Unique English Literature

The Abandoned British Cemetery at Balasore is one of Jayanta Mahapatra’s most profound and reflective poems, first published in his collection Relationship (1980).

“Total Solar Eclipse” is one of the most remarkable poems by Jayanta Mahapatra, one of the foremost voices in Indian English poetry.

“The Moon Moments” is another philosophical poem by Mahapatra. Although the word “moon” could here be interpreted as the beloved, yet it would be perhaps nearer the facts of the case to interpret it as meaning an ideal.

Exile is one of the most profound and introspective poems by Jayanta Mahapatra, a leading voice in Indian English poetry.

Introduction of the Poem: “The Whorehouse in a Calcutta Street” is one of the most powerful and socially conscious poems by Jayanta Mahapatra, one of India’s foremost contemporary English poets. The poem presents a stark and realistic portrayal of a brothel in Calcutta (now Kolkata), exposing the harsh realities of poverty, exploitation, moral decay, and human suffering. … Read more

“A Country” (1983) by Jayanta Mahapatra is one of overtly political poems in which he suggests that suffering is universal, no matter what the social or the political order may be.

While in “Dhauli” Mahapatra deals with a significant historical omission, in “Grandfather” (1983) the disasters of the Orissa famine of 1866 are viewed from a biographical perspective.

“Dhauli” (1979) is a sensitive account of the Kalinga War (261 BC) that wiped off thousands of lives to satiate a single individual’s hunger for power.

In “Hunger” (from The Rain of Rites, 1976), the dramatic narrative, which unfolds in four taut stanzas, is based on the privations of a poor fisherman who drives his young daughter into prostitution.

“Ghanashyam” appeared in Kamala Das’ Stranger Time (1977). Ghanashyam is another name for Lord Krishna, who used to play, frolic and flirt with women all of whom adored him; they would be ecstatic when they heard the notes he produced on his flute.