Mysticism in Ghani Khan and William Blake's Poetry: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Mysticism refers to the attainment of insight into the ultimate or hidden truths and into the transformation of the human psyche from a superficial thinking and cognition to a much deeper view of the world and occurrences around us. Mysticism is an abundant theme in most of the poetry that exists, be it oriental or occidental literature. The current research has focused on the comparative study of Ghani Khan and William Blake’s poetry with respect to their mystic perceptions on divine love, human nature and beauty. Through the comparative study of the poems of the eastern poet Khan Abdul Ghani Khan and the western poet William Blake, the present research highlights mysticism as a prominent theme in the literary genre of poetry regardless of any distinction of geographical, social, cultural and religious boundaries. the present research is a comparative study and is conducted by thorough textual and thematic analysis of the selected poems of the two mystic poets with the aim to explore the theme of mysticism and all the aspects of their poetry which are them summed around the elements of mysticism. The present study has attempted to highlight the similarities and the contradictions in the poetry of the two poets in their usage and approach towards the themes surrounding mysticism. Findings reveal that poetry of both the poets is replete with mystic elements, and the themes of divine love, beauty and human nature, but both the poets’ treatment of these are quite different. Ghani khan’s poetry carries a casual air and his language usage around the theme of mysticism is quite light-hearted, simple, casual and sincere. On the other hand, William Blake’s language around the theme of mysticism is a bit difficult to interpret, and the elements through which mysticism shows through his poetry are also quite different from those of Ghani khan. Where Ghani khan sees the manifestation of God through human beauty, William Blake sees divinity through wrath and passion in the feelings of animate objects like human and animals. This study can help to further develop literary researchers’ insights and help them to identify themes in much more depth and with much more criticality.

Key words: Mysticism, Divine Love, Beauty, God’s Reflection And Human Nature.