Smita Padmnabhan’s The Seedling
Gifted with rare acumen in Hindi, English and Tamil literature, Smita Padmnabhan is an unpublished poet with Doctorate on the short stories of the noted woman poet- Kamala Das from the University of Jabalpur. Presently she is teaching in Dubai and is continuously striving for excellence in creative writing (especially poetry). The Seedling is one the most absorbing poems written by her during the years of self exile attributed to a rich number of factors including livelihood and the struggle for widening the horizon for creative ends.
The delicacy of the images and the consequent treatment of theirs is unambiguously the most scintillating aspect of the poem which owes its genesis to the sensory perceptions associated with the objects. The seedlings, if taken a holistic and literary view, refers to the whole process that can be divided into three steps; germination, etiolation and maturation. The title of the poem makes if clear that the whole dynamics of the images revolve around the simple metaphor which figuratively represents not only the delicacy and tenderness of the emotion but the metaphor is textured with the implications of history that offers a sharp contrast to the contemporaneity aptly illustrated through the antithesis pulsating within the matrix of imaged ordered for the purpose.
The opening stanza of the poem elucidates the contrast when the breezing protagonist of the poem standing in pleasant sun, and finds it ‘cool and cozy’ and claims to have ‘fear of none.’
While I stood breezing under the sun
Cool and cozy with the fear of none.
The recklessness of the protagonist soon evaporates when she finds the natives walking up and she overhears what next to be done that completes the cycle of disillusionment and foretells the alarming future. The protagonist overhears;
I heard them say from far away
“It’s time to shift these seedlings away”
They passed their verdict and walked their way
Leaving me wonder all thru the day.
The protagonist’s response to the words of the native is not an immediate retaliation but she is pushed deep into the domain of reflections and recollections. The speaker also endures the agony of the displacement which quite ironically is expressed in the words of the native;
“Off you travel to a new terrain-
Don’t fret or fume for this is the day
Thatz goanna transform your future someday.”
The lines quoted above resolves the complexity of the thematic network of the poem by contriving unification of the speaker and the metaphor and at the same time with the poet. The germination suggested in the first two lines is quickly followed by the etiolation and order of the native ratifies it. The image of the garden structures the archetypal setting that offers a sharp contrast to the process of etilation; the important phase of the whole process. The speaker reminisces;
In the new garden, I got a new place
Next to you was destined my space.
The day, I remember was misty with dew
I know not whether you noticed me too…
The image of the garden draws a close parallel with the garden of Eden and consequently the two characters in the garden remind us of Adam and Eve. There are multiple layers of iron pervading the firmament of poetic experience realized in the galaxy of images. On one hand the speaker ‘got a new place’ in the garden and at the same time she says to the new Adam that ‘next to ‘ him ‘was destined’ her ‘place. The Blakean symbol of dew denoting materialism confirms the transformation inkled earlier and this is the reason why ’the poet is complete unaware of whether the man ‘noticed’ her ‘too.’ The succeeding lines further consolidate the identification of the speaker (and at times poetess) with the seedling;
Frail -tiny, dainty and new …
A tiny little seedling positioned next to you.
The etiolation of the seedling is further intensified in the perception and apprehensions of the speaker. She admits;
You were mighty, tall and strong
And I wondered how I’d stay there long.
The fears of the speaker in the new Eden, suggests a vacuum caused by emotionally parasitological relationship between the speaker and the new Adam. The new Eve, as a
result of the emotional etiolation, is soon reduced to a seedling
Coz he’s gonna show his might
Drop his leaves and stalk along
She will wilt and soon be gone…
And this for sure will not take long.”
The poet in a very subtle manner unifies the scattered implication of the complex images and myths fused into one structural unity. The drain out of the colors, which is symptomatic to etiolation, is further ratified. The maturation of the seedling follows the fall from innocence and ultimate reconciliation with dictates of destiny. The speaker of the poem is nostalgic about her nearness with the new Adam in the new Eden and ‘looked’ him ‘up with a sense of awe.’ The speaker further reveals that she ‘somehow felt happy with’ him in fore.’ The image of seedling with its defining magnificence naturally impart the twist to the conventional love poetry of Classical Indian Tradition and the devotion of the speaker is manifest in tone and mood of the poem. The poet, like Meera, is happy with her parasitical identity of yore and experiences illumination in the dark of etiolation. She admits;
I sensed your strength and presence around
And knew under your cover, will not wilt down.
With all these hopes my fears got thawed
And slowly my arms I stretched around
There were times when came rough tides,
Bringing with it many falls and rise.,
But all through those ups and downs …
You stood besides me strong yet sublime
The lines quoted above aptly reveal the submission of the identity of the self to a larger identity and thus imparts a classical turn to the whole motif. The submission later leads to the merger and consequent unification of the two identity which draws a metaphorical analogue with the life of the seedling manifest in three stages; germination, etiolation and maturation. The poet skillfully maintains the thin ambivalence between two obvious forms of unification. The twin form of realization and consequent unification are fused to one single poetic experience consisting of both the aspects of unification of the two distinct identities manifest and realized simultaneously at physical and spiritual level. The last stanza of the poem confirms the maturation of the seedling and prepares it ‘for the time to shift’ the ‘seedling away.’
And like a shield …
through thunder and lightning
Suns and sands, snows and storms…
You held me on and taught me grow and taught me stay alive.
When times w ere rough and odds in sight
Your support was what braced me through
The poem in its brief ambit enshrines the complex emotions manifest in a number of paradoxical strains often at war with each other but in the larger context terminating at one complex experience realized in cyclic interdependence of the life of a seedling manifest in three stages; germination, etiolation and maturation. The poem in unambiguously a love poem with festive celebration of all the pains and pangs naturally parasitical to the experience of the emotion in the complex set of circumstances. The poetess contrives greater space for the second phase of the life of the seedling which figuratively imparts a classical turn to the latent motif of the verse and shares the experience with the classical concept the love poem as etiolation and devotion in the context knit by the poet becomes synonymous. The technical magnificence of the poem affords and distinct place in the future of the Indian English Poetry as the unique interplay of imagery, symbolism and the use of myth ascertains technical magnificence for the poem and assures the reader of the poetry that would not be a mimicry or parody of English Poetry ( British or American) which Indian English Poetry, unlike Indian English Short Stories and Indian English Novel has hitherto been, though unfortunately.
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