Presented To:

Professor, Department of English,

G.C.U Faisalabad

Presented By:

M.A English Literature

Section C (160825)
Zishi.3720@gmail.com
0345-5322-100
 Topic: Taufiq Rafat’s poetry

The kaleidoscope of various ‘ISMS’: A critical analysis

of selected poems from
‘ARRIVAL OF THE MONSOON’

An article by Sir Rana Kashif Shakeel

Lecturer, department of English, U.A.F
 Contents
• Introduction
• Keywords
• About Taufiq Rafat
• Ezra Pound of Pakistani Literature
• Modernity and Traditional
• Romanticism
• Pakistani Idioms
• Symbolism
• Conclusion
 Introduction
• This article is quintessence of Taufiq Rafat’s poetry and also
encloses the literary movements and theories, such as
romanticism, modernism, imagery, symbolism etc., that make
his poetry a kaleidoscope to see through all merged in each
other.
• In the article, it has also been discussed about the modes of
postcolonial resistance-abrogation and appropriation- to
strengthen the Pakistani Idioms in English.
• The research also finds out that whatever themes the writer
uses; he never divorce it from romantic imagery, modernity
and resistive voice.
 Keywords
• Symbolism
• Modernity
• Traditional
• Imagery
• Imagism
• Local
• Indigenous
• Resistance
• Romanticism
• Pakistani Idioms
 About Taufiq Rafat
• Taufiq Rafat (1927-1998), the father of pure Pakistani Idioms
in English
• Born in Sialkot, the native home of the great Islamic
philosopher and poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal
• An eminent Lenin Prize Winner & Progressive rhymester Faiz
Ahmad Faiz
• Educated at Dhera Dhun, Lahore and Aligharth and finally
joined “the family manufacturing buisiness”
• Exalted as the mentor of aspiring poets of Lahore in 1970s
• Also esteemed as the crown of all contemporaries poets—
Khalid Yazdani, Kaleem Umar, Shuja Nawaz, Alamgir Hashmi
and Athar Tahir frequently visited him at his office
 Ezra Pound of Pakistani Literature
• He is considered as Ezra Pound of Pakistani Literature for
two main reasons
• First, Pound belongs to Imagist Movement & his
technical equipment ranges from the ‘simple
conversational tone’ to the ‘long paragraphs’
 Rafat’s “Arrival of the Monsoon” is replete with the
same technique.
• Secondly, Pound also turned away from Imagist
constructions in favour of translation
 Rafat also translated some masterpieces of Classical
Punjabi poetry. Among these are Bulleh Shah: A
Collection(1982) and Qadir Yar: Puran Bhagat (1983)
 Modernity and Traditional
• Rafat belongs to rural area, therefore, he has love
for nature
• His poetry stuffed with cultural insight, rural
imagery and pastoral landscape
• We can see also elements of modernism in his
poetry with the themes of loneliness and death etc
• So, his poetic work includes the conflict between
the modern and the traditional
• He used themes of loneliness, death and love in
the same poems
 Modernity and Traditional
• Rafat’s poem Loneliness is the superb example of
former opinion
Loneliness means impenetrable walls
Streaked with betel-juice and snot
And a single skylight, high up
Through which the air dribbles in
Like saliva from an old man’s mouth
• Kitchens is also a great example of same themes
 Romanticism
• Rafat looks also inspired by the Romantic poetic
tradition
• In ‘The Time To Love’ Taufiq explored the universal
theme of love the poetic sensibility of the great
Romantic English poets
 Love is a country
with its own climate
• Rafat also uses natural objects ranges from wild beast
to the domestic animals
 Ducks, birds, geese, sparrows, snow leopards, goats,
dogs and so many are the key figures of his poetry
 Pakistani Idioms
• Rafat is considered the father of ‘Pakistani
Idioms in English Literature’
• His use of indigenous idioms is also one of the
types of postcolonial resistance
• He uses it to highlight the identity of the local
culture
His phrases ‘gleaming shisham table’,
‘mohalla’, ‘self appointed chokidar’, and the
names of birds like bulbul and quail are the
examples of Pakistani Idioms
 Symbolism
• His all statements are directly the stone houses of symbolic treasury. He
could have used them in translated form but he did vice versa
• Shisham, sissoo, tahli and taliare are different names for the same tree. It is
of great significance in rural areas of Eastern and Western Punjab.
• This tree was the symbol of solace, love and unity but modern
industrialization has reduced its traditional worth
 Now breakfast’s over, not a crumb
On the gleaming shisham table;
The napkins neatly quartered again
And leftover foodstuff whisked away
(Meditation and Prayer)
 Conclusion
Closing the debate in short, it can be claimed
that Rafat’s poetry is indeed the kaleidoscope
of many ‘ISMS’. No doubt that he adopts the
themes and styles from the movements-
symbolism, romanticism etc, but his poetic
landscape itself frames all influences
according to the need of Pakistani Idioms.