Of a Questionable Conviction by Jayanta Mahapatra Analysis

Jayanta Mahapatra -poet

This is a man who talks of pain
As if it belonged to him alone
Maybe he has invented it himself
And made virtue of it
Maybe he is a poet
For hours he waits
In the night, taoward another night he waits
For that is his excuse to live
The empty window in the lonely wall belongs to him
For months together the window has been deceiving him
Light comes in, then goes away on its own
He has been trying to polish the light on his heart
They all say he was a poet
His eyes saw the pain in the mirror that occupied him
They don't grudge him that:
Such a harmless pastime never ruined anybody's sleep

Analysis
Why are poets so mysterious? Is that a set-up? Do they pretend to be elusive to derive sympathy and admiration from their readers and well-wishers. Or are they the real sufferers-whose pain is often misconstrued as a means to manipulate people's emotions owing to the fact that poetry with a tragic backdrop is one subject for which they receive good attention and money? Do poets not create pain in their lives, especially psychologically, and claim to suffer pangs of pain and unbearable depression as though the world was nearing its end? So why did Poet Jayanta Mahapatra come up with this poem that justifies the actual pain of poets mostly misunderstood by the materialistic world? It's because as a poet he himself has written profoundly emotional poems demanding a greater philosophical depth from its readers. Unfortunately, a considerable section of the mortals is letting his poetic spirit down, and calling every poet sentimental and fake.
In the poem, Jayanta Mahapatra writes that the poet takes much pain in dedicating his life for an inmortal creation, poetry. He willingly accepts the strenuous job even though writing poetry as a profession yields no output. It is a pain he has been embracing for a long time, because producing poetry is the only activity that brings happiness to him. For the poet, creativity is something he thrives on, without it he is a nonentity, so although thinking and coming up with ideas for a poem is a punishing process that leaves him lonely and unwanted as people find him unreasonable and weird, he writes poetry and falls in love with
it. Throughout his hardship, the poet waits for any inspiration for a new poem. But there is not a single satisfactory idea and it leads him to wait for days together for just a good subject to write on.
The poet has a miserable living. He is most likely poor and uncared for as the brutally materialistic world is not interested in investing their time and money in reading his poems. But poetry is the poet's only excuse to live. His life is never better than when he writes poems. So he waits for inspiration for his upcoming poem even longer, like several months.
The poet is lonely and sad, in the poem, the lonely wall and the empty window all signify the his sadness. It is true that a poet's inspiration is his only companion. However in the poem, this only companion of the poet is absent. Although he yearns for inspiration and looks through the door for it to show its light, it seems it has been deceiving him time and again. But, when finally his companion (his inspiration) shows its light (the magic of creativity), the poet feels enlightened and tries to polish the rough idea of the subject he is about to write.
In the last stanza, Jayanta Mohapatra sheds light on the ignorant and callous reaction of common people, when they hear of the poet's death. Let us be clear that the line 'They all say he was a poet' is quite evident of the fact that the poet the we were initially talking about has now( in the last stanza) passed. He has lived a painful, wretched life leading to his death and also looked in the mirror to find that poverty enveloped him and his body also made for a miserable sight. But after his death, all that 'they' say is 'he was a poet'. It is apparently a careless remark passed by the unappreciative and materialistic people.
For the people, the literary inclination of the poet just made no difference to them. They didn't complain about his poems because those were not thrusted on them by the poet. Those poems and the poet could just be conveniently ignored.

*Do you feel the same way as Jayanta Mohapatra about poets, or do you feel writers, and poets are overrated and their so-called sacrifice glorified? Let me know in the comments!
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