83
satisfaction and delight. Thus the mind is ob-
liged to give its conception some concrete form,
however ethereal it may be. Though this ten-
dency may be called Platonic in one of its aspects,
yet it is a mystical religious tendency and a half-
way stage in the spirit's progress. In interpret-
ing poetry that attempts to embody such as-
pirations we have to seek for something beyond
the imagery which is employed as a mere acces-
sory. If we fail to do this, we miss its true signi-
ficance/' This, I think, lays down a correct
rule for judging such poetry as his Sonnets of
1918—which superficial readers may easily mis-
take for ordinary love poetry, missing the mystical
soaring spirit, reminiscent of Plato and Dante
and Michael Angelo and Hafiz.
I do not profess to be a critic, but I think
Nizamat Jung's verse reveals a remarkable gift.
He is able to express great thoughts in a few
simple words arranged in a lucid and melodious
combination. His Sonnets have " the consoling
quiet of Classic utterance," as Professor Speight
once said, "and they are as transparent in their
thought and feeling as the best French poetry—
lovely groupings of simple words such as Shakes-
peare and Heine and even Browning fall back
upon in their supreme moments.'*
Among his occasional poems, there was one,
India to England which became famous in 1914.
As I have said before, it was published in The
London Times on the day the Indian troops landed
at Marseilles. A friend of Nizamat Jung, who