My Stay at Hotel Bhimas Paradise, Tirupati (A.P.)

 

    

  

 

                 

 

This hotel is a very old and popular one among the famous group of Bhima founded way back in 1960’s. This hotel was started in 1993. This three-storey two-star hotel with thirty-five rooms is centrally located on Tirupati-Renigunta Road opposite Reliance mart. It is nearly 2.5 kms from Tirupati railway station. The famous Govindaraja Swamy temple is 2kms and Padmavati Ammavari temple is 4kms. from this hotel. Many famous restaurants like Multi-cuisine Minerva coffee shop, Hotel Blue Box and Hotel Manasa are quite nearby. 

This hotel has an in-house restaurant serving vegetarian delicacies. This hotel has free parking, rental car service’ lift facility and free-Wi-Fi facility. There are two types of rooms: A.C. Deluxe and Standard room.  The check-in and check-out timings are 12.00 p.m. and 11.00 a.m. The standard bedroom has 120 sq.ft bedroom with a queen-sized bed, two chairs, a table, ward robe, electric kettle and toiletry items. Though the rooms look a little old all facilities are available at affordable prices. I booked this hotel directly with a request for early-check-in. The hotel authorities agreed on the condition that I should vacate within 24 hours. Especially in pilgrimage towns like Tirupati many trains arrive early and so permission for early check-in with 24 hours duration for check-out is very convenient for pilgrims. Other hotels should also provide this facility to pilgrims. 

Free bottled water, soap, towels and spare bed sheet was provided. Complimentary breakfast facility is there. The hotel gives prompt response and room service is good.  When the A.C. and T.V. were set right soon after I asked the receptionist for help. There is a need for improvement in cleanliness and providing a better appearance outlook. Door curtains are to be provided to shield bright sunlight coming into the room. The corridors and the reception room may be decorated with paintings and art works to highlight the importance this town which has many beautiful places and temples around. Pamphlets giving more information about this town will help pilgrims in planning their schedule.

 As we had to catch an early morning train, we asked the receptionist to arrange for transport. The receptionist gave a wake- up call and arranged a vehicle to take us to the railway station.  This hotel is a budget hotel quite suitable for pilgrims as it is centrally located with all facilities.

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29th September, 2023                           Somaseshu Gutala

 

A Note on William Carlos Williams’ Poem: “The Red Wheelbarrow”

This poem was originally published without title and was designated as XXII in Williams’ 1923 book “Spring and all”, a hybrid collection with alternating selections of prose and free verse. This poem is a prime example of early 20^th century Imagism. The pictorial style was inspired by the photographs of Alfred Stieglitz and the precisionist style of Charles Sheeler, an American photographer-painter whom Williams met shortly before composing this poem.

 This poem represents an early stage in Williams’ development as a poet. It focusses on the objective representation of objects. This poem was written in brief haiku-like free verse form. The man by whom the poet was inspired to write this poem was Thaddeus Lloyd Marshall Sr. He lived a few blocks away from Williams in Rutherford, New Jersey. His grave is seen in Ridge Lawn cemetery in neighboring Clifton. He was an old Afro-American who sold eggs and vegetables in his wheelbarrow. In his backyard the poet saw a red wheelbarrow surrounded by white chickens. The poet’s affection and good relationship with the man inspired his word choice and subject matter. Orrick John’s “Blue under-shirts upon a line” published in “Others” in 1915 may have provided the framework upon which he developed this poem.

 According to Dr. Mark Hama in “College literature” (1910), Williams found in John’s poem the framework for a new modern American poetic line. One can find a sense of nostalgia, sentimentality and love for Nature in this short poem. According to Williams, the red wheelbarrow is an incredibly important tool for rural and farming communities to earn their livelihood and maintain their families. The poet suggests through this poem that we should take note of the value of common things which we often take for granted. There is Wordsworthian approach of glorifying the ordinary, simple objects in people’s language without any artificial ornamentation. Williams, like Frost, believed that modernizing American poetry means incorporating contemporary American speech and American scenes and way of life in his poems.

 

The poet depicts in very simple language a red wheelbarrow drenched   in rain.  The whole poem is a single sentence divided into four couplets. This is a four-line stanza poem that is separated into sets of two lines known as couplets. The entire poem has sixteen words with four words in each stanza. The lines are extremely short. The first line of each stanza has three words, and the second line has only one. This poem is in free verse with no meter and rhyme. This poem is written in simple and conversational style and is calm and cool in tone.

 A few literary devices are used to add force and effect to this poem. The use of alliteration (repetition of same letter or sound at the beginning of words) in words: rain, red and borrow. The use of assonance (repetition of vowel sounds in the same line) in phrases like "glazed with rain" and "beside the white." The use of symbolism is seen in the image of the red wheelbarrow which represents farm life. The neglected state of the wheelbarrow suggests rupture in man's relationship with nature. The use of phrase "so much depends" suggests the inevitable dependability of man on nature and farming for his ultimate survival.

 A nonpoetic object like the wheelbarrow is given importance. He depicts it as the hinge upon which the entire world rests. The images of the red wheelbarrow and the white chickens are juxtaposed and shown as the central symbols of farming and agriculture necessary for maintenance of life.  The wheelbarrow is used to move shrubs and plants, to remove debris and carry fertilizers in the fields and gardens. The poet uses enjambment (a run-on sentence without a pause at the end of a line) gives a sense of continuity and freedom. No capitals are used to indicate how the importance of simple and ordinary objects like the wheelbarrow is overlooked by men.

The poem starts with the description of a red wheelbarrow drenched in rain suggesting that it is left being neglected. It is glazed with rain attracting attention. Though it looks red and ordinary it gained attention when it is seen beside the bright white chickens. The red color of the wheelbarrow the Marxian concept of working force and the white color of the chickens represents peace and freedom. The close proximity of the red wheelbarrow and the white chickens side by side suggests the intimate connection between the workers welfare and the resultant prosperity and peace in the society. There is an underlying note of irony in the poem. Though the wheelbarrow is very useful in carrying manure and debris from the yard, it is left neglected while the bright white chickens are favored.

 The absence of punctuation in the poem indicates that the final act of wheelbarrow in its use as a farming tool matters most. The ending of the whole poem with a period suggests the ultimate fate of wheelbarrow, a state of being neglected in spite of its immense use to mankind. When applied to human nature it indicates that there are people around us who are essential to our wellbeing, but they are overlooked for various reasons. However, their influence on others is seen like the shining glaze that comes due to falling rain on the wheelbarrow. So, we should not overlook those who truly matter for our existence. The lack of appreciation would lead to the ending of relationships like the period in the poem at the end. We should learn how to treat our relationships so that they would not become tainted and rusty.

 

Though this poem seems to be a simple, visual interpretation, it is a complex riddle. The red wheelbarrow represents any common and everyday object that deserves our appreciation. This poem also implies the importance of agriculture and farm laborers. The main image of the poem is an agrarian theme, the yard of a farmhouse where a wet, red wheelbarrow stands surrounded by white chickens. Symbolically, the red color of the wheelbarrow the Marxian concept of working force and the white color of the chickens represents peace and freedom. The close proximity of the red wheelbarrow and the white chickens side by side suggests the intimate connection between the workers welfare and the resultant prosperity and peace in the society. 

 The tone of the poem is calm and matter-of-fact reflection. William breaks compound words “wheel barrow” and “rainwater” into smaller words (Wheel barrow, rain water) to add emphasis.

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   25th September, 2023                   Somaseshu Gutala

 

 

A Note on Imagist Movement (1912-1917)

  

  

               

             

Imagism was born in England and America in the early twentieth century as a reactionary movement against passionate and excessive Romanticism and Victorian poetry.  Imagism emphasized simplicity, clarity of expression and precision using exact visual images. T.E. Hulme, English philosopher and poet, in his essay “Romanticism and classicism”, (1908) stressed on accurate presentation of the subject with no excess of verbiage. According to him the language of poetry should be visual and concrete and the images in poetry should not be a mere decoration but the very essence. A poem should present concrete details and be image-focused like the poems of Greek lyricists and Japanese Haiku poets.

The imagists used free verse without any fixed meter and did not use unnecessary digressions and moral reflections. They adopted a casual and calm tone without sentimental exaggeration. They focused on a single “hard, dry image.” They believed that there are no ideas but things. Images give meaning to the poem. Language is used to convey vivid, precise images to the reader. They used images with “simple language and great focus.” They did not use superfluous words and they treated the subject directly rather than passively.  

The famous American poet, Ezra Pound adopted Hulme’s ideas on poetry in 1912 and he introduced the word “Imagism” first in the literary world. In November 1912 Pound published Hulme’s complete poetical works. According to Pound, an image is an emotional and intellectual complex in an instant of time. It gives a sense of liberation from the time and space limits.  In his essay “A few don’ts by an Imagiste” published in “Poetry” (March 1913), Pound stated three principles: 1) Direct treatment of thing whether subjective or objective 2) To use no word that does not contribute to the presentation. 3) to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of metrical division. In 1914 Pound assembled the poems of Imagist poets like William Carlos Williams, Richard Aldington, James Joyce, Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) and Amy Lowell under the title” Des Imagistes”.

 

But later differences arose among these writers. Amy Lowell criticized Pound for his too myopic view of poetry and assumed the leadership of this movement from 1915 to 1917 and published three anthologies with the same title” Some Imagist poets.” Pound named his new Imagist poetry as “Vorticism” defining that the image is not an idea but a radiant cluster or vortex. After 1917 the Imagist movement gradually became absorbed into the modernist poetry. Still, we can see traces of this movement in modern poets.

Here are a few examples of Imagist poems for better understanding of the Imagist poets. In His poem “In a station of the metro”, Pound used just fourteen words to show the unstable and fleeting status of crowds in a metro station. They are compared to petals on a wet black bough. The poet used the word “apparition” to show the strange appearance of the crowds in the rainy weather.

“The apparition of these faces in the crowd/ Petals on a wet black bough.”

In the poem “The pool” Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) describes her encounter between her and her yet unborn child. Two months after the publication of this poem, in May 1915, she delivered a still-born baby, the first and only one child with her husband, Richard Aldington. It is a poem about self-discovery. Her face mirrored in the river was covered with bands of her net. In just five lines consisting of 23 words, she brings out the lack of freedom and conflicting thoughts of a woman trapped by the conventions of the society and the traditional role of the woman.

“Are you alive? / I touch you. / You quiver like a sea-fish. / I cover you with my net. / What are you-banded one?

 

In the poem “Wind and silver” Amy Lowell compares the moon and the fish-pond to silver and wind. The poet contrasts the quiet beauty of the fish-pond with the swift movement of the wind which makes the pond shake with silver ripples like the scales of a moving dragon in autumn moon light.

 “Greatly shining, / The Autumn moon floats in the thin sky; / And the fish-ponds shake their backs and/ flash their dragon scales/ As she passes over them.”

 In another poem “A Lady” the poet depicts the appearance and the worth of an old woman. The poem consists of sixteen lines. In the first part comprising twelve lines, the main idea is projected. The old woman looks beautiful, yet faded. She compares her appearance to the sounds of an old opera harpsichord and to silks damaged by the sun in a woman’s sitting room or boudoir. Still in her eyes one can see the imprint of the past glory appearing like fallen roses. The innumerable experiences of her life are compared to “the pungence of sealed spice-jars.” In the second stanza she tells about herself as “a new-minted penny. She asks the old lady to gather the penny from the dust and let its sparkle amuse her. The poet thinks that her youth is no more valuable than a penny when compared to the complexities of age. The poet admires the old woman and aspires that she will also like the old woman find important meaning in all the experiences she will have.

 

In “The Red Wheel Barrow” William Carlos Williams focusses on a single image and shows the importance of much neglected tools like the wheelbarrow, representing the working class. The white chickens beside the wheelbarrow in contrast shows the dependence of man on both living and non-living beings for his survival. The red wheelbarrow drenched in rain acquires a peculiar shine suggesting the Nature’s intimate connection with simple things. The images of the red wheelbarrow and the white chickens are juxtaposed and shown as the central symbols of farming and agriculture necessary for maintenance of life. 

The whole poem is a single sentence in six lines without capitalization and punctuation written in a calm and meditative tone. The entire poem has sixteen words with four words in each stanza. The lines are extremely short. The first line of each stanza has three words and the second line has only one. This poem is in free verse with no meter and rhyme. This poem is written in simple and conversational style and is calm and cool in tone.

“so much depends/ upon / a red wheel/ barrow / glazed with rain /water / beside the white / chickens.”

Thus the Imagist movement brought simplicity, accurate observation, liberation from conventional rules and straightforward description of things without any artificial trappings. It is like a picture painted with words.

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    17th September, 2023                                     Somaseshu Gutala