1 Indian Poetry in English: A Bird’s Eye View Dr. Amar Nath Prasad After the marathon efforts of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, English language came into existence in 1835 and since then a new intellectual and literary vista opened before the people of India which awakened their literary and creative genius. It was during the later half of the 19th century when English literature in India began to take its root. But the real flowering came in the form of fiction and poetry. In the field of poetry, poets like H.L.V. Derozio, Toru Dutt, R. N. Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Swami Vivekanand and Sarojini Naidu dived deep into the rich heritage of India and took out the gems of eternal values with the help of their special aesthetic and poetic creativity. The contemporary poets like Kamala Das, Nissim Ezekiel, P. Lal, Jayant Mahapatra, Keki N. Daruwalla, Arun Kolatkar, Shiv K. Kumar, A. K. Mehrotra, R. Parthasarathy, Gieve Patel, A. K. Ramanujan, Eunice De’ Souza, Mamata Kalia, Sujata Bhatt, Imtiaz Dharker, M. Silgardo, Charmayne De’ Souza—to name only a few—have enriched the Indian English poetry with their various themes particularly of the feminine sensibility and moral and spiritual breakdown of the modern society. The women poets of our contemporary time have given a new vision and idea to the marginalized women. Through some beautiful metaphoric presentation, they have balmed the wounds of2 Critical Response to Indian Poetry in English the tortured and tormented women, caught in the vortex of cruel and callous patriarchy. This essay contains a brief history of Indian poets in English. It also lays stress on the various works of the leading poets in a nut-shell so as to acquaint the general readers with the life, mind and art of the Indo-Anglian poets. Their biographical sketches along with their immortal contribution to theme and technique of poetry are being given below one by one: 1. Henery Derozio (1809-1831) Henery Louis Vivian Derozio is generally regarded as the father of Indian English Poetry. He was a great lover of nature and poetry. At the age of 14, he became a clerk ina firm, but he didn’t take interest in the job. By the efforts of Dr. John Grant of Calcutta, he became a teacher of English literature at Hindu College. He wrote several beautiful sonnets, lyrics and long poems. His work “The Fakir of Jangheera” has a Byronic touch. It describes Nuleeni, a Brahmin widow and her various ups and downs due to her star-crossed life. In one of his lyrics “My Native Land”, Derozio presents a very beautiful picture of both the past and the present of India. He imagines India as an eagle whose feathers are chained and so the kingly eagle is groveling in the dust. His sonnet, “Poetry” deals with his concépt of poetic creation. Like the Romantic poets of English literature, he strongly believed in the passionate love for Nature, nostalgic attachment to past traditions, rites and customs, the wild journey of dream and imagination. In his poem “Poetry”, he gives the epithet “sweet madness” to poets, which reminds us of Shakespeare’s famous poem “The Lunatic, the Lover, the Poet”. He observes: “Sweet madness! When the youthful brain is seized With that delicious frenzy which it loves,Indian Poetry in English: A Bird’s Eye View 3 It raving reels, to very rapture pleased— And then through all creation wildly roves”! 2. Kashiprosad Ghose (1809-73) Kashiprosad Ghose is today known for his collection of poems The Shair and Other Poems published in 1830. He was one of the first Indian poets in English literature who composed poems regularly. He also edited on English weekly The Hindu Intelligence very successfully. About his poetic craftsmanship, M. K. Naik observes: “Kashiprosad Ghose seems to intimate by turns the stylized love-lyries of the Cavalier poets, the moralizing note in neoclassical poetry and the British romantics, his ‘Shair’ being obviously Scott’s ministrel’ in an Indian garb, slightly dishevelled as a result of the arduous voyaga across the seas. His use of Indian material in his poems about the Hindu Festivals and in lyries like ‘The Boatman’s Song to Ganga’ indicates an honest attempt to strike a native wood-note which fails not because earnestness of purpose is writing but owing to sheer look of true poetic talent”? 3. Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-73) Michael Madhusudan Dutt is known as ‘poet’s poet’ among the Bengali poets. He is an epoch-making author who wrote his great Bengali epic Meghanad Badh. In his early phase of his life, he essayed freely English prose, verse and drama. He is also known for his narrative poem “The captive Ladee” which has a direct influence of the great romantic poets of English literature. Regarding his poetic excellence, Sri Aurobindo pours his feelings in the form of a verse: “No human hands such notes ambrosial moved; These accents are not of the imperfect earth; Rather the god was voiceful in their birth The god himself took up thy pen and wrote.*