Why poet Bharathiyar is called a Mahakavi Bharatiyar is because he was in parts all of the following
poets rolled into one.
A great poet with a
wide range of topics and poetic style was at once fluid, flamboyant and
flexible to flow with the tone and tenor of the topic.
Many people could not
tune into his frequencies of ideas.
He was Robert Browning (poetry known for
dramatic monologues)
Robert Burns (poems known for rebellion against orthodox religion and its
morality)
Wordsworth (portrayal of nature, emotionalism and highlighting
individualism)
T. S. Eliot (satirical, prophetic and winding into philosophical
meditation),
P.B. Shelley (bold radical views on social and political aspects of
life),
John Keats (natural imagery with unbridled aesthetic sensuality),
Alexander Pope (in terms some mock- heroic poems alluding to didactic
observations of hyper consumptions)
William Blake (abstract poetry),
John Dryden ( his intense devotional poems are as in Religio Liaci unleashing passion -
sometimes romance-and reason to process truth),
S.T. Coleridge (on conveying nationalistic pride in common conversational
vocabulary to ensure it had a reach)
And the icing on the
cake was that he was a connoisseur of classical music that he could compose
even wordy abstract poetry into great songs.
It is sad that he has
not been as much appreciated as one wish he ought to have been, compared to
many other poets. It was because he was not fully understood.
To understand such a
unique genius one needs to tune into frequencies of compatibility levels which
have a combination of intellectual sharpness, emotional concern, social
responsibility, humanitarian compassion, pride in the positives of one's
culture and boldness to deride the negatives and above all a combo of romantic
and aesthetic sensitivity which was
encapsulated in clarity, conviction and courage.