“Glitter of Pebbles” is obviously an early poem of Moraes the Romantic dreamer, conscious of the ecstasy of creation as well as the disillusionment of failure, loss of innocence and a sense of being alien. Like Yeats, Moraes reveled in self-dramatization, of making his own life the subject of his verse. In this poem his creative imagination soars to heights of ecstasy as the protagonist revels in the glory of being the prime of all creation and like Adam the first man, bestows a sense of identity and selfhood on the creatures he names.
Unfortunately the dream is shattered when the protagonist recognizes the ‘stone in the midst of all’ (to use Yeats’ phrase). He warns himself, ‘I should not dream’, for the ecstasy of creativity is almost a mirage in the agony of today’s reality. The reality is the feeling of being alone surrounded by the ‘ache of space’ under the ‘glare of heat’.
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The absence of firm roots and loss of identity inhibit his poetic sensibility. An irritating sense of non-belonging pervades Moraes’ poetry. Though he is one of the best known poets from Indian writing in English, there is paradoxically very little of specific Indianness in his poetry. He once said, “English is the language I think in and write in, I even dream in it… I don’t speak any Indian language — neither Hindi nor my native Konkani”.
“Glitter of Pebbles” is a poem of four stanzas of six lines each. The second and fifth as well as the fourth and the sixth lines have a-regular rhyme scheme. Internal rhyme is strengthened with alliteration. What is noticeable is the unusual use of words such as “crinkled water” and “vultured sky”. The poem echoes the Book of Genesis, but the note of hope it begins on, ends with a feeling of despair as these polarities form the mainspring of his poetic imagination.