Reading Poetry Research Articles

Barzanji Tradition In Muslim Society As An Manifestation of Islamic Values Faith In the Apostles For Discipline Character

Purpose of the study: This research introduces a new approach to actualizing Barzanji cultural values in Islamic education, namely integrating the tradition of reading poetry and stories about the Prophet Muhammad SAW with the doctrine of faith in the apostles. This research aims to explore how islamic values are realized in the barzanji tradition.
 Methodology: This research uses a qualitative approach with a naturalistic research design. Data collection techniques used in-depth interviews and participant observation. Respondents in this study were selected based on variations in roles and involvement in the Ngarot tradition using purposive sampling techniques. Data analysis will be carried out using the Miles and Huberman model.
 Main Findings: This research also proposes suggestions and recommendations to improve and optimize this new approach, by emphasizing the importance and urgency of having a character of discipline and faith in the apostles for the success and happiness of Muslims in this world and the hereafter, based on the findings and implications. from this research. This research contributes to Islamic educational and cultural literature, by providing new perspectives and insights regarding the role and impact of Barzanji poetry and stories in increasing feelings of love, respect and gratitude for the Prophet Muhammad SAW and his predecessors, as well as asking for their intercession and blessings.
 Novelty/Originality of this study: Students who do not have a disciplined character and do not strengthen the value of faith in the apostles can face short-term and long-term implications for their academic, personal and social lives. Therefore, it is important and urgent for students to have a disciplined character and strengthen the value of faith in the apostles, because this is very important for their success and happiness in this world and the hereafter. Students can achieve this by studying and practicing Islamic teachings and values, as well as by reading and listening to Barzanji poetry and stories that tell the life and virtues of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his predecessors. In this way, students can increase their feelings of love, respect and gratitude for the Prophet and his apostles, and ask for their intercession and blessings.

PENGARUH DZIKIR RATIB AL-HADDAD TERHADAP KECERDASAN SPIRITUAL DAN EMOSIONAL (LIVING HADIS DI DESA NANGGELA KAB. KUNINGAN)

In carrying out this life to always get peace and tranquility, one solution is to do good dhikr, dhikr Asmaul Husna, Ratib al-Haddad, blessings of the Prophet, and some of them. For example, dhikr that can be practiced is to read the dhikr of Ratib al-Haddad. Ratib al-Haddad is a dhikr composed by al Habib 'Abdullah al-Haddad from Hadramaut, Yemen. Based on this background, the purpose of this study is to find out how the living hadith reads Ratib al-Haddad in Nanggela Village, and how the influence of dhikr ratib al-Haddad on spiritual and emotional intelligence in Nanggela Village. This study uses a qualitative method with the reception theory of living hadith. Sources of data used in this study using primary sources, whose main subjects include the founder/successor of dhikr ratib al-haddad, ustadz/kiai, village officials, congregations, and the book of ratib al-Haddad. Data collection techniques in this study used observation (participants), interviews (free) and documentation. In this study, the data analysis technique used to find perfect results begins by studying the data that has been collected both from observations and interviews and also the results after routinely following dhikr ratib al-haddad in Nanggela Village, Kec. Mandirancan Kab. Kuningan. The results of this study indicate that the activities of Ratib al-Haddad in Nanggela Village, Kec. Mandirancan Kab. Kuningan is based on the hadith of the Prophet SAW about the virtue of dhikr as a form of describing the sunnah and habits of the Messenger of Allah. The meaning of reading dhikr Ratib al Haddad has value or essence, which is dhikr increases worship to Allah, can make time more useful during holidays, both studying and working activities so that you can get closer to Allah so that you can reassure the heart. The implementation of the Ratib al-Haddad dhikr is carried out every Monday / Tuesday night after the congregation for the Isha prayer. Not only reading ratib, but in this activity there is also a reading of marhabanan. Ratib alHaddad activities in Nanggela Village, District. Mandirancan Kab. Kuningan has a function to increase the spiritual intelligence of the congregation through reading verses of the Qur'an and increasing dhikr to Allah SWT. The effect of dhikr ratib al-haddad on spiritual intelligence and emotional intelligence can improve mood, peace of mind, peace of mind, and also reduce excessive emotional feelings, and is able to have a positive impact and extraordinary change. This activity is able to increase the spiritual intelligence of the students, so that they feel closer to Allah and feel a more peaceful heart.

Passion with Profession: Exploring John Keats as a Poet-Physician

Poetry has played pivot in healthcare system of the world as an alternative to medicine to heal the mental anguish of the readers.as well as the writers. It has immense impact on healing of the hurts of the readers. The power and potential of the poetry in palliative and hospice care is well proven. It has proven a panacea to both the patient and physicians in an ebullient way. The poetic therapy has been used by the experts in psychiatry to heal the angst, anguish, hurts of the minds of the people. Through poetry, mental health and peace of mind can be maintained with pace immeasurable. The waves of passion that runs through poet’s sensibility, soothes the senses of the readers. Poetry reading, writing and listening casts good therapeutic effects. Poetry provides peace, calmness, and tranquilly to the minds of the readers by elevating mood in distress and duress. Studies show that poetry therapy has proven a boon to patients suffering from serious ailments and to augment their emotional resilience and brings joy in their life. Our brains are electrified with rhyme and rhythm of the poetry to give emotional reaction to joy and sadness both. Like sweet melody of music, poetry heals our emotional hurts. The metaphors embellish the poetic lines with magical brilliance, and they glitter with astute meaning and message. Diction plays a very emphatic role in discerning poet’s leanings. Reflection, perception and attachment are interwoven in diction so inextricably that they turn poet’s mouthpiece, and roar and rave with perfect resonance to poetic experiences. The paper, however, pinpoints poetry’s indefinable role to heal mental stress, trauma, and agony and to maintain good mental health well. We will examine some poetic utterances of great romantic poet and physician John Keats and its therapeutic effects. We will also observe how the John Keats’ poetry radiates beams of healing and can play multifaceted role in healthcare.

Reading Poetry and Its Paratexts for Evidence of Fair Dealing

Reading Poetry and Its Paratexts for Evidence of Fair Dealing

IMPLEMENTATION OF ASI (AUDITORY VISUAL SELF IMPROVEMENT) MODEL THROUGH DIGITAL VISUALIZATION MEDIA FOR LEARNING TO READ POETRY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

This article describes the effect of the ASI (Auditory Visual Self Improvement) model through YouTube digital visualization media to improve students’ poetry reading skills in elementary schools. This research is a classroom action research method, which consisted of two cycles. Each cycle consists of planning, action, observation, and reflection. The results of research in each cycle indicate an improvement. Classically, students were declared to have completed 100% of learning in cycle II, because all students in reading poetry achieved 80 or above. This learning completeness is above the KKM target of 80%. Based on these proportions, the criteria for qualitative data assessment are classified as "very good". It shows that ASI (Auditory Visual Self Improvement) learning model assisted by digital visualization media in general can be used as alternative learning to improve students’ poetry reading skills in elementary schools.

The reproduction of the Arabic poetic text A reading of popular poetry in Tihama Yemen

تسعى هذه الدراسة الموسومة: بـ(تناسل النص الشعري العربي .. قراءة في الشعر الشعبي التهامي في اليمن) لتسليط الضوء على أحد فنون الأدب الشعبي اليمني ممثلا في الشعر الشعبي في تهامة -اليمن لإبراز ملامح التأثير والتأثير فيه من خلال دراسة التناص للكشف عن صور التعالق النصي ومدى تأثر الشاعر الشعبي في تهامة بمعطيات الثقافة العربية ولاسيما الشعر العربي واستلهامه واستدعائه لمفردات ثقافته الشعرية المتراكمة وقدرته الإبداعية في توظيفها والتعامل معها بما يخدم أغراضه الشعرية ومقاصده الفنية، وبعد كثير من التأمل والقراءة والتحليل الشعر الشعبي في تهامة بهدف رصد مواطن التماس، وحالات التعالق النصي، وتجليات تأثير الشعر العربي في خطاب الشعر الشعبي التهامي، خلص البحث الى مجموعة من النتائج التي تكشف عمق صلة الشاعر الشعبي التهامي بالشعر العربي بوصفة احد مكونات هويته العربية والثقافية، وقد توصلت الدراسة الى نتائج تكشف ثراء الشعر الشعبي في تهامة، وتنوعه، ومدى وعي الشاعر الشعبي التهامي بمورثه من الشعر العربي واستلهامه لمعانيه.

Tikrar al-Muhyi: Development of a Pocketbook for Memorizers of the Qur'an

Memorizing the Quran preserves its authenticity. During al-Qur'an memorization, a hafizh may face obstacles that make it difficult to memorize the verses. Forgetting memorized verses when adding new ones, many similar verses, lack of focus due to environmental factors, changing al-Qur'an manuscripts, and rarely reading verses to be memorized are obstacles in murojaah. This research aims to develop learning media in the form of pocketbook Tikrar al-Muhyi as an easy solution to murajaah al-Qur'an. This research uses the R&D method, which adopts the development of Borg & Gall. Subjects in this study were students of the University of Darussalam Gontor. Data Collection using questionnaires given to subject material experts, media experts, and students to test the feasibility of the media learning pocketbook. The research findings show that the development of this book is very feasible, with a percentage of 80% based on media and material experts. Furthermore, the eligibility increase was 94% after the second stage test. This research has contributed to Islamic education, especially about media that makes it easier to memorize the al-Qur'an.

Stewart, Dustin. Futures of Enlightenment Poetry

Stewart, Dustin. <i>Futures of Enlightenment Poetry</i>

In the Printshop / With Young Poets

In the Printshop / With Young Poets Charles Alexander (bio) Why would a poet, good with words, good with words in the world, good with worlds in the words, filled with things to say, imagining ways to say them, and simply loving the way poems, as one enters them, lead the poet to write them—why would a poet want to learn to work with type, layout, paper, print, pages, editing, distribution, etc.? Why would a poet want to make books? Why would a poet want to begin a literary press? I can speak for myself, and will, but that is through a long lens of memory, as I was a poet who began to learn to print and make books almost forty-three years ago. Memory plays tricks, though, so I also spoke to students between two weeks and ten days ago in the printshop at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. All of the students there are young poets and fiction writers who choose, during the Summer Writing Program of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, to spend a week learning various things about the making of books, depending on just who is the faculty member leading them for that week. This summer, from 13 June to 17 June, that faculty member was me, and my group of five young women who named themselves "The Gentlemen of the Press" set small texts of their own, by hand, in type composition sticks, eventually to become small blocks printed onto papers of their choice, in one or more ink colors. My challenge to them, in a week in the SWP that was themed "Oracles & Cyborgs," was to allow the cyborg to dominate, and introduce something non-letterpress to their print, to add or augment or disturb in some way. Some people take letterpress as a bit too precious for my likes, so I wanted them to challenge that, and also learn something new, busy their hands and minds in other ways. Some drew, some sewed something onto their pages, some stamped, some chose other paths, and one simply printed more pages. So, they weren't exactly following my "rules," but I would rather them find their own way any day, around any press. Rather like what we do when we write poems. Know some rules [End Page 174] and suggestions, but value independence, free-thinking, even some risk-taking. Then, after two workshop days (each workshop period being three hours only), they had the task of binding their pages together into an Asian-style side-stitched or "stab" binding, after printing title page and book front and back covers. Ordinarily we would have had four sessions, but Frontier Airlines simply did not fly their flights on time, or, in my case, not at all one night, so I missed (meaning we all missed) the first session. I have never been quite so impressed in such a workshop at what the young poet-printers accomplished, and how hard they worked to accomplish it, in such a short period of time, a time when they also listened to multiple lectures, panels, and poetry readings, including a couple by me; a time when I believe they were also all reading works new to them, and writing new works. My partner calls this week "poet camp," and in some ways it's more like boot camp, but it's also one of my favorite weeks of any year I am asked to teach there, this year being about my seventh time, but as I become one of the elders there, I may be losing count. That tricky memory again. I know that when I began work in bookmaking, several years after I consciously began to know I am a poet, that it felt like an accident. I went to a conference on Charles Olson, and one of the fields in evidence there was that of small-press bookmaking, small books with lovely impressed text and illustration, on fine papers, sewn by hand, by one of the fascinating small presses of the time (this was 1978), Toothpaste Press (squeeze that tube of ink?), founded and worked in all its aspects by Allan Kornblum in West Branch...

Travel and Home in Homer's Odyssey and Contemporary Literature: Critical Encounters and Nostalgic Returns by Carol Dougherty

Reviewed by: Travel and Home in Homer's Odyssey and Contemporary Literature: Critical Encounters and Nostalgic Returns by Carol Dougherty Hilary J. C. Lehmann Travel and Home in Homer's Odyssey and Contemporary Literature: Critical Encounters and Nostalgic Returns. By CAROL DOUGHERTY. Classical Presences. Oxford, UK and New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. 175. Hardback, $90.00. ISBN: 978-0-19-881401-6. You can't step into the same river twice, and you can never return to the same home you left. When you (a reader, a teacher) come back to the Odyssey after some time, it is not the same epic it was because you are not the same you. Something you've read, or watched, or lived through in the meantime sparks a new way of reading this old, familiar text. If you're like me (and, if you're reading this, you probably are) you think about the Odyssey all the time. I'm not a Homerist, but the Odyssey is under my skin. I bring it with me into everything I read or write, every class discussion or casual conversation; in turn, every time I come back to the Odyssey, I bring back to it everything I've experienced since our last encounter. Carol Dougherty is well known for her sophisticated yet accessible theoretical readings of Homer and archaic poetry. What a delight, when encountering her new monograph Travel and Home in Homer's Odyssey and Contemporary Literature, to realize that, of course, famous classicists also walk around with the Odyssey under their skin. Travel and Home, published through the Classical Presences series, is a very new sort of book. As much a study of the influence of Homer on contemporary literature as of the influence of contemporary literature on Homer, this book models a dynamic sort of reception using improvisation and nostalgia as its interpretive framework. This approach is appealingly subjective, as reading truly is a personal experience: the occasional presence of such phrases as "we might compare" (101 n.12) or "this calls to mind" (103, n.18) reminds us that we have been graciously invited to accompany Dougherty, a very smart but still relatable reader, on her own personal journey through the Odyssey and 20th and 21st-century fiction. The book's Introduction explains the improvisational approach by framing it through Odysseus' own improvisations, his process of finding himself by testing different, polytropic, versions of himself over the course of the poem, and through the improvisational nature of epic performance—like Odysseus, the bard changes his narrative on each occasion to suit the performative time and place. Following this Introduction, each of the book's chapters focuses on a different novel: Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient (1994), Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping (1980), Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006), Rebecca West's [End Page 242] The Return of the Soldier (1918) and Toni Morrison's Home (2012). These five novels are thematically arranged in two groups, the first three exploring the opposition between staying and leaving and the last two focusing on the role of nostalgia in reestablishing a returning soldier's identity following the traumas of war. Each chapter dances between the Odyssey and the novel under discussion, offering deep and rich readings of both. The section on The English Patient, a novel of slowly revealed pasts, found identities and reinvented homes, provides an elegant model for the subsequent chapters as well as a kind of thesis statement on the relationship between reading and home: "Texts like the Odyssey and The English Patient not only take us to new places, fashioning worlds beyond our imagination, but they create new homes for us to inhabit there, even if just for a while, even if we soon long to leave them and return home again" (43). The second and third chapters destabilize the gendered binary between home and travel. In Housekeeping, the protagonists–the transient Sylvie and her nieces Ruth and Lucille–wrestle with the question of whether "the essence of domesticity" is found in the house, or with those who occupy it (62). In the end, Lucille remains at home while Ruth and Sylvie set off to make...

중국인 학습자의 한국 현대시 읽기 불안감과 불안 요인에 대한 연구 - 중국 내 고급 한국어 학습자를 대상으로 -

This study focuses on advanced learners who are learning contemporary Korean poetry in China, and identifies the characteristics of their anxiety in reading modern Korean poetry, revealing the factors that cause anxiety, and identifies the pattern of anxiety regarding poetry reading according to various learner variables under each factor. The purpose of this study is to derive educational proposals necessary for the education of contemporary Korean poetry in China. In this study, 34 undergraduate students and 20 graduate students, a total of 54 learners, were selected as subjects in the Korean language department at Dalian University of Foreign Languages, China, and their anxiety in reading modern Korean poetry was measured through questionnaires and post-interviews. As a result of the study, a total of six factors of anxiety were extracted, and the pattern of the anxiety, according to learner variables under each anxiety factor, was examined. Additionally, the level of anxiety in Chinese learners’ reading poetry was divided into three categories of ‘severe-moderate-mild anxiety’, and whether there was a difference in the level of anxiety felt by learners, according to the level of anxiety within the six factors of anxiety, was measured. Finally, through multiple regression analysis, factors of anxiety affecting reading anxiety in modern poetry were examined. (Dalian University of Foreign Languages)

Maintaining Mental Health through Poetry

Poetry is the passion that a poet possesses in genes, and through poetry, mental health and peace of mind can be maintained at a pace immeasurable. The waves of passion that run through the poet’s sensibility soothe the readers' senses. Poetry reading, writing, and listening cast good therapeutic effects. Poetry provides peace, calmness, and comfort to the minds by elevating moods in distress and duress. Studies show that poetry therapy has proven a boon to patients suffering from serious ailments, augments their emotional resilience, and brings joy. Our brains are electrified with the rhyme and rhythm of the poetry to give emotional reactions to joy and sadness. Like the sweet melody of music, poetry heals our emotional hurts. The metaphors embellish the poetic lines with magical brilliance and glitter with astute meaning and message. Diction plays a very decisive role in discerning the poet’s leanings. Reflection, perception, and attachment are interwoven in diction so inextricably that they turn the poet’s mouthpiece and roar and rave with perfect resonance to poetic experiences. Through the intoxicated taken-for- grantedness of the laidback reading public will take a turn at the melody of the tone and exquisiteness of diction.&#x0D; The paper, however, explores how poetry can be a natural tool to heal mental stress, trauma, and agony and maintain mental health. We will examine some poetic utterances of great poets like Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Emily Dickinson, Kamala Das, etc. Moreover, we will also examine how nature can extend peace, purpose, and poise to the mind.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TILAWATI METHOD IN LEARNING TAHFIDZ OF THE QURAN TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF CHILDREN'S READING

Memorizing the Koran is one form of our efforts to get closer to Allah SWT through His words. The tilawati method is a book of teaching and learning methods to read the Koran with a balanced classical-read-listen approach. The implementation of the Tilawati Method in learning the tahfidz of the Koran to improve the quality of reading the Koran is a process of reading verses that must be memorized perfectly and becomes a good quality reading. This study aims to find out how the tilawati method becomes a method that focuses on how to read the Koran easily and pleasantly, by using this tilawati method students can find out how to recite the Koran so that reading the Koran becomes quality reading at TPA Hidayatul Science Unit 332 Village Paliat. The methodology used in this study was carried out by field observation which is a descriptive qualitative research. Based on the results of this study, the Implementation of the Tilawati Method in Tahfidz Koran at TPA Hidayatul Ilmi Unit 332 in Paliat Village can support learning tahfidz Koran because it makes it easier for teachers and students to teach and learn, and improves the quality of reading and memorizing the Koran, can make it easier for children to read the Koran well and correctly in accordance with applicable rules, making students fluent in reading the Koran and avoiding mistakes in the meaning of the Koran.

“Blood mist blurs my vision”: Six poems by Sukanta Bhattacharya

ABSTRACTSukanta Bhattacharya’s powerful, bittersweet verses portray experiences of shared loss and survival in colonial Bengal of the 1940s – a cataclysmic and watershed decade in the region’s history. The emotional intensity and intellectual honesty of his work led to his being regarded as a celebrated Bengali poet. While the appeal and relevance of his poems remain undiminished, the meagre efforts to translate them into English have hitherto confined his reputation to a restricted circle of Bengali poetry lovers. Six of his poems are presented here in English translation in order to introduce readers of poetry in English to his artistic sensibility and concerns. Uniting the communicative and aesthetic functions of literary translation, this project aims to surmount the inadequacies of most existing translations of Bhattacharya’s poetry that have not only failed to impress the target readership, but also diminished his poetic significance and marginalized his contribution to Indian and world literatures.

Tree with Moons

The sculpture began with wanting to process grief. One of my brothers passed away in his sleep (unrelated to Covid) in 2020 after pandemic travel restrictions made it impossible to gather for a funeral. Over the course of my making, which is process-based – an intuitive approach to materials and methods – the form evolved into a tree with three moons. The tree is a cross-cultural symbol of loss and renewal. Each month we can observe, too, the moon appearing and disappearing from view, a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of existence.The mind struggles to accept the notion of death as inevitable, coming to all. The Vietnamese Zen monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, has written that when we are alive, we are part of the sky, the earth, the clouds. When we pass, we continue to be part of everything. I look up into the trees and the sky and know the spirit of my mother, my father, and my brother continue. Poetry has always been an informing influence in my studio production.&nbsp;In the process of welding&nbsp;Tree with Moons,&nbsp;installed in Maker Park, Staten Island on October, 2021 (through April 2022), I communed with the poetry of Joy Harjo, Emily Dickinson, and Anne Waldman among others. Maker Park is an abandoned lot at the corner of Front and Thompson Streets that has been transformed from an abandoned lot strewn with burnt-out cars into a sculpture and community park that hosts poetry readings, yoga, raku workshops,&nbsp;Maker Park Radio, Shakespeare theater and a small apiary of beehives in addition to a yearly sculpture exhibition supported in part by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Kemampuan Deklamasi Puisi pada Siswa SMA Negeri 2 Kampar Kiri Tengah di Penghidupan Kecamatan Kampar Kiri Tengah Kabupaten Kampar

Deklamasi Puisi comes from the Latin 'declare or declaim' which means reading the work in the form of poetry or rhymes accompanied by gestures and songs. Devoting poetry or short story has the meaning of reading. Reading poetry is a form of appreciation and artistic expression. This service activity is held for students of SMA Negeri 2 Kampar Kiri Tengah. Riau Province Government Requires this Reformation has proclaimed to foster and develop Malay culture and Malay culture (BMR) This activity to be held is to improve the ability to recite poetry which is expected to help students at SMA Negeri 2 Kampar Kiri Tengah to interpret/understand, train and practice good poetry reading, so that students at SMA Negeri 2 Kampar Kiri Tengah, with The arrival of the service team from the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Lancang Kuning University is expected to help the school and especially the students of SMA Negeri 2 Kampar Kiri Tengah to get to know Riau Malay Culture, especially the ability to pronounce.

Pengembangan Instrumen Penilaian Unjuk Kerja pada Materi Membaca Puisi di SMA

What are the stages of development and the level of validity, practicality, and effectiveness of developing an instrument for assessing the performance of poetry reading materials at SMAN 1 Pekanbaru. The aim is to develop and produce an instrument for assessing performance on poetry reading material at SMAN 1 Pekanbaru that meets the criteria of being valid, practical, and effective. This research is research and development. Researchers will use 3D models. There are 3 stages, namely Define, Design, and Develop. The research was conducted at SMA N 1 Pekanbaru class X IPA 1 and 2 totaling 35 students. Based on the analysis carried out on the validation of the instrument, it was developed to achieve an average score level of the final score of all validators of 91% in the very valid category. The results of the educator practicality questionnaire analysis show that the average score of the final grades of all practitioners. The performance assessment instrument is 97% in the very practical category. From the observation of student learning activities carried out by Indonesian language subject educators based on data analysis, it can be categorized as very effective with a percentage value of 82.85%. From the overall results of validation, practicality, and effectiveness, it can be concluded that the Poetry Reading Material Performance Assessment Instrument produced is valid, practical, and effective. Thus the Poetry Reading Material Performance Assessment Instrument that was developed can be used by educators and students in learning to read poetry for high school class X.

Peningkatan Budaya Membaca Melalui Gerakan Bulan Bahasa Bagi Siswa SD Negeri Kemasan 03 Sukoharjo

Literacy is very influential on the development of a nation. The literate nation height will be directl proportional to progress the nation. The literacy ability of a nation is also a contribution to literac skills its people. It is said so because of power individual literacy contributes to literacy a country Just compare how the customs of the nation japan and the Indonesian people when spending time a leisure. Japanese society will spend more time on read even though they read ca from thei smartphone. Language month can be a means to improve reading culture, this can be done by means of poetry reading competitions, reading stories and other things that can support literac improvement.

Human Values in Mahashweta’s Poetry

An avid reader of poetry will find Mahashweta Chaturvedi's poetry to be an eternal source of joy, bliss, hope, and aspiration. Her poems have addressed the darkness of ignorance, war, humanity, egoism, life's lies, selfishness, superficiality, ugliness, coldness, illness, and jealousy. Mahashweta Chaturvedi is a poetess of peace and harmony who aspires to establish a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without regard for race, creed, gender, caste, or colour. In an age of moral degeneration, she demonstrates how to live not only by words but also by deeds. The goal of poetry is to create an inner temple of noble thoughts in the midst of theism. Her verse has a distinct flavour, but her message is universal. Mahashweta sees life as a stage for carrying out duties and responsibilities and as a devoted follower of Love, Peace, and Wisdom. The goal of Mahashweta's poetry is as vast as the sky. She wishes to reform every nook and cranny of this earth and its people, but she also longs for the chaos of inner peace and bliss. Her poems convey a universal message or lesson to the average person. Mahashweta Chaturvedi is a poetess who writes for all of humanity, transcending class, creed, and nation. She wishes to make a man aware that a human being in the true sense of the term is one endowed with humanity. Man must create harmony in his home and in the world. He must spread the light of 'love' and 'compassion' throughout the world. The opportunity of life is not given to man for worldly pleasures such as eating, drinking, and sleeping. Only God can bestow bliss when he discovers a man living a manly life. The present paper will deal with the issues of human values in the poetry of Mahashweta Chaturvedi.

Excavating Exodus: Biblical Typology and Racial Solidarity in African American Literature by J. Laurence Cohen

Reviewed by: Excavating Exodus: Biblical Typology and Racial Solidarity in African American Literature by J. Laurence Cohen Brian Britt J. Laurence Cohen, Excavating Exodus: Biblical Typology and Racial Solidarity in African American Literature (Clemson, SC: Clemson University Press, 2021) Excavating Exodus presents close readings of African American primary sources, including pamphlets, poetry, and fiction, as expressions of distinct positions on racial identity. With a focus on uses of Exodus and the Moses story from the nineteenth century to the present, Excavating Exodus represents a major contribution to scholarship on African American reception of the Bible. The study moves from a discussion of Mosaic subjectivity in David Walker's pamphlet, Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829), Martin R. Delaney's Blake: or; The Huts of America (1859–1862), and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's writings to the twentieth-century works of Alain Locke and Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man (1952), and William Melvin Kelly's A Different Drummer (1962). Contemporary readings of Exodus include works by Beyoncé and Eve Ewing's poetic rendering of Exodus in terms of Chicago politics, featuring Mayor Richard J. Daley as Pharaoh (158–161). Cohen's study articulates a set of arguments about what these sources say and how they use Exodus and Moses to say it. In dialogue with Albert Raboteau, Eddie Glaude, Rhondda Robinson Thomas, Tommie Shelby, Sharon A. Stanley, and others, Cohen advocates a view of African American solidarity that is more pragmatic than essentialist, yet "affective and political" at the same time (25). In [End Page 103] building this account, Cohen displays an impressive range of engagements with the Exodus story, across many genres and perspectives, with particular emphasis on historical and political context. One of the most valuable contributions of Cohen's study is his use of "signifying" as a mode of intertextual engagement. Like biblical reception in general, signifying applies to a wide range of interpretive practices. For instance, Cohen argues that Martin R. Delany's Blake not only represents its main character as a Moses figure, but also signifies Harriet Beecher Stowe's Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856) (56). Cohen similarly suggests that Frances Harper responded to David Walker's 1829 use of Moses in her 1859 essay, "Our Greatest Want." This "unmotivated signification," a concept borrowed from Henry Louis Gates's The Signifying Monkey, produces intertextual dialogue and development across the authors and texts. Yet it is not always clear how to distinguish an author's act of signification from Cohen's comparison, such as when he suggests that the character Tom Anderson in Iola Leroy (1892) signifies Stowe and Frederick Douglass alike (75–77). Cohen's sources engage multiple forms of biblical reception, ranging from direct citation of Moses and Exodus to generally Mosaic figures who bear only distant allusions and echoes of the Bible. Cohen skillfully surveys these diverse interpretive approaches, suggesting the categories of "typological rigidity" and "typological plasticity" to account for different interpretive approaches to Exodus (48). Unlike the moralistic rigidity that simply contrasted good Mosaic abolitionists against evil Pharaonic slaveholders, Cohen finds more flexible interpretive possibilities within the abolitionism of Martin R. Delaney and others who imagine a new kind of religious reality beyond slavery (60–62). But the real story of Excavating Exodus is not the how but the what of biblical exegesis. Insofar as Cohen frames Exodus interpretations "as a microcosm of the debates at the heart of the Civil Rights movement," his study contributes more to civil rights history than biblical reception history, leading to this four-part classification: "pro-Exodus desegregationism (King), anti-Exodus democratic pluralism (Ellison), pro-Exodus racial separatism (Malcolm X), and anti-Exodus radical individualism (Kelley)" (149, 153). Excavating Exodus culminates in this useful taxonomy, and it would be interesting to see even more about how these political categories relate to the rhetorical and hermeneutical strategies that produced them. Excavating Exodus bears the traces of the doctoral dissertation from which it draws, but the book's clarity and originality make an important contribution to scholarship on African American racial identity and biblical reception. For the study of American religion more generally, the book is a reminder...