Contents: Preface. Introduction. I. Fair seed time: harp of India: 1. Henry Derozio: a Christian Hindu and a Westernised Indian. 2. Toru Dutt : the exotic blossom of native song. II. Native Foliage: mystic strain: 3. Rabindranath Tagore : Gitanjali. 4. Sri Aurobindo's Savitri : a symbol of power and glory. 5. Concept of life and death in the poetry of Sarojini Naidu. 6. Truth is a pathless land: J. Krishnamurti's poetry in the light of Buddhism. 7. Religion and literary development: Virasaiva poets. 8. Sarojini Naidu's lyrical journey from poetry to politics. 9. Sarojini Naidu's 'native state Hyderabad'. III. Efflorescence: music of earth: 10. Nissim Ezekiel's poetry : a portrait of India. 11. Theme of alienation and Ezekiel's poetry. 12. The portrait of artist: A.K. Ramanujan. 13. Feminist writing--isolation and assertion. 14. Contribution of Indian English women poets. 15. Split-self in the poetry of Kamala Das. 16. Jayanta Mahapatra's relationship: a saga of myth, legend and history. 17. Return of the native: R. Partasarathy. 18. Arun Kolatkar's: Jejuri--a study in religious tradition, urban scepticism and primeval life force. 19. Vikram Seth's : the golden gate : a versified slice of modern life. 20. Indo-Nepal relation -- a literary perspective.
"The history of Indian writing in English is broadly speaking a development from poetry to prose and from romantic idealization to various modernistic forms, passing through the phases of imitation, assimilation to authentic artistic utterance and experimentation. The experimental approach, the quest for originality, stress on individuality and rejection of all that is traditional has borne impressive results. The poets have been lifted from exclusive to an extensive range of creative experience, raised from conservative to a cosmopolitan culture to confront the new shape of things and acquire a new vision of human destiny. In a country with its own ancient, sophisticated and richly inclusive civilization, the continued and extended use of English for creative purpose is an extraordinary fact of national and linguistic life. It is a powerful testimony to the expressive and creative power of the Indian writers in quantity and quality it compares well with the best of poetry in Indian literature as well as English literature. Overcoming the problems of language, identity, audience publishers, the need for roots and hope for the future the Indian English poets have greatly contributed to the development of English literature and commonwealth literature.
The present volume is designed as a critical conspectus of Indian English poetry. It focuses on the major poets their characteristic themes, bilingualism, experimentation exile return and women poets. The book would be of interest to academic as well as connoisseurs of literature and succeed in winning for these poets the recognition and importance they richly deserve, as voices of the modern facets of that glory which commences from the Vedas, and bids fair to expand without and humanity's future." (jacket)
