Random Thoughts on Poetry and Criticism by Dr Alok Mishra

Poetry is the rhythm composed in solitude and distributed to the masses.

No, no gods or wild beasts live in solitude! Only those who solve the mystery of what lurks behind the skins we wear enjoy the bliss of solitude and sing the divine lyrics with nature acting as the chorus.

Criticism is a noble job that should be pursued with due diligence by the scholars who are keen to lay bare the threads of design and scheme of a work, not to degenerate it but to bring forth an elevated experience for readers who might have missed these while looking to extract delight from the work of literature.

Academic criticism often focuses on pleasing the examiners for various purposes. It lacks the aesthetic design, the nobility of purpose and the freedom to touch emotional and humane aspects of the literary work that appeal to the senses rather than the intellectual faculty.

I do not discount the intellectual urge in criticism. However, I have always maintained that academic contours do not provide the necessary freedom for students, and even professors, to pursue criticism comprehensively. The political boundaries bind it – what is in fashion has to be chased instead of creating new pillars that might provide readers at large with new possibilities to look upon literary works.

Literary criticism, to be precise, and when pursued beyond the boundaries of academic jargon, directly serves the collective consciousness of humanity! It should be carried out to encourage mass participation in the perusal of serious literature or to find seriousness even in the most playfully written literary works. Extending the hypothesis, every author has a thread or two hidden to conceal the life lessons that are layered beneath the entertaining episodes in the storyline. Readers, at large, given their busy and callous lifestyle bereaved of the aesthetic values, may conveniently ignore toiling to reveal those layers; it is, therefore, incumbent upon literary critics to make it happen!

~ Dr Alok Mishra

27 August 2025

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