POETS HAVE PROPHETIC VISION
Poets can predict what is going to
happen in near or distant future. They
have a prophetic vision. It is another matter that they do not take active part
in politics. But they do express their views about what is happening in their
own country or the world at large.
Long back came across some
interesting opinions about poets. They
were part of Lord Dunsany’s literary lectures delivered at Trinity College,
Dublin in 1943.
Lord Dunsany (1878-1957) was an
Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist. The extract given below is from his lecture
on poetry.
Poets, he says, have very often seen war. It may have been war
that made some of them poets; but, whether that be so or not, there is at least
this that is valuable in war, it brings into very sharp contrast the real and
the unreal, on account of the enormous importance that realities assume in time
of war.
Amongst the many things with which a
man is surrounded in times of peace he may not always distinguish which are
real and which are unreal, which are of eternal significance., and which the
mere product of fashion. In war he can make no such mistake; there the line is
drawn too glaringly to be missed.
Referring to
the above-mentioned fact , Lord Dunsany says that poets who have had this
experience do not often write about it.
Quite importantly, Lord Dunbar
refers to writers like the Roman poet Horace (65 BC-8 BC) and the Italian poet
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) who have mentioned in their writings certain events just from their prophetic vision.
In this context, Lord Dunbar says:
Let me point out that poets have always been far ahead of many scientists.
Dante for instance was centuries ahead of Newton. Newton’s great discovery was
that the force of gravity draws all material terrestrial bodies towards the
centre of earth. Until Newton taught that, no one knew what up and down were.
But they could have found out by reading the last page of the Inferno, for the
whole thing is there.
Finally, here is a short quote: The
overriding reality of the prophets is that they are characteristically poets.
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G.R.Kanwal
21 June 2025
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