Post colonial Poetry. English Poetry by a Pakistani Poetry Salman Tariq Qureshi

3. Subject
Topic
“Salman Tarik Kureshi’s Poetry
In Landscapes of the Mind”
“Pakistani English Literature”
Presented to
Dr M. Kabil Khan
&
Students of M. Phil Applied Linguistics
Presenter
Muhammad Irbaz Khan

4. “Landscapes of the Mind”
Salman Tarik Kureshi, 1942

5. ‘Landscapes of the Mind’ is collection of the poems
written over some thirty years back, staging the familiar
theme of postcolonial Deracination. On a more personal
level, the poet portrays an experience of betrayal and loss
of a divided self. The poet seeks to establish an intimate
connection between landscape and inscape. Jagged, yet
nicely toned, ample and yet deftly structured this poetry
both memorably moves and disturbs.
Introduction

6. Salman Tarik Kureshi Was educated at Government College
Lahore and the London school of Economics. A business
executive, he has traveled extensively in Europe, America
and the Middle and Far East. He was a founder member of
‘Mixed Voice’ a multilingual forum for poetry and creative
writing in Karachi. His work has been published in literary
magazines and anthologies in Pakistan, France, the UK and
USA.
Salman Tarik Kureshi is presently a marketing consultant
living in Karachi. He is not only a poet, but also writes about
the current affairs. He is presently attached with the Daily
Times newspaper. He writes about national and international
political relations, conflicts and issues. But my emphasis is on
his poetical traits not political traits because UN KA JO KAM
HAY…..
Poet’s Life and Career

7. The Contents of the Book
The book was published in 1997 by Oxford University Press Pakistan.
Although, the book consists of 76 pages only, yet it is a treasure of
geographical, cultural and national symbols. First of all, the introduction
of the book is written by Kaleem Ur Rehman. There are 37poems in
the collection. The most significant and remarkable thing is the title
itself of each poem. Some of the titles reveal a special aptitude of the
poet towards Nature or we may also call it geographically significant
titles e.g. poems at serial # 4,5,6,78,9,10,11,13,14, & 24.

8. The Significance of the Title
The title of the book i.e. ‘Landscapes of the Mind’ is suggestive and
full of meanings. The book is a collection of poetical works of Salman
Tarik Kureshi. Poetry is the reflection of feelings, sentiments and
emotions emerging and evolving in the poet’s mind or in Wordworthian
doctrine, it is spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. Kureshi puts
the precious words * in a poetical order for the readers to capture the
landscapes of his mind. In other words, he aspires to make available
and draw a pictorial scene before the eyes of his readers.

9. “This is finely nuanced poetry, as crisp and sharp in its
diction as in its observation. Kureshi pushes at the
implications of the resonances of geographical and cultural
location, rewriting the past and generating rich images of
contemporary Pakistan. This is a poet, whose power
intrigues us into his mental and physical landscape, cradling
the active memory like the timeless roots of an ancient
banyan tree.” (Robert J. C. Young Wadham College Oxford)
A Critical View

10. Kaleem Urrehman says, ‘Pakistani poetry in English is more
significant than Pakistani fiction in English. Apart from Bapsi
Sidhwa, there is hardly any other novelist worth mentioning.
In Poetry, however, the situation is different. Poets of a
relatively older generation-Taufiq Rafat, Maki Kureshi and
Daud Kamal – have written poetry that compels our interest
and attention
Pakistani Fiction vs. Pakistani Poetry in English

11. Kureshi’s poetry has a different character from that of other
Pakistani poets. Perhaps this is because he is of mixed
descent. His father was is Pakistani and his mother
Australian. Salman Kureshi has, therefore, a command over
English which is like that of a native speaker of the language.
Distinctive Feature

12. What is Pakistani in Kureshi should not be underestimated.
No doubt, he has poems on New York and other places in
America, and on sites of ancient Greece, but one is hardly
surprised to note that the finest poem in this selection is
‘Above Bolan’ which captures the sublimity of the Bolan
Pass in its surroundings. The poem opens on this note:
A Starkness unsoftened by green,
Almost extravagant,
In its austerity….
Unforgettable Pakistaniness

13. And the remarkable thing is that the poem maintains the level
of the sublime throughout until the end. It is a triumph of the
imagination of the sublime. Many of Kureshi’s poems miss
the tinge of subjectivity. In his lyrics like Garden, Station,
Above Bolan, direct expression of emotions is absent. The ‘I’
is missing from them. The emotions the poet expresses are
undoubtedly his, but the form of the poem impersonalizes
them to a degree.
Sublimity and Imagination

14. Why so?
The advantage of an impersonal form is that the reader is
able to participate in the experiences the poems and the poet
can communicate relatively in an easy way. Saying this is not
to invoke Eliot’s theory of impersonal poetry. Impersonality
here simply means that the poet curbs his egoism to render
the spirit of the thing as it is. The personality of the poet is
inevitably there in the poem, but it does not overhang.
Impersonal Form: Readers’ Participation

15. Why the Landscape of Poet’s Mind disturbed?
Poets and artists often have troubled inner lives. They are
never quite at home in the world in which they find
themselves. Kureshi is no exception to this rule. But his
problems go much deeper than is usual. And his poetry
reflects them. Poems such as Sword, Switchboard, Tenant,
and a few others, deal with what is disturbing in his
personality.
The Question of Poet’s Mental Landscape Disturbance

16. Association With Nature
The geographical suggestiveness of various poems of Kureshi
may be due to his affiliation with Nature. Like Wordsworth, he
seems believing in contemplation and meditation to get the secrets
of Nature. Kureshi, like Wordsworth raises question about the
origin of various objects of Nature, e.g. Perverse Rivers, As If
these Clouds, Plateau or In The Plain. Kureshi observes,
meditates and contemplates repeatedly till he finds the answer and
concludes reality.
Where then is the source of these
Strange rivers, like this narrow torrent beside us?
What forms these streams that start
Proudly from the sides of mountains
To peter out in great mud flats
A hundred miles from the sea?

17. Symbolism in Landscapes of the Mind
There are many symbols found in Kureshi’s work. The geographical
symbols are quite strong. In Perverse Rivers, he symbolizes the
unpredictable human trend of changing course any time.
Perverse rivers, whose course is unpredictable,
One season through one valley, the next through another
* (OA)
The word perverse in the title and in the poem is enough to make it
clear that the poet balks at writing his poetry. As in April, (‘the source of
betrayal is at the roots’), here, too, the poet wonders about where then
is the source of strange rivers. To enlarge on the lines from George
Meredith that Mr Bhutto once quoted:
It’s morning: but no morning can restore
What we have forfeited...In tragic life,
No villain need be! Passions spin the plot:
We are betrayed by what is false within.

18. Rain and Clouds Symbols
In Kureshi’s poetry rain and clouds are the symbol of prosperity and
self sufficiency. At the bottom of the poem Perverse Rivers, we can
listen to him humbly praying for rain. This prayer is, on one side, a
feeling of guilt which, the poet fears, hinders him from free creativity,
from writing what could be described as his proper poetry.
Grant us instead
The gift of water unrestrained
Mountain-rills that quicken meadow-flowers
Silt laden flows along whose banks
Great cities burgeon and, most of all
Grey swirls of cloud to bring
The clean wash of rain down our bodies

19. Kureshi and the Western Poetry
Browning’s Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came is perhaps a
presence in Above Bolan and April We may compare the following
line in April
Here nature has been niggardly,
Hard-bitten
Only a few spiky plants
Struggle up to shrubs
With Browning
I think I never saw
Such starved ignoble nature; nothing throve
For flowers-as well except a cedar grove!
But, cockle, spurge, according to their law
Might propagate their kind…

20. Kureshi and the Western Poetry
Shades of Ted Hughes can also be clearly discerned in the description
of the wolf in The Crumbling Hillside Shale. Perhaps T. S. Eliot is a
stronger and more abiding influence on Kureshi’s poetry. Images of
sterility and dryness in April and Perverse Rivers clearly point towards
The Waste Land.
Kureshi’s desire for showery rain at the end of the poem Perverse
Rivers can also be equated with Hopkin when he narrates the same
theme in his poem, Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord, ‘Mine, O thou lord of
life, send my roots rain.’ This is not to say that Kureshi is under the
influence of Hopkins. In the present scenario of our national power and
energy crisis, Kureshi’s insight seems functional and working to keep
praying for clouds and rain in order to get filled our reservoirs.

21. Conclusion
The influence of an older poet creates a younger one. All fine poets
need to have a father-predecessor and it is necessarily right.
Influences haven’t created Kureshi, for, even in the poems which show
the influence of other poets on him, the personal urgency which impels
him to write shows through clearly. Kureshi is very much a poet in his
own right and deserves to be read for what he has personally achieved
through his poetry.

22. THANK YOU