Aesthetic Consciousness in R. K. Singh’s
Poetry
Dr. Jindagi Kumari
Assistant Professor
English Language and Communication Skills
Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Technology
Janakpuri East, New Delhi, India
Abstract:
With sixteen collections of poems R.K. Singh’s contribution to Indian
English poetry is significant though not duly recognized. A strong voice from
Jharkhand, India, Singh assimilates local flavors with universal outlook while
experimenting with lyrical poetic forms and Haiku. His brief but terse poems present human
psyche and conditions in an idiom that strikes a chord with the contemporary
life and thought process. Singh’s poems are remarkable for reasons more than
one. The paper attempts a detailed analysis of the aesthetic value and poetic
appeal in R. K. Singh’s poetry.
Keywords: Aesthetics; poetry; R.K. Singh;
imagery; form
Aesthetic1 consciousness may be understood as consciousness
to art in terms of effect or responses that it generates. In the context of
poetry, it constitutes the elements that contain the aesthetic value 2 or
beauty of poetic art.
Coleridge, in Biographia Literaria,
chalks out four elements of good poetry: musicality (rhythm and rhyme),
imagery / words modified by predominant passion, thoughts, and feelings. He
also appreciates “aloofness of the poet’s own feelings”; from those which he at
once paints and analyses…”3 Eliot also seems to prescribe
objectivity of attitude in a poet when he stresses on an artist’s need to
escape from emotion and personality.4
One of the landmark explanations concerning aesthetics of poetry can be
that of I. A. Richards, who, addressing the question of “true places of the
values of the experience (poetic)”5 casts aside the study of imagery
as they are “…the point at which two readings are most likely to differ”.6
He feels that “in the reading of poetry the thought due simply to the words,
their sense it may be called comes first….”7 In other words,
Richards defines a poem as a group of words that evokes a particular experience
that does not vary greatly when read by different sensitive readers. The experience of the readers counts
crucially on the sequential arrangement of words. It is the meaning of the
words that determine the success of rhyming and rhythm.
The views concerning poetic art expressed above may be summed up as
indicating thoughts and emotions along with poetic language implying beauty of
poetry.
What is poetry?
R. K. Singh in a number of poems draws on the ideals of poetic beauty.
To Singh poetry is all inclusive like life; it harmonises positive and
negative, sweet and bitter, beautiful and ugly at the same instant:
A poem is
like life
sound
and silence
movement
and stillness
fragment
and wholeness
Avibhiktam
Vibhakteshu
like Shiva
and Shakti
lotus
and mud
( Poem no. ‘1’, 1-14, Music Must Sound) 8
The lines seem to imply that art is not justified if not allowed to
feature the darker aspect of existence along with the brighter. Following this
poetics the poet brings to the fore every puny and petty thing that occurs in
day to day life. Poetry for Singh could be inspired even from “failed
ejaculation” and “cowardice” (Sexless
Solitude and Other Poems, p. 54).9
Perhaps in the realisation of the darkness the poet sees embodied an intent
craving for light. The poet promotes a
view of assimilation and harmony as reflective of the true artistic spirit.
Further, in Singh poetry is presented through the metaphor of woman. The
concept of woman is the key to the aesthetics of R. K. Singh. The poet says:
The best poetry
is a woman
concrete, personal, delightful
greater than all (Poem no.
‘7’, 1-4, My Silence)
Rabindranath Tagore also takes woman and poetry as identical and
believes that a woman unlike man “has to be picturesque and musical to make
manifest what she truly is,—because, in her position in the world, woman is
more concrete and personal than man. She is not to be judged merely by her
usefulness, but by her delightfulness.” 10
By implication, Singh advocates personal poetry, both in terms of themes
and treatment. It is for this reason, perhaps, that the poet draws a lot on
woman; her beauty and nudity, for an instance
“An undresses woman” is depicted in R. K. Singh as “live sensuous and
delicious” (Flight of Phoenix, p.71).
Besides, the poet also explores the intimate moments of nuptial relationship:
“Your lush lips / ripple fire” (Poem no.5, ll. 5-6, My Silence). The poet seems
to attain “delightfulness” for his verses by means of the projection of the
subjective experiences. However, the poet also presents woman and sex as an
antidote to the dark abyss of existential realities which is as equally
dominant aspect of his aesthetics. The poet often reflects on the existence as
monotonous, overshadowed by failure, guilt, humiliation, loneliness, rejection
and helplessness. He highlights lack of harmony in life: “Sleeping in the same
bed, but / isn’t it disappointing we / haven’t seen the same dreams …?” (‘Isn’t it Disappointing?’, ll.1-3, Some Recent Poems). Further in the poem,
‘Erection can’t Create’ one comes across a similar sad reflection on the decay
of values; “where olive rested once / now stinks with dried blood. A famine of
love / menopausal silence: / erection can’t create” (ll.2-6)
Directness and Brevity
One notes that Singh articulates his vision in a straightforward manner.
The style of the poet develops not only with his sharing of subjective
experiences but also with liberal employment of words and images related to
sex.
at the Ganges in Kartik
old gods leer at
their wet bare backs
in bleeding cold
‘aum’ is convenient
to soothe Vasanas
no more Aswapathys please
they’re hung up, racing in jet
to catch two white moons
(Poem no. ‘27’, ll. 7-15, Music Must Sound)
In the lines the poet exhibits the moral downfall of priests at the
banks of Ganges by pinpointing their amorous activity. Here, the firsthand
references to the incidents and places add to the directness of the artistic
voice. The frankness is reinforced through the structure of the poem consisting
of phrases. The phrasal construction also provides the poem a sort of brevity:
Mute pavements
shelters meditators
in milky silence
passing
beauties
denuded in water
skin shrinks (3-6)
and
face lotus
tongue sandal
manners sweet
heart scissors
I know him
seasoned crook
(Poem no ‘40’,ll.1-5,
Flight of Phoenix)
The style is an outcome of the poet’s preoccupation with haiku. In the
example one also notices other stylistic features, such as lack of punctuation
and title. This style of Singh’s seems to be akin to the radical break in
America from the1890s where writers and artists sought to express the
“immediately contemporary.”11 R. K. Singh seems aware of the new
technical problems in art and makes an advance to create a body of verse which
is more rapid, precise, economical and bold than that of the poet of the
preceding decades.
Beguiling simplicity of Words
Singh’s verses display words related to diverse fields such as Nature,
journalism, erotica, science and technology, diseases and medicine, and
literature and scripture. The poet also
deploys a few foreign phrases such as “deo volente” (God
being willing) (Music Must Sound,
p. 122), “sotto voce” (in a low voice) (Some
Recent Poems, p. 42).
Also, Singh’s poems introduce a number of indigenous (Sanskrit and
Hindi) expressions such as “Avibhiktam-Vibhakteshu” (Music Must Sound, p. 100),
Puja pandals (p.76) “Vasanas”, “sadhana” (p.110) “gurus” (p.124), “chandan” , “geru” (p.122) , “Shivalay” , “sutra” (Some Recent Poems, p. 8), ,
“sanskar” (Memories Unmemoried, p. 91), “monsoony mist” (My Silence, p. 144),
“Dhoopam” (p.164); and colloquial Hindi such as; “alao” (p.153), “nullah” (Memories
Unmemoried, p. 93) etc. All these words are used symbolically in the verses
and are adequately suggestive within the context. An example is the poem
‘Bushes, Weeds and Flowers’ (Some Recent Poems) where liturgical
terms “covenant and prophets” are used symbolically:
let’s
clean the sky of tales
of covenants and prophets
and be at peace with earth’s
bushes and weeds and
flowers. (ll.7-10)
Here, words “covenant” and “prophets” are symbolic of the religious
authorities who are assigned great task to explain religion, spirituality and
meaning of life. The speaker, however, does not trust the “tales” of such
prophets. He rather advocates being “at peace with” the common masses
represented through the Botanical registers “bushes, weeds, and flowers”. In
the lines the words transcend their usual context and are worked out in a novel
context. This reflects the artist’s flair for freedom and experimentation. In Singh “…common words lose their pedestrian
character, their ordinariness, and gain a new face.” 12
Further, the poet avoids multi-syllabic words. The poet does not
subscribe to verbosity and “romantic eloquence.” Here, one finds Singh as a distinguished
artist using “simple words” 13 which are far from simple in their
effect; the word the poet chooses are “sharp”, “incisive”14 and
terse in nature. The choice of such words lends uniqueness to the tone marked
by “electrifying rapidity”.
R. K. Singh seems more radical in his use of words. This proves true as
one examines the range of the erotic vocabulary in Singh. The poet goes near the fringes of porn poetry in his
induction of words such as “orgasm” (Above
the Earth’s Green, p. 25 )15 “ejection”, “ejaculation” (Sexless
Solitude and Other Poems, p. 54),
“copulation” (p.18), “”consummation” (p.22), “climax”, “busts” (Memories Unmemoried, p. 87),
“…upstanding nipples / under transparent blouse” (Poem no. 23, ll. 7-8) “dick”
(p. 2), “fuck” (Flight of Phoenix, p.
61), “erection”(Some Recent Poems,
p.27) in his poetry. Such uses not only reflect the poet’s excessively free
spirit and poetic audacity but also decide the overall tone of his poetry
making it more candid and direct. The poet also uses slang thus giving a casual
and conversational appearance to his poetic argument. Also the style reflects
the poet’s view of art that should not conform to any restriction. For art “sky
is the limit”. This élan for sex words has been severely criticised but these
words shock with their adequacy in the context they have been used since their
employment is symbolic and not literal.
The sex vocabulary used in the verses produce two types of effect. A
group of them consisting of the parts of woman’s body is used to describe the
feminine beauty and evokes eroticism.
That autumn tree
from this window
looks like a young woman
naked
exciting birds
to come
kiss and play
(Poem no. ‘2’, ll. 1-7, My Silence)
The image of tree as a “naked” “young woman” creates sensual appeal.
However, there is another group of words which may appear cruder and vulgar:
“Scratching between his legs” (Flight of
Phoenix, p. 68): and “he pressed her skin.” Still cruder is the following
snippet:
A woman should
complement
…wanting love
…with
sweetness
of the bone in mouth or
frenzied riding high or
grinding pubic regions
(Poem no.‘48’, ll. 1-6 , Flight of Phoenix )
The speaker here shares his idea with kitschy sex expressions. His
vulgar suggestions do not appear effective even if seen as an outcome of anger
and grudge against repressive social structure. Also the instance is not alone
of its kind. One finds a number of such uses: “Like a woman’s mind / resides
between her thighs…/ man’s love and hatred / concentrate on the crevice /
though he watches face” (Poem no. ‘56’, ll. 1-6); “I smell my boneless / semen
under the pillow / weaving legends…” (Poem no. ‘59’, ll. 1-3) and “she unzips
her skirt / like the silkworm undoing / its yellow cocoon” (Poem no.‘61’, ll.
4-6). The poets presentation of the unspectacular sexual encounters often
appear undesirable. However, the use of the sex words and expressions by the
poet adds a new dimension to the frankness in Indian English Poetry.
Erotic Imagery
One of the marked features of Singh’s aesthetic is his use of erotic
imagery. The poet uses variety of sex images and constructs them in many ways.
Firstly, in many poems the poet perceives woman’s body in terms of nature
images. Examples are “forest of her body” (My
Silence, p.144), “steeps of her
breast”, “body’s delta” (Above the
Earth’s Green, p. 52) and “the moon” etc. Woman’s body, chief source of eroticism in Singh is
recurrently projected with the images of “island” (My Silence, p. 144), “ocean” and “sea” (Above the Earth’s Green, p. 24) The image “two white moons” (Music
Must Sound, p. 110) is connotative of a woman’s bosom. Further, the poet
captures men “leer (ing)”, “wet bare backs” of women; “An undressed woman” (Flight of Phoenix, p.70) is “live
sensuous delicious”. Singh also uses animal imagery as sex symbols; image of
“flying horse” (p.103) for example is used to convey a sexually active persona.
At another place the image “rhino horns” (Above
the Earth’s Green, p.19) is employed with a similar meaning. Apart
from these all, the poet also draws
directly on bodily and sexual images such as “ kisses” (Above the Earth’s Green, p. 94) “voluptuous sqeezes”, “nipples” (p.
30), “navel love” (p.27),”inside your breast space”, “your flame” “your altar”,
“wet lingerie”, “between thighs” (Sexless
Solitude and Other Poems, p. 18) , “legs slide” (Some Recent Poems, p. 20), “eyes and thighs” (p.33), “lips” and
others. In some of the poems some objects and structures such as “door” and
“walls” (Music Must Sound, p.110),
“the centre” (p.19), “sitar” (p.106), “cigarette” are also used as sex symbol.
Other Images and Symbols
R. K. Singh’s poems abound in Nature and cosmic symbolism such as
“tree”, “flower” , “sun” (Some
Recent Poems , p.2), “moon” (p.20), “earth and sky” , “light and
darkness” (p.10), “day and night” (p.29), “hill” (Music Must Sound, p.116), “road” (Music Must Sound, p. 116),
“sea” (p.119), “ocean” (My Silence, p. 159). The image of
“hill”, for example, appears recurrently in poem no. ‘21’, ‘44’ and ‘47’ of Music Must Sound. In poem no. ‘44’ it
symbolises a link between physical and spiritual: “Across the brown woods / I
climb the naked hills / where tempests can’t reach / nor waves rise to
collapse” (ll.1-4). In poem no. ‘47’, however, the poet evokes the scenic
beauty of a hill: “The sun sheds its radiance / over the hills…” (ll. 1-2)
The poet uses symbols such as “death” (Flight of Phoenix, p. 78), “ashes” (p.94), “shadows”, “dust” (Music Must Sound, p.105) and “fog” (My Silence, p.153) suggesting decay.
Besides, in a number of poems one finds uses of animal symbolism such as
“dragon” (My Silence, p.159), “cow”
(p.151), “monkey”, “snake”, “pig”, “dogs” (pp.148,150,152), “jackal”(Music Must Sound, p.129), “ass”, “rat” (Memories Unmemoried, p. 94), “butterfly”
(Flight of Phoenix, p.62) and others.
Some words having common everyday uses are also attributed with symbolic
significance with the recurrent employment; examples are “cup” (Some Recent Poems, p.13), “politics”, “sex” (Sexless Solitude and Other Poems, p.16), “road”, “child”, and “son”
(My Silence, p.165). The “cup”, for
example, signifies a pastime or a hobby in the poem ‘My New Cup’ (Some Recent Poem) whereas it symbolises
life; warmth, love, friendship and humanity in ‘Plant New Peonies”. The symbol
of “rat” in poem no. ‘37’ of Memories
Unmemoried, is used for politicians who “design new room / to negotiate
disgrace” (ll.3-4).
Combined with the imagistic and symbolic quality of the words is the use
of figures such as personification. Following verse is an apt example where all
the inanimate natural objects and features have been invested with life:
The morning’s withered
flesh
and swollen skin of the
day
by bloody nullah in smoke
tears shade tomorrow
like today, everyday they
cry
(Poem no. ‘35’, ll.1-5, Memories Unmemoried)
The imagery in these lines has surrealistic quality as it objectifies a
state of mind reflective of utter frustration and helplessness.
Musicality
In Singh’s poetry words constitute the basic aesthetic device. They
startle with their sound and meaning, order and novelty. The musical effect in his verses is largely
created due to alliterative device which also accounts for occasional finding
of internal rhythm in his verses. An instance may be the following verse:
Love leads to beauty
and vision with perfection
pillar of dust or
fleeting shadow can
turn into light revelling
pure songs wrought out of
the clay blending joys
(
Poem no. ‘7’, ll. 1-7, Flight of Phoenix)
Here, one finds that the expressions have been weaved skillfully with an
ear to the repetitive sounds. In the first line the sound /l/ is repeated in
words “love” and “leads”; while in the next line repetition of /n/ sounds
occurs. Also, /p/ sound is repeated in words “perfection” and “pillar”; /l/
sound recurs in “light” and “reveling”; /t/ sound is repeated in line five in
words “turn”, “light”, “wrought” and “out”. One notes that apart from consonant
sounds vowel sounds are also used for musical effect: “under cloud-cover,
rising / sliding ritually in bed swallow / humiliations, arrogance and ridicule
/ to escape whores in the street” (‘The
Next Day’s Sun’, ll. 13-16, Some Recent
Poems). The repetition of sound helps the poet to create internal rhyme as
in “rising” “sliding”. However, there are no end rhymes.
Mythical Allusions
Another pronounced feature of Singh’s verse is mythical allusions with
which the poet studs his verses. These mythical allusions are variously drawn
from the Bible; “Bashan” (Music Must
Sound, p. 120), “mai? mai?”
(p.121), “Eloi! Eloi!” (p.128) “Eden”
(p.116), “Sinai” (p.121) and other sources and basically have metaphoric
function. These are often hard to decode and obfuscate the meaning of the
verses.
Enjambment / Word order
Singh at times appeals with arrangement of words in his verses. An
example is “survive surprises” in the poem ‘Survival’ (Some Recent Poems, p. 50). Here the inverted order of the words
foregrounds the meaning and highlight the element of surprise. Singh’s aptitude
to experimentation in word order is further seen through the feature of
enjambment whereby a single word in association with preceding and succeeding
lines create two different meanings; an instance is the word “fruit” in the
second line and “yellow sun” in the third line of the verse.
Moonlight lingers
on mango boughs like the fruit
sweet yellow sun
in my courtyard
cool shade travels with thin
cloud
I see love dance
(‘My New Cup’, ll. 1-6, Some Recent Poems)
Untitled Verses
Notwithstanding, the poet avoids giving titles to his verses and
punctuation in collections Some Recent Poems
and Sexless Solitude and Other Poems.
Their being untitled seems to give an impression of the verses as sequences of
one long poem spreading to the entire book. Also the poet believes that even if
“titles tell too much” they limit the meaning and lessen the effect of a poem,
whereas the poet’s intention is to express “poetry that is beyond the sky”.
Singh, in this respect, reflects quite unconventional an attitude. He tries to
evolve his own style as a way to transcend limitations.16 Nevertheless,
regarding the poems without titles, I. K. Sharma, an Indian English poet and
critic, says, “to a common reader title is a big help that makes a poem
accessible.” 17 D.S.
Maini, another, noted Indian English
poet, expresses doubt to such experimentations: “I’m not sure if such a view can really be sustained for long
unless perhaps one has the genius of an Emily Dickinson, as also the
compulsions of her craft.”18 Probably,
the poet’s giving titles to the verses of his recent poetic volumes seems an
outcome to such critical responses.
Experimental Punctuation
The poet avails poetic freedom and goes beyond the conventional norms
for an intentional emission of punctuation as in the lines: “Is it the fear / of dying penting
up, don’t know / can’t resist.” (‘Survival’, ll. 1-3, Some Recent Poems) In the lines lack of comma lends a kind of rapidity
to the verse that reflects the person’s agitation and inability. Such
experimentation has its own effect and is not used merely to show linguistic
expertise. However, the propensity does not succeed always. Singh’s poetics is
perhaps rightly deemed as “exciting but precarious” and some critics feel that
in most of his poems “language qua language
is apotheosised (…) than by some powerful sustaining thought.” 19 The
poet’s experimentation and non conformity in stylistic context is an
illustration of his intent to attain balance in art and also suggests his quest
for balance in life.
Haiku-like Form
R.K. Singh’s verses lack a uniform pattern of rhythm or rhyme.
Nevertheless, in some poems where the poet uses haiku (the Japanese form of
verse) as stanza unit, syllabic rhythm can be observed. The formal aspect of
R.K. Singh’s verses, at large, is guided by his practice of haiku. The poet does not always conform to the
traditional pattern of haiku (5-7-5 syllables) and tanka (5-7-5-7-7 syllables).
He, instead, uses three line stanza patterns that appear Haiku like. In
addition, he employs two lines, four lines, and five lines stanza pattern but
they occur less often. Haiku in different beats 4-6-4, 5-7-5 and in free form
are composed by the poet in stanza form in the longer poem and individually in
Haiku collections. An example of 4-6-4 syllabic arrangements is the following
poem:
they close
their eyes
or shut them with rupees
matters little
but I worry
when with sight in their hands
they free
shadows
(‘They Close their Eyes’, ll.1-4, Some Recent Poems)
Similarly example of short lyric in tanka form is as follows:
I clasp your hands
and feel the blood
running savagely
through your arteries
in tulip silence
(Poem no. ‘4’, ll.1-5, My Silence)
The poet in his effort to follow stanza and syllabic pattern seems to
strive for “symmetry”. But in spite of his constant effort the poet fails to
maintain uniformity and reflects lack of consistency at each level of his
style. Every feature of style that he develops or adopts remains a perpetual
subject of variation. In this regard one seems to agree with I. H. Rizvi’s
observation: “…Singh believes in variety, variation and originality.”20
Self-directed Irony
Irony is instrumental to the overall effect of Singh’s poetry. The
element is often self directed and used to whiplash hypocrisy and deflate ego.21
I seek my balance in
yoga-nidra in the closed
room think his thoughts and
lies
we weave to ensnare spirit
that pricks the balloon we
pump
to rise above the earth’s
green:
(Poem no. ‘41’, ll.
4-9, Above the Earth’s Green)
In the poem one finds irony cutting through the dual notion of
spirituality. Irony in Singh’s verses is also directed against corruption. In
the following verse irony is evoked by means of animal imagery to expose
corrupt politicians:
sucking the monkey with
his antics
of love and justice he
plays
the lamb, the lion, the
pig, and the ape
and prove his virility
in the politics
of monkey, cow, and
snake
(Poem no. ‘36’, ll. 9-13, My Silence)
This depiction of inappropriate and incongruous behaviour gives vent to
irony besides producing humour. However, the notion that the politicians treat
“love and justice” as “antics” indicates the persona’s anger against them.
Irony here seems to be getting bitter.
Irony in Singh’s verses is less humorous and more sarcastic. A similar
ironical situation occurs in poem no. ‘37’ where the poet lashes at the
politicians:
It’s outrageous
with headless heads
and paper tigers
roaring from the top
(Poem no. ‘85’, ll. 1-4, Music Must Sound)
In such poems irony seems to become a tool to express displeasure and
frustration and nears sarcasm.
To sum up, in R. K. Singh one finds a successful manifestation of an
individual poetic ideology and a distinct style that is bold and assimilative.
The frank use of sexual expressions, use of indigenous terms, words from the
various field of life combined with bleak Nature imagery are the chief
aesthetic features of his poems. Brevity
of expression is largely achieved due to the selection of perfect imagery and
pithy expressions accompanying terseness. Often arranged in stanzas of varying
lines the poems look presentable on the pages, though they rarely reflect any
rhythmic or rhyming uniformity. Musicality is evoked by proper arrangement of
words alliterating with each other.
Despite all the poetic devices employed the overall poetic effect is not
so inspiring. The boisterous eroticism, bitter realism, and pessimism seem to
aggravate the existential pain of the reader. The speakers in Singh’s poems
express their frustration and rage against impending anarchy and corruption.
The tool employed to present the angst often evoke repulsion: “it puts me off
to smell / sweat oozing from the armpits /
the thighs moist with urine” (‘Erotics of Bygones’, ll. 4-6, Sexless Solitude and Other Poems).
The ugliness and disgust of one’s experiences are all acceptable as an
expression of one’s grudge and frustration with life but to the reader, who
himself is a victim of life, it proves too much. Though the unmistakable effect
of the poet in using phrases can never be underestimated; expressions like
“funeral dreams”, “shadows masturbate” (Sexless Solitude and Other Poems, p.
24), “plateaus of nightmare” (p. 26),
“corroding consciousness”, (p. 42), “crippled impulses” (p.36) “spray of
years”, (p. 78) “unzipped night” (p.97) are samples of Shingh’s creative and
effective use of language. One feels that R. K. Singh’s poetry can at best be
judged with an awareness of existential agony of an artist. Also the abundance
of subjective tendencies indicates that aesthetic impact is more directed to
the artist than to his readers. However, the poems dealing with social and
political criticism are more effective and promise not less than a new
perspective to life.
References
1. Lyas, Colin. Aesthetics. London: Routledge, 2003.4. Print.
2. “Aesthetics.” The New Encyclopedia
Britannica. Macropedia.Vol.1.
Chicago: William Benton Publisher, 1973.149. Print.
3. Coleridge, S.T. Biographia Literaria. Vol. II. Ed. J. Shawcross. London:
Oxford Universsity Press, 1907.16.Print
4. Cullinane,
Steven H. “Poetry’s
Bones: “The Form, the Pattern” of Four Quartets.”
Web.28 Dec.2009. <http://finitegeometry.org/sc/ph/poetrysbones.html>.
5. Richards, I. A. Principles of Literary Criticism. London: Routledge Classics,
2001.113. Print.
6. Ibid. 112.
7. Ibid. 117.
8. Singh, R.K. My Silence and Other Selected Poems. Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot,
1994. Print.
9. Sexless
Solitude and Other Poems .Bareilly:
Prakash Book Depot, 2009. Print.
10. Devy, 144.
11. Perkins, David. A History of Modern Poetry:
Modernism and After. New Delhi: ABS Publishers and Distributors, 2006. 34.
Print.
12. Sharma, I. K. Ed. Introduction. New Indian English Poetry. Ibid. 8.
13. Prem, P. C. K. “R. K. Singh: A Poet of
Nature, Beauty and Woman.”Ibid. 74.
14. Ibid. 61.
15. Singh, R. K. Above the Earth’s Green. Calcutta: Writer’s Workshop, 1997.Print.
16. Sinha, R. N. “In the Landscape of the Self:
R. K. Singh’s ‘Flight of Phoenix’” New
Indian English Poetry: An Alternative
Voice. Ibid. 332.
17. Ibid.
18. Maini, D. S. “R. K. Singh: Search for a
Rhetoric Balance.” Ibid. 28.
19. Ibid. 29.
20. Rizvi, I. H.
“Some Comments on ‘Peddling Dream.’” 327-28.
21. (Paraphrased) Sharma, I. K. “Music Must
Sound: An ‘Epic with Scratchy Jargon.’” Ibid.128.