The Seven-Eighth of the Iceberg: Oblique Expression in the Poetry of A. K. Ramanujan

Abstract

Imagination emerges from a more profound source than intellect, and so does poetry than prose. A poem is a symbolic account written in such a language and form that the surface meaning is just a small portion of the whole or oblique meaning. It generally has condensed language yet deeper layers of meaning. Though the mode of expression is the concrete language, it spring out from inexplicable sources concealed beneath layers of the rational mind. Poetry, therefore, is a manifestation of the conflict of the poet’s personal vision with the external world, which has more meaning hidden below the visible than on the surface. Thus, this obliqueness of expression or implicitness of meaning in poetry is associated to an iceberg that has only ten per cent of the mass visible above water, whereas the rest of the ninety per cent remains submerged below. But it is the hidden larger part that is affected by the ocean currents and that decides the behavior of the iceberg at the tip. This paper attempts to analyze the Iceberg Technique used by A. K. Ramanujan in his poetic expression.