WELCOME
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OUR POETRY ARCHIVE
English Indian Poetry And Beyond
Contrary to all forms of
colonialism, I believe that the only benefit that India has derived from the
English domain is the introduction of their language as requested by the
British government to make communication possible among the relevant
number of the dialects spoken.
This has certainly meant the opening of
this great country to the world, beyond anything, for a major cultural exchange
of considerable relevance.
The poetry written by
the Indians in English in the last 150 years may be said has crossed three
different phases: the imitative, the assimilative and the experimental.
During the imitative
phase, which runs from 1850 to 1900, the Indian poets were mostly inspired by
the British romantic poets like Wordsworth, Shelley, lord Gordon Byron and some minor ones. During the second phase
which goes from 1900 to 1947 the Indian poets still kept on grasping from the new romantics of the decadent period
and began to show their nationalistic
feelings along with the wish for political changes which led to the attainment
of India political freedom in 1947.
The first phase of
English Indian poetry marks the moment of the literary renaissance. The poems
of Derozio, Manmohan Ghose and Michael Madhusudan are testimony of a creative upsurge
derived from the romantic spirit of the great English poets. Toru Dutt is left
alone to celebrate India and her
heritage by putting into verse a large number of Indian legends:
Hasten maidens, hasten
away
To gather the leaves of
the henna-tree.
The tilka's red for the
brow of a bride
From in Praise of Henna
The poets of the second
phase who have left their footsteps in the history of literature are Tagore,
Sarejini Naidu, Aurobindo Ghose. Some
creative artists born between the 1920
and 1940 were witness of bitter and
violent struggles of patriots for the achievement of liberty under the guidance of various
political leaders. This was the time of
Mahatma Gandhi who so great a contribution gave to the cause of
the Indian freedom along with the
affirmation of ancient cultural heritage. The Romanticism of the Indian poets
was so loaded with nationalism, spirituality and mysticism. Their poetry
expresses the ethos of the age.
And while Tagore was in
search for the Beautiful in Men and Nature,
Sarojini Naidu stressed the charm and splendor of traditional Indian
life and scenes , Auribindo was in
search for the Divine in Men:
He is lost in the heart,
in the cavern of Nature,
He is found in the brain
where He builds up the thought:
In the pattern and bloom
of the flowers He is woven,
In the luminous net of
the stars He is caught.
In the strength of a
man, in the beauty of woman,
In the laugh of a boy,
in the blush of a girl;
(From Who)
With the political
independence in 1947 and the partition the era of hope and aspiration gave
place to an era of questioning and the Indian writers conquered a new
confidence to be critic of the present, the past and of themselves. They went
on borrowing from the romantics but no longer from the Victorians but from
Yeats, Eliot, Erza Pound and Auden-
The later phase of
indian English poetry is the modern and post modern one which can be considered
the output of the process of modernization, social change, the introduction of
mass media. After the independence, and
partition, the Indian poets entered the
international, modern world offering
their distinctive contribution. The English language has
fastened the process of modernization although Indianized in pronunciation,
intonation, word order and syntax.
The Indian poets are
nowadays nor exclusively Indian nor British but cosmopolitan.. They are
realistic and intellectually critical, or just simply the expression of thought felt. Their poems are surrealist, existentialist,
thought provoking, psychologist.
Remarkable among the last ones
the works of Dalip Ketharpal that so much have in common with the
Italian writer Pirandello.
Sometimes if a person
Identifies too closely
With the mask,
Consciousness of anything
Beyond social role and
goal
Is blocked
From Musked/ Unmusked
Maria Miraglia
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