Lyricism and lyrically crafted fiction

By Dilshan BOANGE

‘Lyricism,’ etymologically has its roots in the lyre, the stringed musical instruments (belonging to the category of the harp) of the ancient Greeks that was played to accompany recitation of poetry. The emotions that were evoked by the lyre’s music became the basis of the idea that formed the quality known as ‘lyrical’ which is understood today as songlike or musical in a very strongly poetic way.

In the scholarly article “Lyricism as Applied to the Visual Arts” by Robert Reiff published in Journal of Aesthetic Education (Vol.8 No.2 April 1974) a definition along the afore mentioned is found – “In the strictest sense of the word, the lyric refers to that which relates to the lyre and usually to verse suitable for music, and in particular to the voice. In the broader sense, the lyric refers to that which is rhapsodic or songlike, or a kind of intensity of engagement with one’s vision.” While these words offer a fairly sound idea of what the notion of lyricism is formed of, Reiff’s article also refers to what writer/novelist Aldous Huxley had propounded on what elements would form lyrical quality. Reiff (1974) states that Huxley characterizes the lyric by identifying the following qualities – ‘elusive’, ‘suggestive’ and ‘subtle’. And further the ideas of Huxley say to the effect that the lyric’s impact is strong and moving, but not comprehended immediately at the point of reading, but takes a moment to take form in the reader’s mind.

Reading of poetry

The primary lyrical quality of songlike or songfulness translates as ‘musicality’ when taking to consideration tenets of lyricism especially in works of fiction. And along with the quality of musicality are other tenets that characterize lyrical qualities in a text that being ‘sensuality’, ‘elusiveness’, ‘subjectivity’. These qualities can be achieved in fiction through various approaches ranging from certain kinds of metaphor, simile, and imagery to narrative devices such as interior monologues, to incorporating verse/poems/song lyrics as part of the prose narrative. It would also be pertinent to keep in mind that lyrical quality in literary works was mostly seen in poetry before it was to become an element that textured prose based works.

Lyrical quality in prose narratives has taken many forms by now with the many developments having taken place in the genre of the novel. And the devices to lace lyrical properties in a text can be manifold. For example the lyrical quality of sensuality can be woven into the narrative by means of imagery, simile and metaphor that denotes, evokes (in the reader) sensuousness by alluding to images of the human body or symbols that resonate with this a strong sense of this quality. Metaphors that evoke the female body in connection with images from nature have been popular amongst nature poets of Romanticism. One such example is French poet Pierre de Ronsard. A similar approach is very notably adopted in Michael Ondaatje’s Booker prize winning novel The English Patient where the female body is made a very focal object of metaphor and simile as well as imagery. Similarly in the scheme of descriptive imagery and metaphoric imagery an element that keeps recurring in a patterned manner is the word ‘skin’. One may deduce that ‘skin’ evokes a very potent sense of the human body image (male and/or female) and connecting it with descriptive of objects and using it as a simile can evoke a strong sense of the sensual in the mind of the reader.

These can be viewed as examples how the text thereby achieves the lyrical quality of sensuality evoking it through the properties of ‘sensual imagery’ that is laced into the narrative. Another motif that can be seen in The English Patient is respect of lyrical properties through the device of metaphor and imagery is how Ondaatje evokes elusiveness through descriptions of the desert. A significant portion of the story unfolds in the North African desert and this element is spoken of in terms that attribute it with an alluring sense of mysticism.

The narratives that present the Libyan Desert through the narratives of the invalid Count Almasy (who is dubbed the English patient) refer to it in such descriptions as – “a piece of cloth carried by winds” “given a hundred shifting names” “a place of faith” and also says in romancing nostalgic memories of the desert “We disappeared into landscape.” The imagery that evokes a sense of elusiveness through these means can be viewed as performing a lyrical function within the text.

And if one may suggest these image devices (both the sensual and the elusive) as lyrical properties and further as ‘lyrical imagery,’ it appears that Ondaatje has employed imagery as a means to lace lyrical qualities in to the text of The English Patient and thereby texture the prose with a rich lyricism.

This maybe one of the textural techniques adopted to create a lyrical work of prose based fiction for which Ondaatje won international acclaim as a writer whose novels are characterized by lyricism.