KASHMIR UNIVERSITY | DOWNLOAD 5th SEM ENGLISH STUDY MATERIAL
Unit 1
Postcard from Kashmir (Agha Shahid Ali)
About the Poet: - Agha Shahid Ali was born in New Delhi on February 4, 1949. He grew up in Kashmir and was educated at the University of Kashmir, Srinagar and later University of Delhi. He earned his Ph.d from Pennsylvania state University in 1984, and an MFA from the university of Arizona in 1985. Shahid moved to the United States in 1976. Agha Shahid immortalized his homeland in his poetry. He transformed the nature of English poetry to accommodate his original and authentic attitude towards language and subject matter. As a diasporic writer, Kashmir, haunts the poet’s imagination and Shahid resurrects a poetic image of the Far-away home land that characterizes the Kashmir of 1990s.
The Poetry Collections of Agha Shahid include Call Me Ishmail Tonight: A Book of Ghazals, Rooms are never finished, the Country Without a Post Office, the Beleoved Witness, A Nostalgist’s Map of
America, the Half Inch Himalayas, etc.
Shahid held teaching positions at the University of Delhi, Penn State, Princeton University,
Hamilton College Baruch College, University of Utah, and Warren Wilson College. Agha Shahid Ali died
on December 8, 2011 of brain cancer.
Introduction: The Poem ‘Postcard from Kashmir’ presents the poets’ nostalgic feelings about his
homeland. His homeland haunts his imagination and he longs to feeL and Talk about it in this poem. The
poem is introductory poem of his anthology tilted “Half inch Himalayas. Though the poem has 14 lines but cannot be categorized as a sonnet as it lacks the stanza structure, metre and rhyme pivotal to the sonnets.
Summary: - The speaker in the poem describes his feelings after receiving a postcard from his native land-
Kashmir, a region of Indian subcontinent. The postcard contains a photograph of Kashmir-a place the
speaker still considers his home. This four by six-inch photograph, is looked at with love by the speaker,
who is geographically, distant from Kashmir and lives in one of western countries.
The speaker claims that he always loved neatness- a trait that was typical of Kashmir of his
childhood days. But, the irony of the fact is expressed by his claim that he holds the half inch Himalayas in
his hand now. The enormous and massive mountain range is reduced to a small, tidy picture undesired by
the poet.
The most ambiguous line of the poem is “this is home” which either can mean the poet’s inability
to leave the place where he lives and has compromised it for his homeland. It is glaringly clear that the ultimate aim of the poem is to express the poet’s unbounded patriotic
love to Kashmir, the place he is proud to call home.
Textual Questions
(A) How has Kashmir ‘shrunk’ into the poet’s mailbox?
Ans: The poet, actually receives a mail with a photograph of his home land called Kashmir. Being,
geographically distant, he is overwhelmed by the photograph of the land he cherishes and wishes to return. Moreover, he wishes to return. Moreover, the short and small photograph cannot represent a region which is massive in area. He is not certain whether he can ever return to his native land and claims that this is home- Which either can mean that he has to satisfy himself with photograph only or the foreign place, which he has compromised into his home now.
(B) Explain the ironic effect of the line “Now I hold the half. Inch Himalayas in my hand”.
Ans: Agha Shahid in many of his poems describes his nostalgic feelings about his homeland. The
childhood memories of his native land are in his mind and he tries to imprint them while looking at the photograph received by him through a postcard. He expects Kashmir to be same neat and clean but the lost beauty of his dreamland can be traced from the line:” Now I hold half inch Himalayas in my hand”, the half inch Himalayas are Ironical to the extreme that the vast and massive geographic area has shrunk and lost is neat and clean attitude. In addition, Irony of not ever returning to the birth place finds a poor substitute in four by six-inch post card with a photograph in it.
(C) Why does the poet use the word ‘over exposed while describing his love for Kashmir?
Ans: The photograph of the native land received through a postcard has been symbolically used by
the poet. The photograph presents a micro picture of the land, he cherishes and desires to return.
At the same time, the poet feels it impossible to leave the place he works. So, the running
ultramarine waters of Jehlum, the massive mountain range of Himalayas make the poets’ love for
this land over exposed. The irreducible gap between reality and aspiration make the poet
overemotional and he cherished the photograph that works a link between the land he can’t return and he land he cherishes. The poet even vaguely contrasts the beauty and brilliance of the cherished homeland with the Kashmir he might visit in future.
Q. Why is Kashmir compared to a gaint negative, black and white skill undeveloped at the end
of poem?
Ans: The speaker of poem assumes that the real sights of Kashmir will be different that the images of the native land formed during the poet’s childhood. Living in a distant land he is not sure about the current beauty and atmosphere of his native land. The photograph presents a poor substitute for the same the words gaint negative black and white still under developed present the contrast between the actual beauty of the land and the scenic view in the photograph. It can never carry the same spirit and brilliance of the land. Since his native land is divided between India Pakistan and China, the place never can develop properly. In short, the photograph fails to satiate the poet’s love for his homeland.
2. How does the poet’s sense of nostalgia get reflected in the poem?
Agha Shahid Ali spent his childhood in Kashmir. After early education he moved to Delhi and then to the U.S for further education. While making career by teaching in the U.S, he often wrote poems depicting the beauty, love and brilliance of his home.
Among many anthologies the Half Inch Himalayas also deals with poet’s nostalgic feelings about the land to which he feels impossible to return.
Living in a Foreign land, the poet once receives a post card from Kashmir. He believes that his homeland too has metaphorically shrunk to the post card. As his homeland is really divided between three countries, he claims that he holds the half inch Himalayas in his hand. The poet also compares the homeland he knows with that he might encounter once he returns. He claims: “When I return the colors won’t be so brilliant” The longing for the homeland is profound but the chances of his return are dim. Looking at the Photographs he claims “this is home”, but some critics believe that the time is ambiguous and can also mean that the place of his current dwelling is his home. The poet even talks of ultramarine waters of Jehlum. The contrast between the land of his dreams and actual land of Kashmir is expressed through the line “And my memory
will be out of focus”.
In short, the ultimate aim of the poem is to project the poet’s nostalgic feelings for his homeland
and same has been done aptly.
Q.2: Explain the various poetic techniques that the poet uses to emphasis the beauty of his
homeland?
Ans: Like T.S Eliot, Agha Shahid experimented with the diction, metre and over all structure of his
poems frequently. Agha shahid not only introduced Ghazal genre in English, But brought
innovations in translation world. The poem in question Post Card from Kashmir is fine example of experimentation with poetic techniques to get the desired aims.
The poem comprises of 14 lines but cannot be called a sonnet since, it lacks both the content and
form of traditional sonnets. There is no fixed stanza structure, metre and rhyme pre requisite of
traditional sonnets.
Irony has been employed in this poem tilted Post Card from Kashmir, the word home either can
mean Kashmir and the U.S where the poet presently resides.
The speaker mention that he is a great lover of neatness. The irony is found in the fact that he can now hold
half inch Himalayas in his hand. The massive and enormous mountain range reducing to half inch
Himalayas, surely brings Irony with it. It signifies that one of the most impressive aspects of his home land
has been shrunk and made to see far less unimpressive and insignificant. Although the post card lies in the
speakers hand he has lost touch with the very reality of his homeland. The techniques of ambiguity is also
used in the poem. The most intriguing line is “This is home” which either can be the place depicted in the
photograph “or” the place where he currently resides. The line emphasis the fact that the poet is unable to return to his native land.
There is ambiguity towards the end of the poem, as the poet reveals that he is out of focus and believes the giant negative she lies under developed.
