Music and Poetry

Excerpts of an interview with Shivkumar Bilagrami , a well known poet of modern times. Interview was taken by a student of music from Delhi University on ” Music and Poetry .”

Question : How do you think poetry helps in shaping one’s thoughts and opinions ?

Bilagrami : Poetry is the supreme and sublime way of communication . It percolates down to the subconscious mind of its readers , listeners and audience. It makes an indelible mark in their mind and memories. If any mind is planted with some strong thoughts in the form of poetry , any new thought that will breed there , it will grow under the shadow of already existing thought . And this makes clear how poetry impacts our thoughts and opinions.

Question : How has poetry evolved in the past few years ?

Bilagrami : This is very interesting question .
Emotions are the foundation of poetry . Feelings and emotions are the originating point of poetry . Poetry can not occur without them . As there can’t be any evolvement on emotional level . Whatever evolvement in poetry had been there in the past…it was only technical . In past few years there had been efforts to intellectualise poetry but it didn’t immortalise poetry . Rather it has defaced poetry . Simultaneously , there had been a few ‘ Chosen one ‘ poets who propagated poetry in it’s true spirit.

Question : What is the emotional impact of poetry on people ?

Bilagrami: Emotional impact of poetry on people is tremendous . In fact poetry is like a balm that soothes the shattered emotions of people . All our scriptures, the holy books are written in poetry . People read or sing them repeatedly just to pacify their flared up emotions . Not only this , poetry had been a continuous source of inspiration for them who fought against injustice and slavery . All the freedom movements or revolutionary movements were driven by the fuel of poetry. Some slogans or lines in poetry form were the continuous source of energy and enthusiasm. Worldwide best love emotions have been expressed only in poetry . Poetry makes us romantic. Poetry swings our mood .

Question: How can people develop an intellect for poetry ?

Bilagrami : In my opinion ” intellect ” is not a proper word here …it should be “understanding”. How one can develop understanding for poetry. See , all the great poets have gone through the ups and downs of life . They have seen life very closely. They have universalised their personalised experiences . Their journey is from subjective to objective. Their poetry can be best understood only if we have wide experience of life . If we are able to co-relate with the subject matter taken up in the poetry , we can easily understand it . If we can not co-relate , we can not feel the depth .

Question : Why is poetry important in music ?

Bilagrami : Music can not be ” Speaking Music ” without poetry . Music and poetry both are built up on the same foundation – Feelings and Emotions. Their objectives are the same . So they are complementary for each other . Though they are independent from each other but together their strength is increased manifold . It’s like 1 and 1 becoming 11 .