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POETRY
is important only in that it awakens and draws his fervour. One thing noticeable is that when the scope is larger, as in a detailed biographical sketch or a novel, the concentration of the force of emotion is scattered and diffused. In many poems of this collection, Roy has succeeded in giving pointedly his impressions. of the notable qualities of such great persons. Paying a tribute to his loving guru in his poem, 'Sri Aurobindo', the poet sings:
"Knowing thee once, do we not know the Truth, However fragmentary? For though we may
Still fail to glimpse thy New Dawn which can soothe
Our famished eyes with His unsullied Day,
Yet once thou mak'st our half-lit consciousness Reverberate thy fire-thrilled melody.
Will not its rapture lead us to His Grace
Resolving our discord with thy harmony?
Who once have seen thy Face have known, 0 Friend:
Tis not a myth that Love is one with light"
Or. about his dear friend and a fellow pilgrim, Krishnaprem, in Sri Krishnaprem' Dilip Kumar says:
"O Reason's elect, withal, a citizen.
Of Stellar climes no mind has ever trod:
Who saw your radiant face could never again
Doubt faith's deep power of leading us back to God."10
In very few words, he has created the exact pen picture of his daughterdisciple in 'Indira Devi':
"Earth's arid thirst to slake she's born
As Mira's soul again and again
And teaches through her love-how, vowed
To love, we can Dream's peak attain."
How can Dilip Roy forget his bosom friend, Subhas Chandra Bose? In 'Netaji' he writes:
"O son of strength, who spurned on earth the lures of lesser love's delight,
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And, to help us worldlings, gave up all for which we clamour, fret and fight!
You lived to achieve India's freedom in our homeland and abroad And we hailed you as our country's leader, by your sunrise overawed."12
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