Abstract

Of personality theories, one of the major traits is introversion which makes people self-oriented. Introverts are more focused on their emotions, thoughts and moods. The present paper examines the reflection of Jung’s concept of personality theory in the poetry of John Keats and Faiz Ahmad Faiz; the major romantic poets of two diverse literary traditions. Both poets are primarily concerned with the feelings and sentiments of self; their works, thereby, manifest their personal life and emotional status. Carl Jung, the significant contributor to the field of psychology, distributes the human personality into two spheres i.e. ‘Introvert’ and ‘Extrovert’. Each type of human personality is further divided into four functions such as ‘thinking’, ‘feeling’, ‘sensation’ and ‘intuition’. The focus of this study is on the three functions of Introvert i.e. ‘thinking’, ‘feeling’ and ‘sensation’. By means of objects of beauty which are expressed through signs and symbols. Both poets construct a similar world of imagination.

Key Words

Beauty, Faiz, Introversion, Keats, Symbols

Introduction

The present paper consists of the analysis of the poems of two famous romantic poets of diverse cultural background: John Keats, the English poet and Faiz Ahmad Faiz, the Urdu Poet, based on the psychoanalytic theory of Carl Jung. Although the works of these poets have been studied and analyzed in several dimensions, this paper presents a new aspect of their poems: ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ by John Keats and ‘Poetry’s Theme’ Mauzoo-e-Sukhan by Faiz Ahmad Faiz, with reference to Carl Jung’s definitions of three functions of ‘Introversion’: ‘thinking’, ‘feeling’ and ‘sensation’ in order to uncover the meanings, feelings, sentiments and their state of mind to beauty at the time of writing poems. Furthermore, this study intends to discover the similarities in the life and work of these two poets. According to Carl Jung’s personality Theory, human attitude consists of two opposite psyches i.e. ‘Extrovert’ and ‘Introvert’, each is further categorised into four functions such as ‘Thinking’, ‘Feeling’, ‘Sensing’ and ‘Intuition’. The focus of this study is on ‘Introversion’ and its three functions i.e. ‘Thinking’, ‘Feeling’ and ‘Sensing’. For Jung an introvert is the one whose interest:

does not move towards the object but withdraws from it into the subject. Everyone, whose attitude is introverted, thinks, feels, and acts in a way that clearly demonstrates that the subject is the prime motivating factor and that the object is of secondary importance. Introversion may be intellectual or emotional, just as it can be characterized by sensation or intuition. (Jung, 1923, p. 453)

An introvert encounters the realities of the external world with his own defensive system which is compounded of his own knowledge, carefulness, cautiousness, painful conscientiousness and politeness. In such case, the psychological reaction between the subjective factor of an introvert and the objects of external world consolidate to form a new psychic datum. The battle between two opposite worlds prompts the imagination of the introvert to contrive a new world. Such subjective approach prompts them to create their own ways of life which on the one hand, apparently, reflects the experience of this world and on the other hand, projects their inner state of mind. By constructing the ideology of this kind, they primarily intend to seek ecstasy out of the monotony and tedium of life.

The first two functions i.e. thinking and feeling, the response of the introvert remains same. The only difference exists in its role: in the case of thinking, everything is thought whereas in the process of feeling, everything is felt. The phenomenon of both the functions is oriented by the internal image rather than the external facts. This process is interconnected with the sensing order; 

the third function of Jung’s personality order. In the case of third function which is known ‘Sensation’, the attitude of an introvert primarily rests on the subjective component of perception. Sensation in its compounded form: ‘sense impression’ and ‘sense perception’ conflated with the feeling and thinking stimulates the imaginative power of an introvert.

In the discussion section, ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ by Keats and ‘The Theme of Poetry’ by Faiz, is analysed with regard to Jung’s concept of Personality Theory: the three order of Introversion i.e. ‘feeling’, ‘thinking’ and ‘sensation’. Both the poets, in matter of love, are parted from their beloved which leave a gloomy impact on their psyche. Through the objects of nature and art they not only express their feelings of union but also admire the beauty of their beloved which give them unending peace of mind.

Discussion

Poetry of Keats, like the work of the other poets of the romantic movement, to a great deal reflects his personal feelings. However, for Keats, the sense of beauty overrides every other consideration. The poetic tenet of keats rests in the idea that poetry and art should be the source to make an appeal to the senses in evolving the impression of beauty, loveliness and exquisiteness so as to feed the faculities of the storm-hurled man exhausted by the fever and fret of the real world. Sensation, to Keats, is preferable and important condition. By means of sensation, on the one hand, he comes into communion with the canon of beauty and, on the other hand, tries to dwindle his aloofness which is induced by relational upset.

Keats, owing to one after other miseries, also wants to get escape from the pains and sufferings of real world. He believes in the fact that imagination is not an image-making ability rather than a faculty that consists of the features of passionate awareness of sensation. The elements of external world such as, the manifestation of nature, the work of art, signs etc. put a significant effect in stimulating the feelings of an introvert in order to give joy. These elements, both from nature and art are the chief supplier for the invocation of the poet: with introvert nature, to prompt the sensuous ability to explore the space for console and ease. The “Urn” is also one such enchanting piece of ancient art on which the image of some beautiful creatures is carved. The ‘Urn’, though is an object which is carved with a beautiful scenery, puts a far-reaching impact on the poet. ‘The Urn’ gives him imaginary accompaniment in order to taper off his state of introversion. He subjectifies the various objects to express his desperate desires. The transi toriness and fleetingness of external world makes the poet gloomy, sad and unsociable. It is the death of his akin which first culminates into the effect of stringent irony and later on into the dissociality, engrosses in his mind and develops the subjectivity to consider the object, with motionless life, as the source of eternity and ethereality. Keats feels himself attached with the eternal life on the Urn which is acquainted with a pair of antinomies and suggests the paradox of art: movement and stillness, fleetingness and eternity, personal and impersonal, and is not distinguished from ode to a Nightingale in so far as the theme and the experience of beauty is concerned. The melodic song of the bird and the garnished image on the vase, a piece of marble, stimulate his subjectivity. It is his beauty of mind or in other words, his desire for the dream life which enables him to visualise the immortal life on the object as a source of joy. In the “Ode on a Grecian Urn” the poet relates the optic and auditory senses with the legendary tale of Greek gods and men running after an unwilling virgin amid of beautiful music. The invocation of lasting pleasure in the song of the bird and in the music of a young man; playing a pipe, on the vase evokes a sense in the poet that the world of imagination and art is perfect where the beauty of any kind, that gives him joy and peace, is unshaded.

 

Text

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,

Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:

Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave

Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;

Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,

Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;

She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,

For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair

                                          (Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, 1819).

 

As Jung (1923) states that an introvert is the one whose interest does not move towards the object but withdraws from it into the subject. The poet, through the inscribed scene of life on the painted vase demonstrates his inner state. On the vase, the compounded feelings-driven aspects of the beauty of art: the song of a young man and the tender love-making scene of the lover, bear an inciting and magical effect on him to ride into the world of fantasy. Keats, in the aforesaid lines, through his keen sensations depicts an unravished world, fully ideal and contrastive to the reality. On the urn, the undying melodious music of the piper leaves a perpetual spell to enthral the poet to admire the mortality of art, along with this, it also drives the poet out from his constrained life to the ideal colourful and happy life. For the poet, the music becomes the food of love and its lasting tone flares up the imagination of ecstasy of his own passionate and warm love sentiments. 

The third function of the theory of personality type is known as ‘Sensation’. In this function, the attitude of an introvert primarily rests on the subjective component of perception. He visualizes the outer fact with the lens of his mind. In other words, an introvert interprets the external realities with reference to his internal state. In such condition the sensing subject is preferred over sensed object. The writers, more specifically the poets in this regard, because of their unique sensitivity, blow a chill grip spirit in their writings through the quality of expressions which are oriented from the objects. The development of artistic sensibility and imagination of the poet in the following lines reflects a corresponding phenomenon. He considers the image as according to his own state of mind while establishing a concept of freshness of youth, warmth of love and the truth of beauty through art. Though cold and still, yet warm and moving life on Urn is perpetual. The colourful and joyous scenery on the piece of art is fresh and unchanging in the middle of sorrows, grieves and pains of real life. 

 

Text

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede 
Of marble men and maidens overwrought, 
With forest branches and the trodden weed; 
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought 
As doth eternity. Cold Pastoral! 
When old age shall this generation waste, 
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe 
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st, 
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty"---that is all 
 Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

(Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, 1819).

 

In so far as to demonstrate the beauty of the youth, in the aforementioned stanza, Keats visualizes the perfect glory of Hellenic art. The word “Attic shape” and “Fair attitude” on the one hand project the idea of the distinctive Greek appearance which raptures the sensations of the poet when he looks at the engraved images of men and women amid the fresh grass, forest branches and trodden weeds, however, on the other hand, it brings forth his   These lines also reveal the subjectivity or the state of the poet’s mind towards the ancient Greek art which is in quest of joy so as to forget his own sorrows. His comparison of mental image of art with real world tends him to conquer the bitter and harsh realities of the world of day-to-day and the fast vanishing beauty of youth for a moment. Although the image on the Urn is static and motionless, yet it is the sensing subject of the poet which blows a spirit in the sensed object i.e. stationary scenery in order to make it livelier than the life in real world. To him, even when old age ultimately ends the life, the ornated and happy existence of the world of art remains forever. The carved scene of pastoral world on the urn on the one hand suggests the idea of stillness in a fit of jealousy on the other hand; he describes it pure and peaceful like the simple life of the countryside. Thus, the empyreal portraiture on the urn intensely magnifies the sensual appeal of the poet to estimate the truth of beauty of art which is the source of joy to reprieve him from the wrecked life.            

Faiz, likewise Keats, is also regarded as the poet of beauty and love. His concept of beauty designates the idea of Ghalib whose words are quoted by Majeed in the book Culture and Identity: Selected English Writings of Faiz that life is but the representation of harmony among the elements. He prolongs and relates the conception of Ghalib on life with beauty while saying that “beauty, as its prime attribute--- a harmony, a symmetry, an equilibrium or whatever the name one may give it, in its formal composition” (p. 127). He further goes on to say that phenomenal beauty does not mean the orderliness of something but it may be in human face or in his physique, in landscape, in the night decorated with stars, moon and galaxies, in the music, in the work of an artist, in jewellery of any kind and much more. All that is beautiful surely brings pleasure whoever experiences whatever. It neither creates amazement, nor tension, nor any complication. It is otherwise a source of joy and relaxation. In the words of Bacon, quoted by Majeed in the same book, that “there is no excellent beauty which hath not some strangeness in the proportion” (p. 127). Here, the word strangeness does not mean anything out of understanding ability, but in it, there is a magical impact that soars imagination and the subjectivity of the poet through the interference of external objects. Thus, beauty of anything, more particularly beauty of women stirs the feelings and thinking of the poet. At one point, Faiz himself acknowledges the fact that whatever at the first glance is perceived through sensory organs is certainly the “beauty of the face or figure of the person” (p. 128).  His first published collection, Naqsh-e-Faryaadi (The Lamenting Image), begins with the typical musings of a young poet on love, beauty, loss and the beloved’s tolerance.

According to Jung’s concept of ‘feeling’ and ‘thinking’: the two functions of personality theory, an introvert constructs his own world. He fosters an imaginary kingdom in which he makes all the activities of life possible. Although an introvert is secluded and cut off from society, yet his constructed world of imagination provides all the charms of real life. For this purpose, the objects of external world are presented subjectively. In the poem, ‘Poetry’s Theme’ the poet also employs the various objects of nature such as ‘reddish twilight’, ‘moon’, ‘night’ etc. through which he demonstrates the subjectivity of his mind. These objects are both tangible and intangible. As the forlorn poet desires the presence of his graceful lady which is difficult owing to some social and cultural constraints. These evidences of nature not only evoke the emotions of the poet to demonstrate the beauty of his beloved but his accompaniment with these objects also give him a consoling effect. His sensations; stirred by feeling and thinking, evoke his emotional state which results in the form of strong aesthetic expressions.

 

Transliteration	Translation
Gul hoi jati hy afsurda sulagti hui sham	Twilight is burning out and turning chill,
Dhulke nikley gi abi chashma-e-mahtab sy raat	Night comes fresh-bathed from where the moon’s spring flows;
Aur mushtaq nigahon ki suni jaye gi	And now- these eager eyes shall have their will,

 

In the aforesaid lines, the poet expresses his state of mind through the manifestations of nature. The gloomy evening in progression of secluded day reflects the sad mood of the poet. However, the proceeding line which embeds the expression of ‘moon’s spring flows’ presents a sign of relief. In addition to this, the redness of evening that marks the transitional point between the sorrowful day and hopeful night shows the poet’s dyadic state of mind. The day symbolises active life, but for the poet it goes passive owing to his lonesomeness. At night, in the company of moon and her soft and cool beams, the poet overrides the grief of his loneliness. Assuredly, for the poet, the evening marks a point of intersection amid hope and hopelessness, acquaintanceship and friendlessness, unhappiness and happiness and accompaniment and seclusion. It also spurs the emotion of the poet as he thinks and feels the presence of his beloved in the brilliant radiance of the moon. According to the concept of Jung, for an introvert, the sensing object acts itself as a stimulating force which instigate the subjectivity of the particular person. In the above given lines, though the employed evidences of nature appear similar to everyone, yet an introvert considers it as according to his own state of mind. It is therefore, the night and the appearance of moon are accounted as healing power which draws down his feelings of loneliness. The poet believes that the silvery brightness of the moon is in fact the majestic grace and beauty of his beloved which quench the thirst of his eyes when in time of no seeing.  

The temporal manifestations: ‘evening’ and ‘night’ and spatial object i.e. moon, agitate the poet’s volcano of emotions and he takes a flight on the wings of lucrative, emotive and rhetoric expressions into a dream world where he delineates the idealized posture of his beloved. He, in the following lines, in order to reduce the pain of separation, connects his desolated feelings through sensory images which allure his sensations. His sense of sight empowers his subjectivity which results to reveal his state of mind towards his beloved in his poetry. Sharp mentions in his book Personality Types: Jung’s Model of Typology that introverted sensation types, if they are creative artists, have a facility for bringing a scene to life in painting or in writing (p. 79) 

                                                             

Transliteration	Translation
Unka anchal hai, ke rukhsar, ke pairhan hy	Is that her fringed veil, is it her face, her dress
Kuch toh hy jis sy-se hui jati hy chilman Rangeen	Behind the hanging gauze, that makes it glow
Jany us zulf ki mauhum ghani chha’on mn	And in the vague mist of that rippling tress
Wohi khwabeeda si ankhen, vohi kajal ki lakeer	Those pencilled lids, those languorous eyes, again
Rang-e-rukhsar pe halka sa vo ghaze ka Ghubaar	Dusted with that faint powder, her pink cheek,
Sandali hath pe dhundli si hina ki tabeer	On her pale hand the henna’s delicate stain.

                                                                   (tr. Kiernan, Poetry’s Theme, 1943).

By considering the personality characteristics of an introvert which include ‘feeling’, ‘thinking’ and ‘sensation’ there is no denying that the subjectivity of a particular person remains regnanting. The aforementioned lines reflect the sharp subjective state of the poet which grant more value not only to the different signs such as: ‘vague mist of that rippling tress’, ‘her fringed veil, her dress make the hanging gauze glow’, but also endows a magnificent grace to his beloved. The poet relinquishes his seclusion by going into the world of imagination where he glorifies the distinctive beauty in order to forget the pain of forlornity. His thinking, in the state of lonesomeness, provides him the moments of blissfulness and peace as he feels himself in the companionship of his beloved through sensory images. By doing so, he also disdains the tormenting aloofness. The above stated lines not only demonstrate the paramount beauty of the beloved but the monologic expressions also reveal the poet’s state of introversion. In addition to this, the contrastive co-existence of the expressions of beauty and loneliness also bring out the cyclothymic state of the poet. In other words, the expressions of beauty which give soothing effect are the emollient to meliorate the pangs of seclusion.        

Conclusion

Based on the discussion, it is concluded that Keats and Faiz are the poets of two geographically, historically and culturally different countries, yet they share the similar psychic state through poetry. By considering Jung’s three functions of personality theory i.e. ‘feeling’, ‘thinking’ and ‘sensation’, this study concludes that the two poets owing to the hard and overbearing realities and their struggle for companionship through poetry. Both Keats and Faiz, through poetry bridge up the gap of apartness in love. The disunion with the beloved and its gloomy and sorrowful effects on their mind are repaired through the various objects. In other words, these objects give them emotional satisfaction as on the one hand, they nourish their thought and on the other hand, provide them with the sense of union. Though these objects explain their feelings, yet their imaginations remain too subjective. In these sensory images, they feel the presence sign of their beloved. The poetic expressions impregnated with the various objects propel the thinking of the poets towards their beloved with consoling consequences. Furthermore, these objects in the form of expressions, signs and symbols increase their passionate association. It is therefore: as according to the concept of Jung that an introvert brings a scene to life in painting and writing, both the poets through these evidences achieve closeness to their dearly loved persons.      

References

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