Introduction

Nissim Ezekiel, one of the foremost Indian poets in English, has attracted considerable critical attention from scholars both in Indian and abroad. Also by virtue of his critical evaluation he has brought fame and recognition to a number of promising Indian English poets. This outstanding poet of post-Independence India was born in Bombay on 15th, December 1924, of orthodox Jewish parents. Nissim Ezekiel’s life has been more variegated than that of his parents. He received his early education in an English medium school. At college, and at the University of Bombay. He took his master’s degree in English literature from the Bombay University in 1947. Ezekiel’s profession as a teacher of English literature for a number of years at the Bombay University has influenced his literary personality. Ezekiel passed away on January 12, 2004, and is survived by three children-a son and two daughters. Nissim Ezekiel has published seven anthologies of verse to date: A time to change (1952), Sixty poems (1953), The Third (1959), The Unfinished Man (1960), The Exact Name (1965), Hymns in Darkness and Poster Poems (1976), Latter-Day and psalms (1982). These volumes have taken his critics surprise and belied their adverse predictions about his artistic growth.

He was a man of varied tastes and pre-occupations. Ezekiel’s Entire corpus deals with self- exploration and self-affirmation and in his famous poem like. “Enterprise,” “Marriage,” “Philosophy”, “Night of the Scorpion”, “In India”, “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”, Casually”, “Island”, “Good-bye Party for Miss Phushpa, T.S.”, “Poem of Separation”, “Very Indian Poem in English”, “The Company I keep”, “Lawn”, “Case Study”, “A Woman Observed”, “Virginal”, “The Railway Clerk”, and “Urban”, etc.

“Enterprise”, one of the finest lyrics of Nissim Ezekiel, appeared in The Unfinished Man in 1959. In it the poet generalizes his own feeling of frustration, loss and deprivation in the world. He himself remarked that the lyric was written for “personal the urapathic purposes”. Ezekiel thus sought the psychological relief which results from revealing our troubles and frustrations to an intimate, sympathetic friend. “Enterprise” has become a metaphor for a symbol or an allegory of the human condition on earth.

“Enterprise” is a short lyric in six stanzas of five lines each. The poem has a well-marked rhyme-scheme and an in cantatory music all its own. Ezekiel has composed beautiful poems an ordinary human situation’s, and they are remarkable for clarity and simplicity of expression, evocativeness and Suggestiveness, economy and precision. The style is condensed and aphoristic, for example: “Home is where we have to earn our grace”. “Enterprise” is a confessional poem indeed.

In “Marriage”, one of his finest lyric, he vividly portrays the two stage of growth in a marriage. The first is the stage of love, joy, honeymoon, ecstasy and illusion, which is invariably followed by frustration and disillusionment. The initial joy and excitement is described as follows.

Ezekiel reveals the disillusionment and frustration in married life vividly through biblical allusions. The lover’s fall from their fanciful and romantic paradise is likened to the original fall of Adam and Eve from Eden. The restlessness and violence in married life is compared to the course of cain who murdered his own brother, Abel, and was cursed to move endlessly and restlessly.

The poet feels that unlike his, other men’s marriages are going strong. He does intend spoiling their marriage by revealing to them his own disillusionment, frustration and bitter experiences. “Philosophy” is a meditative - reflective poem and it describes the superiority of poetry to philosophy. It is the very first poem in “The Exact name, published in 1965. Ezekiel was a student of philosophy in London where ‘Philosophy’, ‘poverty and poetry’ shared his basement room. In the first stanza of this lyric, the poet states that he has an in born love for philosophy, spontaneously and unconsciously he often goes to philosophy, like a current of air or water. The world of philosophy is a world where all problems and things are expressed by cold lucidity, logic and argumentation. So the poet misses here the warmth of human life and human relationship which occupy a conspicuous place in his poetry. The poet lucidly and succinctly expresses his ideas about philosophy.

“Night of the scorpion”, published in The Exact Name, is one of the finest poems of Ezekiel. It has been highly admired as a flawless piece of poetic composition. In it Ezekiel gives to the narrative a tramatic intensity, a beauty of imagery and a musical subtlety, and richness such as Indian poetry in English has rarely, known in its recent history. This poem shows that Ezekiel is a typical Indian poet whose interest in the Indian soil and in ordinary human events of day-to-day Indian life superb. “Night of the Scorpion” is a brilliant narrative poem. The protagonist might be the poet himself or an imagined person who speaks in the first person. The mother is stung by a scorpion one rainy night. The mother occupies a prominent place in Indian home. “Poet, Lover, Bird Watcher” in The Exact name is one of Ezekiel’s finest poems. It is “a wonderfully orchestrated poem, the tone becoming impassioned and exultant as the feelings rise to the crescendo.” In this beautiful poem Ezekiel expresses his view on the art of poetry through vivid and beautiful images. In the first stanza Ezekiel strikes a parallel between the poet, the lover and the bird watcher. The poet deftly brings together his two pet themes, poetry and love along with comparatively new found enthusiasm for bird watching. So, the poem had become a wonderfully synthesis of all that Ezekiel has loved best in life. All three - the poet, the lover and the bird-watcher have one thing in common, that is to watch the movement and wait patiently.

“Background, casually” appeared in Hymns in Darkness in (1976). It a confessional and autobiographical work. It is an uneven work but a strong current of anger and bitterness, just held in check, gives this autobiographical poem an unusual intensity. This poem is in the tradition of confessional poetry, as written by Robert Lowell in his Life Studies. It also shows Ezekiel as a very Indian poet writing in English and expresses his total commitment to India. The poet dispassionately ponders over his failures and achievements and reveals his love for India. He affirms that he is very much an Indian his roots lie deep in India. In one of his interviews, Ezekiel says, “I regard myself essentially as an Indian poet writing in English. I have strong sense of belonging not only to India, but to the city.

“Background, casually” reflects some of Ezekiel’s commitment to well defined attitudes. K.N. Daruwalla remarks, “The first is to stay where is. He seeks his identity in the country and its incongruities. He is basically an urban poet, the city spilling over into his verse not as cosmetic but as an organic growth. His poetry is confessional in the literal sense, in that it is littered with a record of his failures.” Kamala Das was one of the three most important Indian poets, writing English poetry of the present day. Kamala das was born 31 March 1934 at Punnayurkulam in Kerala and death 31 May 2009. The other two poets of th same genre being Nissim Ezekiel and Ramanujan. When Kamala Das Writes Poetry she writes about herself, her deep rooted desire for and search love and emotional inclement and about of lack of success in meeting these intense desire of hers. Hence, and order to understand her poetry we have to have a proper understanding of her life and personality.

Kamala Das was born as madhavikutty at punnayurkulam in Malabar in Kerala 1934. It won’t be a hyperbole to say that poetry was in her blood. For both her parents were talented poets, who obviously passed on their poetic talent to their daughter in abundance. Kamala Das is constantly referring to her Dravidian image and her Nair heritage. She was mostly educated at home. As he evident from her fond mention in her poems, ‘A hot noon in Malabar’ and ‘My Grandmother’s house’. Kamala’s Grandmother doted upon the child and shown her with love and affection. Kamala Das remembers her Grandmother with obvious affections nostalgia and yearning she rarely mention her own parents with such intense feelings as she does her Grandmother. Where ever she went, wherever she lived. She always took the fond memories of her adolescent years and the love and tender loving care of her Grandmother.

Kamala Das was denied the benefits of regular school, and college education and most of her education was conducted at home. This is a very surprising fact of her life, as both her parents were poets and one would expect such artistic parents to encourage the talent of their daughter. She was married off at the tender age of fifteen years. Now the mother of three children the poetess has settled in Bombay.

This has stunted the growth of her own personality. Kamala Das complaints about it in these words. Some beat their drums, others beat their sorry breasts And wailed and writhed in vacant ecstasy. They Were thin in limbs and dry; like half-burnt logs from Funeral pyres, a drought and a rottenness Were in each of them. (“The Dance of the Eunuchs”) She mentioned that people find this idea in the present lines. The poison on the wings of crows leads to the corpse-bearers, the sense of death. “The lady hears from behind the Berdwan Road the cry “Bol Hari Bol” of the corpse-bearers. Kamala Das is so extremely hurt in her disillusionment that she suffers from insomnia. In her wakeful state, while walking in the verandah, Kamala Das broods over millions of question regarding the passionate sexual desire of her husband which kamala Das cannot call love. My mind has found An adult peace. No need to remember That picnic day when a lay hidden By a hedge, watching the steel-white sun Standing lonely in the sky. (“Punishment in Kindergarten”) In these lines from “Punishment in Kindergarten” Kamala Das says that Kamala Das need not remember the sad picnic day of her childhood. Kamala Das, the student of a Kindergarten school, was ironically scolded harshly by her lady teacher at a picnic spot. This punishment is ironical because education in the kindergarten schools is imparted through games and the rod is strictly spared.

Kamala Das says that Kamala was punished long back when kamala das mere child. Since then the years have sped, receding into the oblivion of the past. Kamala Das was now a grown-up lady. Kamala Das had now gained confidence and an adult peace. Kamala Das thinks that kamala need not now remember the sad picnic day when her teacher had insulted her and her playmates had laughed at her tears. Kamala Das was harshly scolded by her teacher because instead of sucking the sugarcane in the company of her playmates, Kamala das had hidden her in the sun warmed hedge and was watching the steel-white sun standing lonely in the sky.

She is like all other Indian poets writing in English language, a bilingual and writes poetry in both English and Malayalam. Her English poetics work is not very substantial and mainly comprises of three thin volumes ‘Summer in Calcutta’ 1965. ‘The Descendants’ 1967 and ‘The Playhouse and Other Poems’ 1973. The last volume contains many of her earlier poems already published in other volumes. Despite her low volume of work in English. She was nonetheless regarded as one of the greatest Indians poets writing in English. She had the courage to express her feminine sensibility, her honesty and sincerity without any modesty or reservations. She candidly discusses her feelings in her poems. Her concentration upon one of the single theme in all her poems gives it the power and the intensity to bind her readers. As Eunice D’Souza puts it. In her best poems it is impossible not to be moved by and involved in the passionate curve of the rhythm, the haunting and telling images of sterility (Dance of the Eunuchs) the ultimate resilience in the face of any relationship that threatens to devastate her vital and potential self .Her poems also contain the unforced pathos and sadness of a woman who tries to snatch a few movement of happiness from an unfulfilled life.

Most of her prose work was autobiographical, be it in English or Malayalam. In Malayalam she had eleven published works. Her stories like ‘Frigidity’ and ‘Sepia’ tinted Photograph clearly portray her own personal experience. The main theme of her work was based upon unfulfilled love and emotional inadequacies, which was clearly related to her own experiences. The readers of her various essay such as “I studied all men”, what woman expect out of marriage and what they get”, “Why not more than one husband”. have engraved in their minds that image of Kamala Das, as is portrayed by poems such as “Summer in Calcutta”, feminine but forthright unconventional but honest ebullient but sad. Impetuous but insecure. Over the years she had been contributing her work to such magazines and journals as Opinion. The illustrated Weekly of India. Poetry East and West, Debonair, Eve’s Weekly, Femina, Imprint, Weekly, Round Table, Love, and, Friendship etc.

Her various literary merits and her talent had been widely recognized. Her poems had been given pride of place in all Indo-English collection of poetry. She was awarded the, “Asian Pen Anthology Poetry Award” in 1964. and the Kerala Sahitya Award in 1969 for her collection of short stories in Malayalam titled “Cold” her poem had opinion, ‘New writing in India’, and “ Young commonwealth poets 65”.

Kamala Das had expressed her need for love a very can did and frank manner, which is very unusual and astonishing in the Indian context. her poetry is outstanding because of its urgency and it seethes with emotions. With her short and slim collection of poems, she had ensured herself a place in the annals of the great immortals of Indian contemporary literature. Devendra kohali gives the reason of why she was included in the greats of Indian literature. He says - “courage and honesty are the straight of Kamala Das” character and her poetry; and the courage lies in not only being able to admit that in one had aged. When one has, but in also being able to assert in the face of it that in the final analyses one has no regrets and that one had lived beautifully in this beautiful world”.

Kamala Das, the student of a Kindergarten school, was ironically scolded harshly by her lady teacher at a picnic spot. This punishment is ironical because education in the kindergarten schools is imparted through games and the rod is strictly spared.

Kamala Das says that she was punished long back when kamala das mere child. Since then the years have sped, receding into the oblivion of the past. Kamala Das was now a grown-up lady. Kamala Das had now gained confidence and an adult peace. Kamala Das thinks that kamala need not now remember the sad picnic day when her teacher had insulted her and her playmates had laughed at her tears. Kamala Das was harshly scolded by her teacher because instead of sucking the sugarcane in the company of her playmates, Kamala das had hidden her in the sun warmed hedge and was watching the steel-white sun standing lonely in the sky. Later Kamala Das was separated internally from the outside world because she had, like a tortoise, moved herself within. Later she was separated outwardly as well from the outside world. Her husband who was a ruthless spy and kept watch on her activities, found out her adultery. Therefore every morning while leaving for his office, he shunt in a room stuffed with the books. How often I think of going There to peer through blind eyes of windows Just listen to the frozen air Or in wild despair, pick an armful of Darkness to bring it here to lie Behind my bedroom door like a brooding Dog. (“My Grandmother’s House”) In these lines from My Grandmother’s House, Kamala Das express her unbounded love for her loving grandmother. She was overwhelmed by gloom at the death of her grandmother. Even though her grandmother had left for Byzantium, yet she often wanted to visit her house which haunts her with the memories associated with her grandmother. She wanted to listen to the sound of the frozen air. The air of the house was frozen because it was cold like death. Kamala Das was overwhelmed by the pangs of excruciating grief. Almost unused by wild despair, she wanted to pick up an armful of darkness from the locked dark rooms of the house, to take it to her metropolitan city house and to spread it behind her bedroom door, which she believed, will project secure her like a watchful and faithful dog. I am a singer I am saint, I am the beloved and the Betrayed. (“An Introduction”) In these lines from An Introduction kamala Das describes her bitter sweet experiences of life and then says what poetess had come to be. The theme of the poetry of poetess was love and sex. Whereas the woman aspires to the fulfillment of her longing for true love, the man seeks a woman solely for satisfying his sex desire. Whereas the woman, like the deep, tireless ocean, waits patiently for her true love, the lewd man, like the violent undisciplined river, hastens the satisfaction of his sex desire. Kamala Das says that she was the beloved of the man whom she loves. But as soon her man consummated his sex desire with her, he betrayed her. Thus she was both, the beloved and the betrayed. She was therefore a saint she was both a sinner and a saint. Yes, this is A noon for wild men, wild thoughts, wild love, To be here, for away, is torture, Wild feet Stirring up the dust, this hot noon, at my Home in Malabar, and I so far away. (“A hot noon in Malabar”)

In these lines from A Hot Noon on Malabar poetess expresses her feeling of homesickness and nostalgia. She had presented a minute and pictorial description of the activities of the various kinds of persons in the hot noon of Malabar of her childhood days.

The poetess had here repeatedly used the word “wild”. Her emphasis on this word was suggestive. She used the words “wild men wild thoughts, wild love” and “wild feet”. The meaning of “wild” could be understood cumulatively by the different meaning of the of word “wild’ which were, a few of them ‘unrest’, ‘reckless’, ‘excited’, ‘disturbed’, ‘savage’, ‘natural’, ‘uninhibited’ and ‘rough’. If they read the whole poem, they shall notice that all these words apply to the different kinds of persons describe in the poem. Even the homesickness and the nostalgia and the nostalgia of the poetess was imaginatively wild.

It was in this respect that there was the hot noon for the wild men. Then there were wild thoughts and wild love feelings. The poetess, sitting in her metropolitan house, is seeing with her imaginative inward eye the activities which used to take place in the hot noon of her childhood Malabar. And when, suddenly she become, conscious of her presence in her metropolitan city, she was overwhelmed by the feeling of up-rootedness. She sight that she was far always from her home in Malabar. She again recollected the wild feet of the wild men raising dust on the roads in the hot noon near her home in Malabar, and again she was overwhelmed by the nostalgic, homesick feeling “and I so far away”.

The poetess has revealed through the woman persona her “vacant ecstasy” had love-lorn hearts, her disillusionment and her wild despair. The poem was thus autobiography written in the confessional mode. The poem was not a success from the point of view of art. The language was abstract and abstruse. The ideas remain at places obscure. There were here no limpid expressions, no happy images and no felicitous phrases.

The sea shall bear some prying and certain Violations, but I tell you the sea shall take No more……The tides beat against the wall, they Beat in childish rage Darling, forgive, how long one resist? (“The Invitation”) In these lines from “The Invitation”, poetess says that the woman persona, having been completely disillusioned in her love-affair, ultimately accepts the invitation of the sea. The sea had been constantly inviting the woman to come to it for shelter and refuse. The woman had been declining its invitation on the different pleas.

The sea told her that her lover had left her for good and she could not survive on the whiplash of memories. It had violated the code of conduct by peeping into the private life of the woman. However, this had convinced it of the betrayal and the desertion of the woman on the part of her lover. It could now no longer bear any delay on the part of the woman in coming to it. It was now childishly enraged, rather infuriated like the tree Furies of the Greek mythology. Its angry waves are furiously beating against the walls of the woman’s house. The woman could now no longer oppose the wish of sea. So, surrendering herself so the desire of sea, she yield and accepts its invitation and begs her lover’s forgiveness.

That was why poetess says that a woman could get the sexual love of a lover on certain conditions, but, as his love sexual, it was likely that he may desert her when his lust is satisfied with her. In these lines the poetess describes the miserable condition of the woman when her false sex-inclined lover leaves.

The summer Begins to pall, I remember the ruder breezes Of the fall and the smoke from burning leaves. (“The Old Playhouse”)

In these lines of poem The Old Playhouse the poetess emphatically and emotionally describes the hurt, the frustration and the wild despair of the woman persona whom her husband, has imprisoned in his domesticity, and had humiliated her by insolently flaunting his monstrous ego.

As a consequence, the summer of the woman’s life had been blight. She remembers only what she and experienced in her dismal and miserable married life. What she remembers are the rude stormy winds of the autumn season blowing roughly and the smoke coming out from the burning leaves. The poetess is not, like Tennyson, describing nature in tooth and claw. She was describing the nature which, from the point of view of Mathew Arnold, was often the background of human feeling. The poetess is describing nature as the image of the woman’s state of mind. The rude breezes remind us of Shakespeare’s “Blow, blow thou winter wind” which is not as unkind as the ungrateful persons are. The rude breezes of autumn are the mistunes of the woman, the smoke was her gloom and the burning leaves are her burnt hopes.