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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