From a Distance :

Exploding emotions of a prolific writer

Author: Gwen Herat
Vijitha Yapa Bookshop
Reviewed by Asoka N de Silva

Gwen heart is a dreamer like Dryden who restricted poetic talent giving way to emotion and love. The fondness for luminous splendour can be disquieting for the 17th century poets as well as for new millennium poets such as Gwen Herat. That is the difference we have to understand and not compare one with the other. No doubt she has Dryden's infinity, which once let loose, runs wild because Herat is intimately connected with her heart.

However, permeated by the indefinable and easy perceivable spirit of poetry, I for one can look at them in the same context as they were written which makes me comfortable to analyse and review her work. Ardent and impulsive in search of better English with a sharp observation image in her, Herat is prolific, convincing and tackles the complexities that nag her mind. She has the strength to question her frail beliefs that may have been the turning point in From a Distance.

To such an estimate the demure she makes absolute, the poem beyond comparison, can confuse a lesser literary mind. All this of course, is excessively childish. The mere abstraction of a mind is found in the expansion and emotional interludes and passages that Herat unfolds. Here, the virtues of poetry are different in style and straightforwardness. Her literary impulse vigorously put down can be a nightmare to the puritans, if there are any.

Verbal music

Why riddle yourself ?. She questions and locks the answer in her heart. With such metre and marvels in verbal music in the opening sonnets, any two of this absolutely Shakespeare-like work not found to repeat each other in cadence, she has taken many strides backward in From a Distance.

Yet, it is not an exaggeration to say that she endeavours to maintain her style. May be beauty is her style and she is a beautiful woman who comprehends the nuances of poetry. Her absolute freedom is shifting syllabic equivalence and the infinite variety of cadence that is used, makes a dull subject vibrant with youthful romance, joy and fulfilment in her hands. She appeals to the Lord in a garland of verses that frustrate her at the end.

No greater tone of contrast can illustrate modern poetry the way she does, but had Herat magnificent literary assets on a more convincing and illustrious subject than a visionary she places on a pedestal for no given reason, she would have exploded the poetic scene. That is where women make mistakes. They let the heart rule the head. One miss should make her think twice but her audacious imagery belongs to her no matter how critics look at them.

Intelligentsia

Exposed to intelligentsia as a widely travelled and role model woman of integrity, it is a mystery that her strong feelings for a spiritualist, can lead to morbid intellectuality. Herat has to let go this attitude which ‘bugs’ her mind subconsciously if she desires to scale the heights of poetry.

There is no doubt about it. I find her developed into a prolific English writer which speaks well for our country that lacks writers of her calibre with a handful of exceptions.

She should not waste her gifts on superficial writing, some of which I found in From a Distance. Herat must write on a subject or person for the reader to remember and not on an image the readers find difficult to conceive or discover. Thereby, the purpose of the subject is lost. i.e.,

On whom does she lament?
On whom are her feelings set?
Obviously a sacred person and as such to quote her opening verse.
Do I see thee upon the golden throne?
Mantled in silken thread, bejewelled with dazzling stars.
In thy hand the sacred Scepter, held aloft
Brilliant opulence upon burnished gold.
But it was a dream from which I woke
For thou art human, even from a distance.

Imaginative

Given the benefit of the doubt that poets and writers are highly imaginative and sensitive, she crosses the boundaries too much.

She epilogues giving her heart to someone, a brilliant finish to a poetry book that should have been published in England for they are a poetry -loving nation.

There are moments in life so stunning, unexplained which I absorbed after reading this book of verses. Being aware that it was subject to high reviews, it still deserves more which prompted me for yet another.

Spiritually celebrating, lyrically absorbing and beautifully crafted, there can never be such a fitting dedication to a high profile priest such as Dr. Devsritha Valence Mendis, Bishop of Chilaw.