to communicate with their audience through personal emotions and feelings. They forget that it is not up to the poet to narrate a story, but to create an atmosphere where the readers can take shelter and feel the truth behind the words. Poetry is not a medium to say something, to send any particular message, it is the medium to represent life in such a way to help their readers to grasp some truths.
The poet shouldn’t communicate his or her own emotions directly to the readers, the poet has to find suggestive images, able to evoke the same emotions in his or her readers. This requires great skills and a poet should work on these almost the whole of his lifetime to master his art properly. Literary criticism can help a poet immensely through a process of developing literary skill as it rightly points out the strengths and the weaknesses of the poet. It can suggest necessary alternatives to cultivate the literary merits of the poet.
Actually, poetry is not just
inspiration, it needs organization. The poet has to organise his emotions
and visions in such a manner, that's in an impersonal way, so that his poetry
can evoke emotions without revealing his own. A poet’s mind is like an ocean of
emotions and experiences which helps him to build up his personal vision. The
poetic process fuses these distinct emotions and experiences into an impersonal
vision. This impersonality is the essence of true poetry. A poet has miles to
go before achieving this impersonality. Without a wide acceptance of literary
criticism, it is almost impossible for any poet to achieve that height. And to
survive as a poet one has to acknowledge this fact. The sooner a poet realizes
it, the better for him or her.
From The
Editorial Desk
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