MISCELLANEA

THE ORIENTAL MYSTIQUE: a sonnet

THE ORIENTAL MYSTIQUE: a sonnet


What, after all, is the Eastern mystique?
What mental images does the East bring?
Is it the black magic and the rope trick?
Is it the elephant or jungle king?

Is it the half -clad monk with shaven head?
Women in veil, too shy to show their face?
The child who starves simply for lack of bread?
Queens attired in pure silk and golden lace?

All this is East but in reality,
A way of life it is, cultural prism,
That’s steeped deep in spirituality,
Away from outward materialism.

That East is East and West is West was said
By Kipling who had been in the West bred.



NOTE: Rudyard Kipling wrote in his The Ballad of the East and West--
“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet”



' Related poems:

"EAST IS EAST AND WEST IS WEST" 
"WHEN I THINK OF ENGLAND" 


M C Gupta
6 May 2006