Analysis of Taufiq Rafat’s Poetry

Carlo Cappola says that Rafat’s poetry is “full-bodied and rich, direct and readily accessible to the reader’s sensibilities, and devoid of excessive artifice”. Comment with reference to the poems you’ve studied in class.

Taufiq Rafat is one of the eminent writers, who first introduced creative writing in English being a Pakistani writer. He’s the one who introduces the ‘Pakistani Idiom’ in English poetry as an effective way to reflect Pakistani culture, tradition, society and norms. In his poems we can see different aspects of modern writing style. He uses a very simple and conversational language to talk about the ordinary ideas and experiences around us. Rafat challenges the traditional convention of poetry writing; he writes in a free-verse form keeping his poems concise and relatable.

While reading Rafat’s poetry the first thing that captures our attention is the form of the poems. His poems are concise and simple and are mostly in free verse form which characterizes his poems as modern poetry. Following is an excerpt from Rafat’s poem, Lights:

The car whisper down the hill road

Its lights gouge outa shifting hollow of brightness

The above excerpt shows that how Rafat rebels the traditional form of writing style. The form of the poems that appears on the page, gives reader a feeling of uniqueness and familiarity. This free style of Rafat is a convention followed by modernist poets.

Unlike many other poets, Rafat keeps his poem short and precise. Every word in the poem contributes to the presentation of the main theme which makes it easier for readers to read and understand in a single go. His poems such as; Arrival of Monsoon, Lights, Kingfisher are shorter in length but gives a complete and precise message that he wanted to present. Rafat incorporated many images in his poems to present his ideas and experiences in a more effective way. He uses the simple and more conversation like language to present his ideas which are easily comprehensible to his readers. The way he writes creates a vivid image of that situation in his readers’ mind. As it is evident in the following excerpts from his poems; And now the rain! In sudden squalls it sweeps the street, and equally sudden are the naked boys paddling in the ditches. [Arrival of Monsoon]In these lines Taufiq creates an image of rain in a street where naked boys are playing in the ditches full of rain water. Being a Pakistani reader, I can feel the cultural familiarity in these poems of Rafat. The way he presented his surroundings and the sociocultural norm, one can feel closer and more relatable to his poetry and to his experiences he wanted to impart through his works.

Use of metaphors is another important feature of Rafat’s poetic art. In his poem, ‘Kingfisher’ he describe ups and downs of human life through a bird He has described that how this glory will fade away and one would be left with a miserable life. The poem, ‘Wedding in the Flood’ has an image of ‘palankeen’ bore by a foursome on their shoulders, symbolize the upcoming ill-fortune of the bride and the family.

Two sturdy lads carrying the dowry (a cot, a looking glass, a tin-trunk, beautifully painted in grey and blue) lead the way, followed by a four some bearing the palankeen on their shoulders.

Above lines depicted the ceremonies of a Pakistani wedding, the dowry and the palankeen illustrate the Pakistani culture. Rafat is also known for introducing Pakistani Idioms in English. He appropriates the English language to describe the Pakistani Culture in his poetry. The way theme of wedding and dowry is described in the poem, “Wedding in the Flood” using words like ‘palankeen, tin-trunk, cot, and hennaed hands’ and also the idioms like, ‘ the girl has been licking too many pots’ gives an insight to Pakistani culture. Another notable feature in his poetry is the use of parenthesis, as can be observed in the above lines. He uses the parenthesis to enumerate his images with more details. He gives the additional information about the dowry that was being given to the bride; a cot, a looking-glass and a tin-trunk beautifully painted in grey and blue. This information tell us about the rural setting of the poem and also the financial condition of bride’s family.

The influence of Romantic traditional poetry can also be found in Rafat’s poetry. The imagery that he uses widely describes nature and its creature as in one of his famous poems, ‘Kingfisher’;Bird or Hovercraft, your angling skill proclaims the confidence of repeated success; you flash rainbows as you plunge to kill.

Rafat devoted this whole poem to describe the qualities and life of Kingfisher. In another poem by Rafat he describes the charm of nature;

The birds are tossed sideways and back, and lifted against their will.

From brown waters eddying round their hooves

the drenched trees rise and shake themselves and summer ends in a flurry of drops. (Arrival of Monsoon)

In the above lines Rafat depicted the season of monsoon and its effect on his surroundings.

Another reason for the readers to get attracted towards Rafat poetry is that he writes about the ordinary things that almost all of us would have experienced. He talks about the ordinary and simple things, the things and ideas with which we can relate more. The depiction of monsoon and the ordinary sights like ‘the clothes on the washing-line’, ‘birds tossing sideways and back’, ‘swinging electric wire’ and the ‘naked boys puddling in the ditches’ are the more familiar sites during the monsoon season.

Rafat’s poetry is not just region bounded, apart from Pakistani culture there are some themes that can be universalize. Considering the poem, ‘Kingfisher’ apparently, he’s talking about the exceptional qualities of the bird but when you read in between lines you would get to know that he’s presenting the phenomenon of life that how the present strength would change into the feebleness and miser-ability of an old age. Now that he’s young, powerful and unsurpassed but this glory is fugitive that would vanish soon. Soon his skills would vanish into possible failures, which would make people to empathize with others to love others and share weaknesses with them.

Lastly we can say that Rafat sets a new pattern for composing poetry that is now followed by many Pakistani poets. Considering the above analysis of Rafat’s poetry, one can agree with Cappola’s view that Rafat’s poetry is full-bodied and rich, direct and readily accessible to reader’s sensibilities, and devoid of excessive artifice.