A POEM ON PATRIOTISM

 

A POEM ON PATRIOTISM

‘Patriotism’ is defined as love of one’s country and willingness to defend it. According to the American orator and statesman DANIEL WEBSTER(1782-1852) : “Let our whole object be our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country. And by the blessing of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, but of wisdom, of peace, and of liberty, upon which the world may gaze with admiration forever.”

            The poem given below is by the English poet-novelist Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Its title is “Breathes There The Man”. Its theme is that an un-patriotic  person  however great he may be in other respects is worthless and ignoble because his heart never cries out, ‘‘This is my own, my native land”.

“Breathes there the man with soul so dead,

Who never to himself hath said,

‘This is my own, my native land!’   

Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d

As home his footsteps he hath turn’d

From wandering on a foreign strand ?

If such there breathe, go, mark him well;

For him no Minstrel raptures swell ;

High though his titles, proud his name,

Boundless his wealth as wish can claim ;

Despite those titles, power, and pelf,

The wretch, concentred all in self,

Living, shall forfeit fair renown,

And, doubly dying, shall go down

To the vile dust from whence he sprung,

Unwept, unhonour’d  and unsung.”

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G.R.Kanwal

16 May 2024

SOME THOUGHTS ON POLITICS

 

SOME THOUGHTS ON POLITICS

‘ Politics’ is briefly defined as ‘the activities involved in getting and using power in public life, and being able to influence decisions that affect a country or society.’And a politician is defined as a person whose job is concerned with politics, especially as an elected member of a law- making body.

Ideally, a politician should be a qualified person. He/she should be thoroughly patriotic and should not indulge in unfair means, His/her party loyalty, too, should be firm and safe from anti-party temptations.

It is sad that some modern politicians indulge in unprincipled acts.  Somebody rightly said “To be a chemist you must study chemistry; to be a lawyer or a physician you must study law or medicine; but to be a politician you need only to study your own interests.”

“ According to English author Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) :“The man who can make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, grow on the spot where only one grew before , would deserve better of mankind, and render more essential service to the country , than the whole race of politicians put together.”

Great politicians who do not think of the next election but of the next generation become statesmen. They do not suffer from selfishness, egotism, lust for power, hatred towards other parties and the use of unethical  means.

Finally, it is not desirable if every political question becomes a social question, and every social question becomes a religious question.

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G.R.Kanwal

15 May 2024

 

A NOTE ON PRAYER

 

          A NOTE ON PRAYER

“Prayer” is a sacred word. It means an entreaty to God. Most of the people pray for some personal benefit. Such a prayer is not admirable. The  English poet S. T. Coleridge (1772-1834) says in the last stanza of his poem “The Ancient Mariner” :

                        He prayeth well who loveth well

                        Both man and bird and beast

                        He prayeth best who loveth best

                        All things, both great and small:

                        For the dear God who loveth us,

                        He made and loveth all.

            An ideal devotee of God will pray for the health and happiness, peace and prosperity of even his enemy.

According to the English  poet James Kirkup (1918-2009):

           

                        No men are strange, no countries foreign,…

                        Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read

                        A labour not different from our own….

                        Remember they have eyes like ours that wake

                        Or sleep, and strength that can be won

                        Bt love.

           

The best part of our  prayer to God should be that in which we express our heartfelt gratitude to Him for all His gifts and mercies.

 

            Finally, a few words by the English poet  Alfred Lord Tennyson (!809-1892) : “More things are wrought by prayer than the world dreams of. What are men better than sheep or goats, that nourish a blind life within the brain, if, knowing God, they lift no hands of prayer both for themselves and those who call them friends !”

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G.R.Kanwal

14 May 2024                                      

 

A POEM ON WILL

 

A POEM ON WILL

‘WILL’ is the title of a best loved poem written by the American poet Ella Wheeler  Wilcox (1850-1919) . She is also famous for her poem titled ‘Solitude’ which opens with the lines “Laugh and the world laughs with you; Weep and you weep alone.”

Some inspirational quotes on will are: (1) Where there is a will, there is way. (2) Will opens the door to success, both brilliant and happy. (3) We cannot be held to what is beyond our strength and means; for at times the accomplishment and execution may not be in our power, and indeed there is nothing really in our own power except the will: on this are necessarily based and founded all the principles that regulate the duty of man. (4) Work usually follows will. (5) The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.

The quote   ‘Where there ‘s a will, there is a way’ means if you really want to do something, you will find a way to do it, even if there are circumstances that make hard to do it.      According to a part of Wilcox’s poem:  

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,

Can circumvent or hinder or control

The firm resolve of a determined soul.

Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;

All things give way before it, soon or late.

What obstacle can stay the mighty force

Of the sea-seeking river in its course,

Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait?

                        *********

G.R.Kanwal

12^th May 2024

                       

SOME THOUGHTS ON VIOLENCE

 

SOME THOUGHTS ON VIOLENCE

Violence is uncivilized behavior. It is destructive, injurious and murderous. It implies the use of brute force. Its ferocity, roughness, savagery and wildness lead to undesirable and dangerous results.  

British poet-dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was more than right when he said “Violent delights have violent ends.”

            According to the  English essayist William Hazlitt (1778-1830) : Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.”

             The great prophet of peace and non-violence  Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) who liberated  India from the British rule without using arms and weapons says: To use violence for securing rights may seem an easy path, but it proves to be thorny in the long run. Those who live by the sword, die also by the sword. The swimmer often dies by drowning. ----Young India, June 8, 1921.

            To conclude, a line by   Martin Luther , the German priest and theologian (1483-1546) : Nothing Good ever comes of violence.

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G.R.Kanwal

10^th May 2024  

 

LET US BE WORLD CITIZENS

 

                                LET US BE WORLD CITIZENS

The whole world is one. It is divided into many countries but all the people are alike. They have similar bodies, eat similar diets, fall prey to similar diseases, get similar medicines, are warmed by the same sun, receive rain from the same sky, rivers flow from one country to another, boys and girls  have similar educational systems, love and hate in the same way, dress themselves almost similarly, have identical views about crime and punishment, sin and its punitive consequences and  worship the same creator by different names.

By definition a world citizen accepts the dynamic fact that the planetary human community is interdependent and the whole humankind is essentially one.

Given below are extracts from a poem titled “No Men Are Foreign” written by a professor of English literature James Kirkup (1918 -2009). He says:

REMEMBER, no men are strange, no countries foreign,

Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes

Like ours; the land our brothers walk upon

Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.

…………………………

Remember they have eyes like ours that wake

Or sleep, and strength that can be won

By love. In every land is common life

That all can recognize and understand.

 

And to conclude :

Let us remember, whenever we are told

To hate our brothers, it is ourselves

That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.

Remember, we who take arms against each other,

It is the human earth that we defile,

Our hells of fire and dust outrage the innocence

Of air that is everywhere our own.

Remember, no men are foreign, and no countries strange.

 

G.R.Kanwal

9^th May 2024

 

  

 

 

HATRED

 

HATRED

The word ‘hatred’ has many synonyms. Some of them are dislike; ill-ill; enmity; hostility; grudge; malice; bitterness and antagonism.

            And some of the antonyms of hatred are love; affection; acceptance; praise;  admiration and fondness.

            Hatred is vicious. It is wicked not only in respect of people but also such ideas, theories and philosophies with which you do not agree. It is harmful for your health because it produces anger which is hurtful  for your heart.

            According to French novelist Balzac (1799-1850 ) hatred is the vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all their littleness, and make it the pretext of base tyrannies.

            This is what Frederick William Robertson  (1816-1853) says: I will tell you what to hate: Hate hypocrisy; hate cant; hate intolerance; oppression; injustice; Pharisaism; hate them as Christ hated them---with a deep abiding, God-like hatred,

            British  poet Lord Byron (1788-1824) believes that hatred is the madness of the heart.

            To conclude, the following words of Lord Buddha: “ Hatred does not cease to be hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.”

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G.R.Kanwal

8^th May 2024