Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Write a detailed note on Indian poetry with reference to Toru Dutt, Tagore and Sarojini Naidu.



Poetry: - Toru Dutt, Tagore, Aurobindo, Sarojini Naidu.
          India English poetry has its own achievement. It’s a phenomenon, covering colonial and post colonial period. It has legacy of English period as well as conflicts against it. Our great national leaders, thinkers have remained practitioners including Derozio, Aurobindo and Sarojini Naidu. Like British literature, Indian English poetry has not clear classification according to periods. Though Naik has periodized it :-
1.    From the beginning to 1857
2.    1857-1920
3.    1920 – 1947 and
4.    Independence and after
5.     
          There is no explain except historical or political; Toru Dutt, Aurobindo, Tagore, and Naidu could be put into second period of 1857 – 1920. According to others as there are no fixed reasons of classifications, great periods have been considered.
1.    1825 – 1900: colonial period
2.    1900 – 1950 : nationalism and
3.    1950 – 1980: modernism
4.    After 1980: post modernism.

(1) Toru Dutt (1856 – 1877):-
Toru Dutt belonged to wealthy and educated family. Her parents were literary personalities. She was fragile but powerful in sensitivity. Life was as she saw a few deaths. In a very short life she left behind a rich tradition. Her Education in Bengal, England and France has helped a lot to her poetic career. Her attending some of the Cambridge lecturers became very useful especially in terms of finding a friend Mary Martin.

“A Sheaf Gleaned in French” is a collection of translations. It came in 1876. She translated Sanskrit verses and created her pieces as well. ‘The Ramayana’, ‘The Mahabharata’ and other classical themes came because of her reading. Her creative poetic collection is “Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan” published in 1882. “Miscellaneous Poems” is another collection. She wrote short lyrics, odes and sonnets in which her talent is seen.
The best short lyric poem is ‘Our Casuarina Tree’. There is reminder of Keats to us because of memory, imagination, thought and emotion. ‘Sita’ is a remarkable poem.

Basically she is a romantic poet. Her description of nature is very fine and fascinating. There is moral tone but it is saved because of her lyrical output. Her sensitive, intense nature adds charm. Sincerity of mind; finely knit content; vigorous, pleasing sound’ and sense make her work notable among the early Indian poets. Her’s is creative work of a genius which “for the first time reveals to the west the soul of India through the medium of English poetry.” Simplicity is another value of her work.

Nostalgic mood, variety of description, dialogues etc. rise to the occasion and she manages to versification. ‘Lotus, ‘Prahalad’, ‘Savitri’, ‘Our Casuarina Tree’ and ‘Baugmaree are some of her beautiful poems which are classical and mythical poems and remind us our great tradition.

Toru is a fine flower of early Indian English poetry that opens the ways for the next generation.

(2) Ravindranath Tagore (1861-1941): -

          He was the youngest of seven sons of Maharshi Debendranath. He had no regular schooling. At the very early age of 15 he had begun writing. His first book appeared when he was 17 years old. After a short stay in England (1878) to study law, he came back to India and became very popular author. He wrote poetry, short-stories, novels, and plays. He composed several hundred popular songs. In 1929 he also began painting. Tagore also established Shantiniketan in 1901 which became Vishava Bharati International University. He wrote mainly in Bengali and translated it into English. He won Nobel Prize in 1913 and knighted in 1915 but following Amritsar Massacre in 1919 he returned it.

          Tagore was fascinated by the Vaishnav Bengali Singers who influenced him. His England visit was influenced by English romantic poets- Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth as well as the masters Tennyson and Browning. He loved Shakespeare. His collection Gitanjali (Songs of Offerings) appeared in 1912 in Bengali and its English translation soon afterwards which brought him Nobel Prize. Gitanjali has one hundred mighty songs of prayer and pleading and exultation. Idolatry and blind worship are criticized. The tiller, the stone breaker, the honest labourer are working in an ideal way. God is with them. He doesn’t live in wrong places or found on wrong ways. Waywardness of men, endless human misery can only be removed by faith from below and grace form above.
The most famous song of ‘Gitanjali’ is ‘Freedom Heaven’.

          ‘The Crescent Moon’ is another collection of childhood joy and wonder. Tagore expresses mystic quality of childhood. There is beauty, innocence, humour, clarity and wisdom. ‘The Beginning’, ‘Defamation’, ‘Authorship’, ‘The Last Bargain’ are famous songs.

          ‘The Gardener’ is a rich collection. Expression of love is the main subject. Purity, intensity, sensuality strike with vivid imagery. Agony and hopelessness ecstasy and fulfillment are found there. ‘A stray Bird’ is a different sort of collection, Small pieces, thoughtful line reminds us of Japanese form ‘haiku’. ‘The Fugitive’ has some good pieces has some good pieces like ‘Urvashi’. IT is very much praised in the east and west. “Had Tagore written this wonderful poem ‘Urvashi’, no other, he should still be counted among the world’s great magicians of songs.” ‘The child’ is also put into that same category.

          Tagore mostly wrote in Bengali and translated into English. Only one poem ‘The child’ (1931) was written in English. Victorian poetics prose idiom has become Tagore’s style. The poems are as pleasing and glorious that’s why he is Romantic.

(3) Aurobindo (1872 – 1950)

          He should be regarded as the greatest Indian poet in English. His literary career covers over 55 years. “Lyrics, sonnets, long narrative poems, dramatic poetry and epics poured out of his prolific pen.” He well versed in European and Indian classics. He is both philosopher and critic. He found a religious sect and remained as the head of it. He was having a multifaceted personality – a Yogi, prose art, dramatist and a great poet.
In 1879 he went to England and lived 14 years there. He learnt various languages. He mastered them. After 1893 he passed 13 years at Baroda. He taught French and English at the M.S. University, being a professor of English. In 1910 he left everything and went to Pondicherry and lived till end.
‘Urvasie’ and ‘Love and Death’ are heroic poems. ‘Savitri’ is considered ‘cosmic epic’, ‘Six poem’, ‘poems’. ‘Last Poems’ appeared later on after 1934. Most of the poetry has blend of spirituality and philosophical.

          ‘Life Divine’ is a prosaic poetry. It has one thousand pages. It is regarded as a colossal ‘Philosophical prose epic’. The central problems of philosophy are “What can I know?, “What ought I to do? “What many I hope for?” These questions carry the concept of ‘Tattva’, ‘Hita’ and ‘Purushartha’. The Life Divine is Shri Aurobindo’s answer to these problems of philosophy.

          There are more books and articles on ‘Savitri’ alone than any other Indian poet in English. His reputation rests on this epic, ‘Savitri’ runs 24000 lines. It has the story of Savitri’s conquest of death. The epic is one of the longer poems in the English language. Like Milton, Aurobindo has also used blank verse. Each line is sparking and has unity. Clarity and metallic finish shows that the author is a master. ‘Savitri’ is perhaps the most powerful artistic work in the world for expanding man’s mind towards Absolute.”

          ‘Rose of God’, ‘Thought the Praclete’ and ‘The Bird of Fire’ are some of the remarkable shorter lyrics of him. ‘Essays on Gita’, ‘The Human Cycle’, ‘The Future Poetry’, and ‘Renaissance in India’ are other notable prose works.

(4) Sarojini Naidu (1879 – 1949) : -

          She had started writing at the age of 13, and composed more than 2000 lines. Sarojini Chattopadhyay a Bengali girl was dreamer who fell in love with Dr. Naidu. She had violent passions for him. Even though her parent shifted to England she did what she wanted. She married in 1898 after returning from England. In 1905 ‘The Golden Threshold’ came out as her first collection of poems. Swift thoughts, strong emotions spring into lyrics. She was hailed as the Nightingale of Indian song. ‘The Bird of Time’ was published in 1912. It is graver. Songs of life and death are found. There are love songs as well. ‘The Broken Wing’ (1917) was final collection. She wrote memories of her father and the leader Gokhale.

          ‘The Flute Player of Bridavan’ is a jewel of lyric, so is ‘To Buddha seated on a Lotus’. ‘The Temple’ ‘A Pilgrimage of Love’ is a trilogy of lyric sequence, each of eight poems. There are a few remarkable poems addressed to a man by a woman and she wrote with a great passion.

          After ‘The Broken Wing’ she ceased to be a poetess. She left poetry writing and jumped into politics. The woman, the mother, the patriot remained; but the poet was no more than a memory. There are mixed reviews about her poetic achievement. She wrote in traditional way, but music is her great quality. They have feeling of place, occasional atmosphere. They have rhythmic variety and melodic richness. Love for her native Hyderabad and Country often recur. Her songs are lyrical so sense and sound are combined to produce emotion. Her images are sophisticated. There are some dialogue type poems like monologues or self talking. Communal songs are also found. ‘Although her work is unpopular with modernist poets and critics, she remains the most studied of Indian poet in English after Aurobindo, continuing to charm generations of readers’.

          These four poets blend a fantastic Indian English poetic tradition. They are path-makers. Their word is highlight of the period. They enriched the literature which not only the easterners appreciated but also the westerns.

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