POETIC ANLYSIS : EQUATIONS

POEM
EQUATIONS
In the mirror's gaze, expressions multiply,
An equation, like a puzzle, unfolds.
Crafted by a mind to unravel spacetime's dance,
One side maps the curves, the other, mass's stance.
Wisdom, it's said, springs from living's embrace,
Yet my face wearies, concealing truth's trace.
Echoes of fields and toil, an old tale,
Whispers through objects, seeking to unveil.
A burning flame, a spinning wheel,
My countenance, a canvas, emotions concealed.
Witness the facade, cold and stern,
Passion's failure, yet to discern.
A visage of sorrow, burdened by thought,
In the maze of expression, I'm caught.
WILLIAMSJI MAVELI 

ANALYSIS BY POET SHAH JEHAN ASHRAFI - CANADA 
The ‘mirrror’s gaze’ perfectly matches the concept of ‘imago’, an idealized image of another person in psychoanalysis. It is through this image that a child identifies himself in the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s theory on the mirror stage. However, the imago is only an external image of oneself and it shows how the child discovers himself as a result of an encounter with the other. This other is not necessarily his own internal self. In this poem, the poet highlights that in the mirror’s gaze his image does not reflect his true self. Thus, it becomes a complete stranger or the Other to himself.
The mirror only multiplies expressions that throw the observer in a maze. The poet becomes more and more confused as he cannot see his real self in the mirror and the more he tries, the more he finds that his reflection is just ‘like a puzzle’. It takes time for the poet to decode the secrets in this puzzle. Thus, this poem makes us reflect on the unreliability of the equations that a mirror can produce with our genuine reflections, ‘emotions concealed’. The images are biased and cannot show our internal feelings.
This poem also treats the world as a mirror. Thus, the looking glass becomes a metaphor of man’s experiences in the world. The poet does not treat worldly encounters as good experiences:
‘Wisdom, it’s said, springs from living’s embrace,
Yet my face wearies, concealing truth’s trace.’
Most of the time we face so many hardships in life that we do not grow wise and we may get stuck in bad memories. Even though, it becomes difficult to move on, we have to show that we have strength. Yet, we are forced to keep smiling or act tough in front of others. Thus, the image that we reflect in society’s looking glass is not always accurate. The poet writes about hardships though farmers, ‘echoes of fields and toil’. This category of people are very good examples of people who work really very hard in our society.
This poem is mostly about sticking to images without revealing our true emotions: ‘emotions concealed’. We hide our feelings so much that we are bereft of them, ‘Passion’s abandon, yet to discern’. In this process, people forget to live and they start existing. In the Christian theology, the image of God is presented as the ‘imago Dei’. This idea lets believers know that they have been created in the Absolute’s image. In this poem, the poet cannot relate to the ‘imago Dei’ and delves in the ‘imago’. The poem ends on a negative note as he feels that he cannot get out of miseries: