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THE SYSTEM OF FIGURES
 
67
 
of the reformation itself. In other words, keeping to our earlier distinc-
tion, these figures, too, promote an order where there is normally none,
viz. in respect of word patterns across sentence or phrase boundaries.
 
(D) Repetition of figures
 
the figure itself: the figure mālā, superadded to any appropriate
figure, as upamāmālā or rūpakamālā
 
different figures: samsrsti; the figures may be inherently or
extrinsically related.
 
It is in terms of this category of complex figuration that the early Indian
poetic approached the problem of composition the actual manifestation
of poetry. Its discussion shows an awareness that the analytic tools of
figurative interpretation, ugh they reveal the ideal structure of poetry,
nevertheless do not account for the complex interdependence of various
kinds of figuration which we find in any actual poem. The figures rarely
occur in hermetic isolation. More often, and especially in the most
beautiful examples, it is precisely the number and the intimate blending
of figurative types which is striking and worthy of wonder and praise.
The Shakespearian trope: "Oh, that I might be a glove upon that hand /
That I might touch that check!" combines the figures rūpaka, āśiș, nidar-
sanā, and various alliterations and meter in its deceptive simplicity.
Nevertheless, the charm of such expression, the alamkārikas would hold,
is not, in fact, simple unless complexity itself is given a poetic value.153
What it means as poetry is still dependent on the meticulous isolation of
its constituent figures. The collocation has no other meaning or guiding
principle behind it.
 
(E) Repetition in larger grammatical frameworks (paragraphs, chapters,
etc.)
 
imagination
 
the figure bhävika
 
**
 
188 A plausible argument, which incidentally would serve to explain how it is that
certain styles and types of poetic speech (such as similes) can be used in non-poetic
contexts: Jesse Jones in a hectoring speech... advised the banks to improve
their capital position" (Arthur Schlesinger Jr.). Here the simplest form is used in
total isolation from other poetic factors. The premeditation of poetry lies not in the
stringing together of such isolated poetic atoms, but rather in the fruitful co-occur-
rence of the elements in a whole. The comic effect, on the other hand, can be seen as
a disproportion among the complex of elements (which includes content), an exaggera-
tion or an over emphasis of some at the expense of the complex image.
 
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