Robert Frost, one of the most prominent American poets in the midst of 20th century, once stated that “literature is a performance in words” (Barnet et al., 1961: 1). The phrase ‘the performance in words’ specifically refers to the real significance of language in the presentation of a literary work. If there is no language there will be absolutely no literature or literary work. Language serves not only as a medium for the work’s existence but also as a work to be called a work of art. Relating to this proposition, a poem or poetry serving as one of literary genres certainly exists because of the language by which the poets or the authors pour out their artistic and creative craftmanship and through which readers can really read, enjoy, and concretize the poets’ ideas and messages as well.
This fact is clearly seen through a new book entitling Distopia: Antologi Puisi Anugerah Seni dan Sastra I Fakultas Ilmu Budaya UGM (2014). There are eighteen poets whose poems are compiled in this book. They, as said by Prof. Faruk in the Epilogue, are still very young yet talented since they were mostly born in 1980s and 1990s (p. 159). Those poets used language artistically, freely, and creatively. In other words, in their hands, language seems to dance and grow up freely following the wildness of their thoughts and emotions. The language, therefore, works out effectivelly in its performance through poems in the book. Due to the performance of language, all of the poems to be called literary works are not merely due to the fact that those are named as poems either by their authors or by the experts, but more essentially those are called so bacause they are able to use the language in peculiar ways, as termed by Eagleton in his book Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983). In this sense, those presented poems are really not in line with what Prof. Pradopo once said in terms of a poem definition, saying that a poem should be performed through a ‘bounded’ language in sense of the amount of lines in a stanza, the amount of words and syllables in each line, the use of fixed rhyme schemes, meters, melody or rhythms and so on. To be more exact, Prof. Pradopo (2007: 5) says namely: “Puisi itu adalah karangan yang terikat oleh (1) banyak baris dalam tiap bait, (2) banyak kata dalam tiap baris; (3) banyak suku kata dalam tiap baris, (3) banyak suku kata dalam tiap baris; (4) rima; dan (5) irama atau ritme.”
On the contrary, all of the poems, in my eyes, do not care or pay attention at all to the uses of all poetic elements as mentioned above so that along with them the poems become poetic. The poems in the book do not follow the definition. It seems to me that the poems have shifted from the previous definition and convention, they have come into a new trend and convention of poetry as it is known as ‘Free Verse’, as Sylvan Barnet coined in his book An Introduction to Literature (1961). To prove it, let us have a look at several performances of the poems such as: Catatan Minggu Pagi Veteran Perang written by Abimardha Kurniawan, Macopat written by Khairul Umam, Musim yang Kembali Berulang Kali written by Ayu Diah Cempaka, Yang Aku Ingat written by La Ode Gusman Nasiru, Puncak Suroloyo written by Latief S. Nugraha, and still many more. Those poems look like to have no poetic elements if we still stand on the definition above. Those are presented in a free form or, in my term, in a narrative-propositive-formed language. In spite of the fact,the authors of all poems have obviously used their ‘Poetic Lisences’ more effectively if we follow Abrams’ concept saying that it is a ‘lisence’ held by any poets in utilizing their liberty upon language to propose any ideas in verse form. They have used the language as a truly tool to communicate what they really think and sense about. Instead, in context of the poetic lisence, the poets even perform a bunch of new and unfamiliar words as dictions for their literary works, such as: distopia, freon, pediangan in Distopia by Dwi Rahariyoso, telembuk in Telembuk by Kedung Darma Romansha, kadi, pangkor, kasmaran, pengegges, panebba, mennyan, labun, rabunan in Mocopat by Khairul Umam, berdiang, termamah, dadung in Lembu Logam, Abimardha kurniawan, mangi-mangi, ketinting, majenun in Agas, Dwi Rahariyoso, bersitatap, ai mak ajang in Catatan Pantai by Iqbal H. Saputra, and still many more.
Furthermore, dealing with the contents of the poems, all poets are presenting various kinds of objects to be discussed in each of their poems. In spite of that fact, the poems are mostly presenting the reality of the human lives and the the poets’ feelings and experiences as well. All poems, in other words, are a truly combination of imitative and expressive aspects altogether. As said by Abrams (1953 and 1957), the imitative (mimesis) theory refers to the fact that a work of art is an imitation, reflection, recreation, and representation of the universe or reality of human’s lives, and the expressive views that a work of art is an expression of the authors’ feelings, sublime thoughts, personal experiences. William Wordsworth, in this sense, even underlines the concept of such expressive theory by saying that poetry is “a spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling” (via Barnet et al., 1961: 4).
In this context, both imitative and expressive aspects take a very pivotal role to the presence and construction of the whole works; that is, through which, the poets show their honest judgments. In short, underlining Retno Iswandari’s statement in Prologue, the poems are actually present as a manifestation of their own “gloominess” (kegelisahan) to the realities they had ever seen and experienced. She said “Puisi senantiasa mengungkapkan kegelisahan penyairnya, baik mengenai dirinya sendiri maupun orang lain. Puisi-puisi dalam antologi ini merupakan sekumpulan kegelisahan orang-orang di sebuah Fakultas Ilmu Budaya” (p. ix). That sort of feeling, in fact, refers to the expressive aspect, whereas the causes of their feelings are the imitative one. Therefore, most of the poems in the book are the presentations of the poets’ dystopias to the ‘dark’ phenomena of their societies. The title of the book, Dystopia, is really in line with themes or contents of all poems. It can be defined as a society which is in some ways undesirable or fightening because it exposes dehumanization, totalitarian governments, environmental disaster, and cataclysmic decline in society.
In the sense of dystopian situations, some poems portray such situations in pessimistic mood, as seen, for instance, in Telembuk by Kedung Darma Romansha, Bunyi by Dwi Rahariyoso, Catatan Pulang by Iqbal H. Saputra, and so on. In Telembuk, Kedung D. Romansha vividly dechipers how a woman, working as a prostitute, does not care about the moral principle of life. Her body is a product and is assumed as like “food” for men, as seen though dictions such as: “menjilati, mengunyahnya, menelanku, melumat” etc. The woman does so because a prostitute is the only way to survive as a human being, and through which she is really positioned as a subordinate, as inferred through the line: “[M]ereka akan kembali mengirimku ke Jakarta” (p. 2). Besides, in Bunyi, Dwi Rahariyoso tends to blame the life mode in urban area. It has indeed made the human beings afar from their nature as human beings. They are positioned as like robots because their lives are directed only for work, as he said through the lines: “Semua seperti arus sungai yang tajam/menyeret ribuan hidup yang hampa ke muara/kerja dan kerja/yang terlahir dari sajad manusia” (p.3). Still in line of context with Dwi Rahariyoso’s poem, Iqbal H. Saputra through his Catatan Pulang criticizes modernization because it has eliminated the tranquility of the rural life and lost the tight of familial relation in his homeland. This happens because of a materialistic view where money is very powerful. Of course, he does not agree with this stuation and he really laments it with his lines: “[S]elangkangan demi rupaih yang makin empedu/demi berhala pemekaran dan pembangunan/karib-saudaraku tumbal ritual kebijakan karib-saudara lainnya” (p. 16).
Unlike those poems above, other poems are presented in optimistic mood, although they are still in disagreement with dystopia. This sense, at least, can be measured from the atmospheres, the objects, and the vocalization of those poems. Some of the works showig such proposition are, for instance, Musim yang Kembali Berulang Kali by Ayu Diah Cempaka, Puncak Suroloyo by Fitriawan Nur Indrianto, Macopat by Khairul Umam, and still many more. In the first poem, in Buddhist concept of reincarnation, Ayu Diah Cempaka seems to directly say that we do not need to stand seriously on any worldy obsession for life is only a repetition of past life, as she said: “Hidup ini hanya mengulang cerita/dirimu hanyalah masa lalu yang hidup kembali dengan nasib yang sama” (p. 8). In this context, she invites us to live in harmony with nature because it can guarantee us a real hapiness and tranquility. Moreover, according to Fitriawan Nur Indrianto in his Puncak Suroloyo (p. 6), the life with nature does not only provide a tranquility or happiness but it also serves as a sort of spiritual way to find out “jati diri” (an essence of selfness). This mode of life has actually been developed by Javanese people. Even, the tradition of Macopat in Javanese society, as described by Khairul Umam in his poem, is directed only to growing up the spitiuality in order to meet an essential meaning of humans’ lives. Once obtaining such condition, one may view a dystopia as an insignificant and ordinary fact of life.
Reading this book, we can finally conclude that a poem is not merely a performance of poetic words, but it really works out more than that i.e. portraying how the humans’ lives and thoughts are. They are, in fact, colorful. The dystopias are served as one color of the life. Portraying such fact does not mean nothing but it shows a bunch of lessons for readers, though. The least lesson shown by the poems in the book is that life is really never flat. Therefore, this book is really recommended to be owned. It is a reflective of life which can then be a tool for us to really understand further how the life should be conducted.
References:
This fact is clearly seen through a new book entitling Distopia: Antologi Puisi Anugerah Seni dan Sastra I Fakultas Ilmu Budaya UGM (2014). There are eighteen poets whose poems are compiled in this book. They, as said by Prof. Faruk in the Epilogue, are still very young yet talented since they were mostly born in 1980s and 1990s (p. 159). Those poets used language artistically, freely, and creatively. In other words, in their hands, language seems to dance and grow up freely following the wildness of their thoughts and emotions. The language, therefore, works out effectivelly in its performance through poems in the book. Due to the performance of language, all of the poems to be called literary works are not merely due to the fact that those are named as poems either by their authors or by the experts, but more essentially those are called so bacause they are able to use the language in peculiar ways, as termed by Eagleton in his book Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983). In this sense, those presented poems are really not in line with what Prof. Pradopo once said in terms of a poem definition, saying that a poem should be performed through a ‘bounded’ language in sense of the amount of lines in a stanza, the amount of words and syllables in each line, the use of fixed rhyme schemes, meters, melody or rhythms and so on. To be more exact, Prof. Pradopo (2007: 5) says namely: “Puisi itu adalah karangan yang terikat oleh (1) banyak baris dalam tiap bait, (2) banyak kata dalam tiap baris; (3) banyak suku kata dalam tiap baris, (3) banyak suku kata dalam tiap baris; (4) rima; dan (5) irama atau ritme.”
On the contrary, all of the poems, in my eyes, do not care or pay attention at all to the uses of all poetic elements as mentioned above so that along with them the poems become poetic. The poems in the book do not follow the definition. It seems to me that the poems have shifted from the previous definition and convention, they have come into a new trend and convention of poetry as it is known as ‘Free Verse’, as Sylvan Barnet coined in his book An Introduction to Literature (1961). To prove it, let us have a look at several performances of the poems such as: Catatan Minggu Pagi Veteran Perang written by Abimardha Kurniawan, Macopat written by Khairul Umam, Musim yang Kembali Berulang Kali written by Ayu Diah Cempaka, Yang Aku Ingat written by La Ode Gusman Nasiru, Puncak Suroloyo written by Latief S. Nugraha, and still many more. Those poems look like to have no poetic elements if we still stand on the definition above. Those are presented in a free form or, in my term, in a narrative-propositive-formed language. In spite of the fact,the authors of all poems have obviously used their ‘Poetic Lisences’ more effectively if we follow Abrams’ concept saying that it is a ‘lisence’ held by any poets in utilizing their liberty upon language to propose any ideas in verse form. They have used the language as a truly tool to communicate what they really think and sense about. Instead, in context of the poetic lisence, the poets even perform a bunch of new and unfamiliar words as dictions for their literary works, such as: distopia, freon, pediangan in Distopia by Dwi Rahariyoso, telembuk in Telembuk by Kedung Darma Romansha, kadi, pangkor, kasmaran, pengegges, panebba, mennyan, labun, rabunan in Mocopat by Khairul Umam, berdiang, termamah, dadung in Lembu Logam, Abimardha kurniawan, mangi-mangi, ketinting, majenun in Agas, Dwi Rahariyoso, bersitatap, ai mak ajang in Catatan Pantai by Iqbal H. Saputra, and still many more.
Furthermore, dealing with the contents of the poems, all poets are presenting various kinds of objects to be discussed in each of their poems. In spite of that fact, the poems are mostly presenting the reality of the human lives and the the poets’ feelings and experiences as well. All poems, in other words, are a truly combination of imitative and expressive aspects altogether. As said by Abrams (1953 and 1957), the imitative (mimesis) theory refers to the fact that a work of art is an imitation, reflection, recreation, and representation of the universe or reality of human’s lives, and the expressive views that a work of art is an expression of the authors’ feelings, sublime thoughts, personal experiences. William Wordsworth, in this sense, even underlines the concept of such expressive theory by saying that poetry is “a spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling” (via Barnet et al., 1961: 4).
In this context, both imitative and expressive aspects take a very pivotal role to the presence and construction of the whole works; that is, through which, the poets show their honest judgments. In short, underlining Retno Iswandari’s statement in Prologue, the poems are actually present as a manifestation of their own “gloominess” (kegelisahan) to the realities they had ever seen and experienced. She said “Puisi senantiasa mengungkapkan kegelisahan penyairnya, baik mengenai dirinya sendiri maupun orang lain. Puisi-puisi dalam antologi ini merupakan sekumpulan kegelisahan orang-orang di sebuah Fakultas Ilmu Budaya” (p. ix). That sort of feeling, in fact, refers to the expressive aspect, whereas the causes of their feelings are the imitative one. Therefore, most of the poems in the book are the presentations of the poets’ dystopias to the ‘dark’ phenomena of their societies. The title of the book, Dystopia, is really in line with themes or contents of all poems. It can be defined as a society which is in some ways undesirable or fightening because it exposes dehumanization, totalitarian governments, environmental disaster, and cataclysmic decline in society.
In the sense of dystopian situations, some poems portray such situations in pessimistic mood, as seen, for instance, in Telembuk by Kedung Darma Romansha, Bunyi by Dwi Rahariyoso, Catatan Pulang by Iqbal H. Saputra, and so on. In Telembuk, Kedung D. Romansha vividly dechipers how a woman, working as a prostitute, does not care about the moral principle of life. Her body is a product and is assumed as like “food” for men, as seen though dictions such as: “menjilati, mengunyahnya, menelanku, melumat” etc. The woman does so because a prostitute is the only way to survive as a human being, and through which she is really positioned as a subordinate, as inferred through the line: “[M]ereka akan kembali mengirimku ke Jakarta” (p. 2). Besides, in Bunyi, Dwi Rahariyoso tends to blame the life mode in urban area. It has indeed made the human beings afar from their nature as human beings. They are positioned as like robots because their lives are directed only for work, as he said through the lines: “Semua seperti arus sungai yang tajam/menyeret ribuan hidup yang hampa ke muara/kerja dan kerja/yang terlahir dari sajad manusia” (p.3). Still in line of context with Dwi Rahariyoso’s poem, Iqbal H. Saputra through his Catatan Pulang criticizes modernization because it has eliminated the tranquility of the rural life and lost the tight of familial relation in his homeland. This happens because of a materialistic view where money is very powerful. Of course, he does not agree with this stuation and he really laments it with his lines: “[S]elangkangan demi rupaih yang makin empedu/demi berhala pemekaran dan pembangunan/karib-saudaraku tumbal ritual kebijakan karib-saudara lainnya” (p. 16).
Unlike those poems above, other poems are presented in optimistic mood, although they are still in disagreement with dystopia. This sense, at least, can be measured from the atmospheres, the objects, and the vocalization of those poems. Some of the works showig such proposition are, for instance, Musim yang Kembali Berulang Kali by Ayu Diah Cempaka, Puncak Suroloyo by Fitriawan Nur Indrianto, Macopat by Khairul Umam, and still many more. In the first poem, in Buddhist concept of reincarnation, Ayu Diah Cempaka seems to directly say that we do not need to stand seriously on any worldy obsession for life is only a repetition of past life, as she said: “Hidup ini hanya mengulang cerita/dirimu hanyalah masa lalu yang hidup kembali dengan nasib yang sama” (p. 8). In this context, she invites us to live in harmony with nature because it can guarantee us a real hapiness and tranquility. Moreover, according to Fitriawan Nur Indrianto in his Puncak Suroloyo (p. 6), the life with nature does not only provide a tranquility or happiness but it also serves as a sort of spiritual way to find out “jati diri” (an essence of selfness). This mode of life has actually been developed by Javanese people. Even, the tradition of Macopat in Javanese society, as described by Khairul Umam in his poem, is directed only to growing up the spitiuality in order to meet an essential meaning of humans’ lives. Once obtaining such condition, one may view a dystopia as an insignificant and ordinary fact of life.
Reading this book, we can finally conclude that a poem is not merely a performance of poetic words, but it really works out more than that i.e. portraying how the humans’ lives and thoughts are. They are, in fact, colorful. The dystopias are served as one color of the life. Portraying such fact does not mean nothing but it shows a bunch of lessons for readers, though. The least lesson shown by the poems in the book is that life is really never flat. Therefore, this book is really recommended to be owned. It is a reflective of life which can then be a tool for us to really understand further how the life should be conducted.
References:
- Abrams, M.H. 1953. The Mirror and the Lamp. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- __________. 1957. Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
- Barnet, Sylvan et al. 1961. An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, Drama. Second edition. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
- Eagleton, Terry. 1983. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Pradopo, Rachmat Djoko, Prof. Dr. 1995. Beberapa Teori Sastra, Metode Kritik, dan Penerapannya. Cetakan I. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.
- __________. 2014. Distopia, Antologi Puisi, Anugerah Seni dan Sastra I, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya UGM. Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada Press.
Written by: Dr. H. Nuriadi Sayip
BOOK REVIEW: DISTOPIA (Antologi Puisi Anugerah Seni dan Sastra I Fakultas Ilmu Budaya UGM)
Reviewed by Prof. Dr. H. Nuriadi Sayip S.S., M.Hum
on
Desember 23, 2017
Rating:
Reviewed by Prof. Dr. H. Nuriadi Sayip S.S., M.Hum
on
Desember 23, 2017
Rating:
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