Introduction of the Poem: ‘A River’ was published in ‘The Striders’ in 1966. It is a poem on the Vaikai, which flows through Madurai. This river is appropriately described as a ‘city of temples and poets’, approximately 450 km. south of Chennai. For about 2000 years, this city has been the seat of Tamil culture. … Read more
Introduction of the Poem: The poem ‘Upagupta’ is a part of Tagore’s writings in English in an anthology of 86 poems, translated from the original Bengali Version by Tagore himself. The anthology is entitled ‘Fruit Gathering’. These poems have a haunting melody and belong to a world of experience where sensuous merges with the spiritual. … Read more
Introduction of the Poem: The poem ‘The Queen’s Rival’ is based on a Persian folk tale shared with Sarojini by a close friend. It has been taken from the poems’ section of ‘The Golden Threshold’, the first volume of verse by Sarojini Naidu. The monotony and drudgery of Queen Gulnaar’s existence has been portrayed in … Read more
Introduction of the Poem: Toru Dutt has blended the autobiographical element, the poignant note of pathos, the elegiac note and the deep – sensuous description of nature in the poem, ‘Our Casuarina Tree’. It is a poem about the great Casuarina tree which grows in front of Toru’s house. Through the poetic expression of the … Read more
Introduction of the Poem: Philosophy was included in Ezekiel’s fifth volume of poems, The Exact Name (1965). It is one of Ezekiel’s most abstract poems. The poet is certainly interested in the real world of human beings and in the familiar manifestations of human nature, as also in human inter relationships. But one of his … Read more
Introduction of the Poem: This poem appeared in The Exact Name (1965). It outlines the method that a poet should adopt to achieve success in his chosen vocation of writing poetry. He gives the analogy of a lover and a birdwatcher here to illustrate his point. In each case, illumination or fulfilment comes through a … Read more
Connected with, and arising from the theme of alienation, is the motif of failure in Ezekiel’s poetry. “A refugee in spirit” in search of his “dim identity”, ruefully accepts his failure to identify himself with his Indian ethos and environment in an effort “to weave myself more closely into things”, “My backward place is where … Read more
Irony is the device used by Nissim Ezekiel most prominently in his poetry from Background, Casually, an early poem, which is an excellent example of this. He describes himself as a “poet, rascal clown”. As a student in a Roman Catholic school he was “A mugging Jew among the wolves. They told me I had … Read more
Nissim Ezekiel’s subject in the poem has been drawn from the spectrum of Indian life. Night of the Scorpion deals with Indian customs, superstitious, blind faith and dogmatism juxtaposed with rational thinking. Ezekiel here shuns any comment on what he faithfully records and describes. The reader is free to draw his own conclusions. The universally … Read more
Enterprise, from The Unfinished Man (1959), is one of Ezekiel’s finest poems. It has a well – marked rhyme scheme and incantory music all its own. It is an allegory of a voyage undertaken by a group of men, their efforts, failures and frustrations. A group of people undertake a voyage, moved by noble aspirations … Read more