Phoenix Poem by Anindya Mukhopadhyay

As an ardent reader of Yeats's poems and admirer of his "system" and style, ‘Phoenix' is inspired from Yeats's ‘A Dialogue of Self and Soul', though in no way plagiarized. The poem is not in dialectic form as of Yeats's. The speakers are passive too.

‘Phoenix' is an original work that presents the eternal conflict between Self and Soul and the constant dilemma of a common man as to which of them should be preferred or have precedence over the other.

Detached from the body the soul may have no existence, so the individual cannot do without either but choose to balance between both: ‘with His help and belief in Self/I rise up' the poet concludes.

The poem portrays frantic effort of every distressed human to survive the battle between his sensuality and spirituality that tears asunder his heart. His agonizing cry to ascend to Heaven from the depths of Hell leaves us all in tears. The symbol of ‘Phoenix' is highly suggestive in this context.

Readers, please feel free to comment on the poem. Your comments and feedbacks are most welcome.