Jibanananda Das’s Aesthetics in Beautiful : An Eco-critical Study

Md. Shamim Mondol1

Abstract

This paper aims at having a close look at Jibanananda Das’s poems especially Beautiful Bengal, the poetry published posthumously to show how the poet has observed and felt nature and accordingly presented it. In his delineation, the poet has all the compassions to expose the symbiosis between human beings and nature. The poems have got innumerable indirect implications to the continuous indiscriminate suicidal act of the man to damage the natural elements. This in turn contributes to awaken the reader to be passionate about the positive effects and impacts on human life, and so preserve nature against harrowing destruction around to maintain the balanced, peaceful and complete environment. Apart from some modes of discussions about his poems which are basically stuck in the topics associated with sensuous presentation of nature, sense of history, conscience related to death, frustration, decadence, modernity in theme, diction, form and difference from others, his writings have got other perspectives that are little explored so far. Among them, the environmental issues can inevitably come to the forefront of researches and this is a modest effort in that direction.

Keywords: Beautiful Bengal, ecocriticism, symbiosis, environment, issues

Ecocritical Focuses

Ecocriticism is a relatively recent branch of literary studies that takes “an earth-centered approach to the study of texts” (Garrard, 2004, 1). Primarily starting with the Industrial Revolution, the environment is facing ever-growing challenges of pollution. The recent unprecedented degradation of the ecosystem threatening the very existence of human race has awakened the world to think seriously about the conservation of environment. Hence the question of prevention of degradation and preservation of the natural world have made the intellectuals ponder over the hazards and find out some means to promote the campaign for saving nature through literature and other possible ways and means, and in that context emerges ecocriticism. In The Ecocriticism Reader, Glotfelty (1996) defines ecocriticism as “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment” (xviii) while Lawrence Buell considers it as the “study of the relationship between literature and the environment conducted in a spirit of commitment to environmentalist praxis” (1995: 430) Ecocriticism thus comes to

1. Assistant Professor, Department of English, Green University of

assess how literature and literary activities shape current perceptions of the environment and how nature is related within the cultural arena. It also focuses on certain historically conditioned concepts of nature and the natural world. The ecocritics also take their intellectual works as a direct intervention in current social, political, and economic debates surrounding environmental pollution and preservation. Pramod K. Nayar’s observation is quite comprehensive while he assesses ecocriticism as, a critical mode that looks at the representation of nature and landscape in cultural texts, paying particular attention to attitudes towards ‘nature’ and rhetoric employed when speaking about it. It aligns itself with ecological activism and social theory with the assumption that the rhetoric of cultural texts reflects and informs material practices towards the environment, while seeking to increase awareness about it and linking itself (and literary texts) with other ecological sciences and approaches. (2010, 242)

In this context, the concept of deep ecology bears relevance as the spirit of this study goes quite well with themes of the poems of Jibanananda Das. This contemporary ecological and environmental philosophy advocates the inherent worth of living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs. It also advocates the restructuring of the present societies in accordance with such ideas. It argues that the natural world is a subtle balance of complex inter- relationships. So human interference and destruction of the natural world pose threats to the existence of organisms along with humans and natural order within ecosystems. Departing from anthropocentric environmentalism, the view of human beings here is much more hoilistic. The natural world is not to be freely exploited by humans. The ethics is the survival of any part is dependent upon the well-being of the whole. John Barry (2002) decidedly puts “this philosophy provides a foundation for the environmental, ecology and green movements and has fostered a new system of environmental ethics advocating wilderness preservation, human population control and simple living.” (161)

Jibanananda Das: Looking at his Creation

Jibanananda Das emerged in Bangla literature without much fuss in the literary circle, but continued contributing till his death carving an immortal place for him. Ahmed Rafiq (2020) opines, “Jibanananda Das is the major poet in the post- Rabindranath modern era.”

As a poet, Jibanananda Das was at once a classicist and a romantic and created a world appealing to a modern mind. His renderings magnetize the sensitive and reactive mind full of anxiety and tension. Though he had got some influences of some poets in the initial writings, he soon overcomes and gets the voice that suits him and embellishes it with his own diction, rhythm and

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vocabulary. He finds out his root in the indigenous elements. He unmistakably maintains a self-styled lyricism and imagism for which (2011) finds “The Purest Poet” the terms coined by Annadashankar Roy to be the most defining phrase for Jibanananda Das. (11) His sensuousness is easily felt in the pictures abound with the flora and fauna of Bangla. His frequent references to the comparative existence of human beings and natural world relate him to existentialism perfectly suited to the modern temperament. He is amazed and upset at a time about the continued existence of humankind in the backdrop of eternal flux of time. He is a poet seeking his existence ingrained in the tradition and history of Bengal. He has made repeated references to the traditional stories, fairy tales, historical events, personalities and places thus pacing him firmly in the lap the country.

Environmental Concerns in Das’s Poems

Nature is a recurrent theme in the poetry of Jibanananda Das with repeated emphasis on the elements of the environments like trees, birds, flower, rivers etc. explicitly showing his strong concern for them as he was critical to unplanned expansion of capitalism and industries which have dire consequences on our environment. Kamrul Islam summarizes his embedded in nature thus, “He became a poet nurtured by nature, his multi-layered poetic genius was nourished and flourished in nature’s nest.” The First World War and its subsequent disastrous effects on earth and human beings must have left a pessimistic imprint on his mind about the future of the greeneries which led him to remember and record nature with all its beauties and bounties. In case of Beautiful Bengal, it is obviously seen from the missing title originally given by the poet Scared Sky of Bengal (Banglar Trosto Nilima). As Abu Hasan Shahriar (2008) puts, “From the intimate sources, it is known that the poet desired to publish the book under the title Banglar Trosto Nilima.” (8) In his writings, he has pampered nature and nourished it thoroughly in a consistent practice. He has promoted the elements of nature with all the softness and tenderness. He resorts to them whenever he wants to even at the cost of something materialistically far more lucrative. He intermingles mood and nature as if nature interacted in time of need and never left us. His depiction of nature is faithful and sensuous. He dwells upon nature in a way that clearly shows the superiority of nature, not the nature of a patriarchal society dominated by the males as they do to the females. As nature is inseparable from human beings, his feeling is such that human beings and nature are interdependent so far the better existence on earth is concerned.

In the poem “Camping” (“”) of Gray Manuscripts which was considered obscene when it was published in Poricay, the poet is straight in his articulation against the suicidal acts of human being against environment. He is aggrieved for the reason that hunters kill the animals indiscriminately. No part of

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the forest is safe for the wild animals because the people hunting them have moved even to the deepest and safest abode of them. So he pronounces with heavy heart and perturbation, Somewhere deer are being hunted this day Hunters have moved into the heart of the forest today. (Alam, 1999, 32)1

In this poem, the poet has even gone the extent to depict human beings in general which is again by no means positive. The poem is amorous in its tone and themes where does are heard to call stags to ‘quench their thirst’. The stags ‘move towards their sister/ Under the shundari trees- in the moonlight-/Like men lured by the smell of salty women’. But human beings are by nature cruel and so they have a little compassion for the animals, their enjoyment and feelings. Consequently, what they will do is completely disastrous for the does and the stags. The poet as a keen observer has nothing to expect from them and so he is sure that in the morning following, the does coming back will surely find a ruinous ground for them. Man has nothing more for the animals to learn.

Tomorrow the doe will come back; In morning-in light she will be seen- Next to her will be all her fallen lovers. Lessons she has learnt from humans! (Alam, 1999, 34)

The poet is not satisfied to portray this morbid picture of the moral ground of human beings in general. He who is on the surface sympathetic towards the animals is not an exception at all. Rather, he will also be enjoying the flesh in the dinner table. The poet is so much embittered that he raises the question if this would not stop.

In my dinner dish I will smell venison -----eating deer meat-shouldn’t that stop? -----why should it? Why should the thought of stags bring pain? Am I too not like them? (Alam, 1999, 34)

In the poem “Before Death” (“Mrittyur Aage”) of Gray Manuscripts, the poet recounts the things we, as human beings can see, observe and enjoy before death. The poet narrates the vivid features of the beautiful world specially of the surroundings of Bengal as well as the sad, negative and unexpected incidents and accidents happenings around us. The morbid activities of man that he has reflected here are some of the natural disasters and the suicidal activities of human beings. He has focused on those who have gone through the experience of birds killing and here the satisfaction of the poet lie in the fact that some birds have escaped the

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killing. His attachment with nature is so close and warm that he can hardly think of nature and human life separable, rather they are entwined even in their exchange of love, care and feeling. To him, nature is just one part of human life, and so he wants us to caress and show affection to nature as if we were caressing human beings. The poet’s quest does not end here. He is an ardent lover of life and so looks for the trace of life where it is seems possible. In nature, he finds the signs of life. Here he is a pantheist Das observing life everywhere in nature which reminds us of Wordsworth too.

We who have placed loving hands on paddy sheaves, Have watched the evening crow hurry home full of hope; Have seen signs of life surround us all year round. (Alam, 1999, 38)

Beautiful Bengal: An Advocacy for Environment

Beautiful Bengal is “the most popular poetry of Jibanananda Das”. (Chowdhury, 2020) The poet’s orientation with nature was at an early age at home where the gardener was the mentor to him. To quote Jaladas (2010), “The gardener without wife and son Ali Mamud taught Jibanananda Das the name of various creepers, leaves and trees; He explained to him about their characteristics at different seasons with much tenderness.” (24) He grew affection towards the plants and trees. He was also seen to buy flower plants and nourish them in the house. In this way he developed a tie touching heart with the environment and the surroundings. To quote Jaladas (2010) again, A fakir who would come to their house was a symbol of indigence and simplicity. He would tell Jibanananda Das different stories about crops and corns. The fakir would mow grass with sickle while telling him about the soil. Seeing this, the boy Jibanananda would feel distressed. (26)

The poet’s aim of writing Beautiful Bengal is clearly seen; the poet has deliberately chosen the green fields with the flying birds, wandering animals, watery places of Bengal as his peripatetic ground. The theme of death has got prominence in many poems which have led many critics to find gloominess of a poet overshadowed with the thought of leaving the world. Commonly it is thought to be a presentation of the natural beauty of Bengal tinged with love and dejection, fatigue and indolence with the spontaneity of an emotion stricken poet. As Clinton B. Seely says,

To write some sixty sonnets eulogizing Bengal presupposes intense emotional involvement with one’s environment, and Jibanananda’s sonnets are not intellectual constructs statements, the speech of a romantic’s childlike heart experiencing love. If overheard as he talked to himself in such exuberant outbursts, the poet might have burned with

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embarrassment for these, comments are almost too personal. Through such private exercises, Jibanananda relieves Bengal to the fullest, an animal vegetable mineral rural Bengal, not the human society of cosmopolitan Bengal. (12)

His overt objective is to show the superiority of nature for the contribution the elements of our environment have for us. He is keen at showing the everlasting existence of green even when all the civilizations may get ruined. He is also apprehensive of the future as The First World War razed a considerable part of the world and spread negativity and pessimism throughout the world. His earnestness to nestle in the lap of nature of Bengal also bears a testimony to his doubt of the clement existence of those elements of nature in future. It is noted here that Das wrote Beautiful Bengal at a time when he was in a miserable condition leading a complete unemployed life starting from April 1930 when he left Ramjosh College, after serving there for four months to return home for marriage arranged by the guardians upto 1935 when he joined Barishal Brojomohon College as a professor of English. He wrote the major poems of Beautiful Bengal in 1934 during those days of mental afflictions. In fact, nature gave him what he could not get in human locality and so he embarked on writing about his endeared nature he nourished from his childhood. Shahaduzzaman (2020) rightly puts, “The nature of Bengal came to become his resort in the helpless Calcutta life”, and “he got the inspiration to live through nature”. (Cited in Hasan Ferdous’s “JIbanananda Das, A Wonder Apart”)

Hasan Ferdous (2020) finds nature of Das in Beautiful Bengal from a different perspective. To him, “Jibanananda has taken nature as woman” in these poems. He sees an independent entity in nature which can provide shelter to even shattered human beings with the pampering of a motherly figure. In this regard, Ursula K. Heise’s (1999) reflection is noteworthy as he thinks it “as ways in which literature represents the human relations to nature at particular moments of history, what values are assigned to nature and why, and how perceptions of the natural shape literary tropes and genres” (1089).

In most of the poems, the poet has painted word pictures of an ideal house to live in throughout his life. His desired dwelling is surrounded by green trees, local birds, natural water and unbounded nourishing and roaming of the elements of environment. His concept resounds the very recent concept of ecovillage. In poem no 10, we see:

The world’s busy somewhere with success and power Rude monuments are cropping up somewhere touching the sky Somewhere ships clog drawing the anchor in the clouds

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I don’t know;-I build my house in the rural Bengal. (Shahriar, 2008, 16) He has preferences for that location for his mental embeddedness in nature, and so he can opt for nature rejecting the luxurious city edifice. Giving a thought to the list of the trees, flowers and fruits and the use of the names of them with the colour, sound and surroundings, Monjuvas Mitra (2009) observes, “These have come to be the living spirit and symbol of nature to the poet, they have come to become an everlasting world of biodiversity through nursing the dreams of the poet, where one can get pleasure in time of self-impotence, solace and care in time of distress.” (346)

In the poem, “Knowing How These Fields Will Not Be Hushed That Day”, the beautiful natural sceneries are to be alive forever even when the poet is not there, even after the civilization of Asyria and Babylon had been ruined, ‘these tales of earth live on forever’. He can not even think in wild dream that dew drops ever cease ‘to wet chalta flowers.’ Nature with all comeliness and beauty withstand the test of time and surging of soft scent, hooting of owls, murmuring of flowing water and the ferryboats close to the sand banks will not lose their sway. Here the reference to ferry boats is quite significant and his thought is eco-friendly as he has not nourished the thought of the speedy modern motorized vehicles which were rampant even in his days and we can recall his tragic accident with tram while having a walk. He rather dreams of and prays for the boats with the sand banks not with the rivers dried up with sand banks in the middle. Despite the pessimism, it shows his mental alignment with nature. Monjuvas Mitra (209) rightly observes, “As if the poet armed himself in favour of green world, his thirst and struggle are entirely for giving the plant world a well-defined and strengthened root in the world.” (349)

In the poem “Go Wherever You Want To”, the poet is blatantly in favour of aligning his existence with nature telling others around to go wherever they want. He will continue staying here in Bengal. His determination and longing for living here shedding all the temptations of outside world is inspired and strengthened by nature and natural scenery. His desire for the beauty of jackfruit, brown winged shalik, hijal tree, a famine figure, Paran’s tale, kalni’s reed reinforces his own positive and favourable support for both ecology and the environmental balance which can never be achieved through damaging our nature. He almost negligently tells others to go wherever they like, at the same time showing that the other people are hardly aware of the value of beauty and usefulness of natural surroundings. In fact, he tells others to be with him if they can realize the nourishing and soothing power of nature.

In the poem “As Long As I Live”, he again shows his determination to keep seeing the sky and he compares the ‘distant sky’ with ‘aparajita vines’

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highlighting once again the broad impact of green. In later part of the poem, he has adopted references to the near and distant past which altogether create an environment picturing natural gloominess.

The poem “One day I Will Lie Down” is apparently about the days after his death. The desire of the poet is again highlighting the probable soothing effect of nature even after death on dead or immortal spirit. The poet rather wants to ‘lie down in a field of Bengal under a shriveled banyan tree/Next to a Jalshiri River bank’ where ‘red fruits will drop off softly/ Onto the desolate grass like far falling’. The river is not emaciated as now we see for the suicidal act of the people around. ‘The river water will strike goddess Bisalakshi’s shrine door’. He has referred his chosen environmental elements like rotting jute, ‘kalmi plants’, the ‘wet owl’, kadam forest ‘monastery wrapped up in Bengal’s grass’, ‘akanda trees and vasak vines’. Apart from the references to mythology, all these references show the poet’s eco-sense to be strong as there are elements of peace in life on earth and hereafter.

Mizan Rahman (2009) observes, “And the use of these plants and animals has not only added to building the beauty of Bengal, they have attracted botanists and zoologists.” (371) In “As The Seven Stars of the Sky”, the poet’s depiction of the eternal Bengal excites our imagination and make us think of the green trees which eventually inspire and compel us to become conscious of the value and direct and positive effects of the trees whether it is a day time or evening or night. ‘As the seven starts of the sky arise’, the poet sits down to see the variety of beauty in the nature of Bengal, ‘kamranga fruits’ drown in the Ganga estuary waves. ‘Bengal’s placid compliant blue/Evening has sat in’ which reminds him of ‘a maid with flowing tresses’ and in turn makes us romantic and amorous enough to fall in love with nature, and he sees the ‘streaming tresses kissing Hijal, Jam, and Jackfruit trees’. The poet inspires us to preserve trees by saying that nowhere one can find ‘such delicate smell of soft rice, kalmi plants/ Duck feathers, reeds, pond water, chanda and sharputi fish’, ‘moist and cold from washing rice’, ‘exhausted silences of red banyan tree fruits’. To him true Bengal is that Bengal which is enriched in the green trees and live watery places. He hears ‘Bengal’s heart beating amidst these sights and smells’. The concluding line actually imparts the Bengalis a lesson that a well-balanced ecology can only ensure a Bengal, a true Bengal and we, the readers and inhabitants, should work for the greeneries. It seems to be passively said which is said directly by Wordsworth as a piece of advice to his sister Dorothy.

My dear, dear Sister! and this prayer I make, Knowing that Nature never did betray The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,

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Through all the years of this our life, to lead From joy to joy: (Tintern Abbey)

Jibanananda Das was well aware of the fact that a well-balanced ecology requires trees, animals, water, insects, birds and all other elements of nature but for which we cannot prevent environmental degradation. In the poem, “Nowhere Have I Seen”, he has seen grasshoppers, green beetles, butterflies and shyampokas. He has seen ‘desolate grass at the forest’s edge’, ‘tired hijal leaves’, ‘countless banyan fruits’. His nature provides savory for the wandering rustic boys who ‘flock to savor soft bet or nata fruits’, or ‘look for dhundul seeds in the grass’. Ample cranes, shalik, or khanjana are there. Lying on grasses, one can think of the past, blue sky not derelict as then Ballal ’s steeds. But everything can be repaid as ‘merely nata fruits to what all desires.’ Monjuvas Mitra’s analysis is, “Reading Jibananada’s Beautiful Bengal not only gives the extreme and painful pleasure but also enhances the concentration about the tress, animals, worms, animals and birds of Bengal.” (2009, 347)

The poet’s love for history and nature has merged together, and he in grass of Bengal can keep in view the historical characters like Sitaram, Rajram, Ramnath Roy and he gets their touch of the mythological characters like Kankabati, and Shankhamala and he finds ‘their body odors and shriveled champa-flower scented tresses/ Still cling to the grass’. Through this amalgamation of history, myths and nature, he has unveiled the fact that Bengal is altogether Bengal and without nature and lively green, we can not have them to ‘our bosom’. The poet wants to keep in touch and will ‘lie down in the bosom of this grass’ and keep in view ‘shalik birds’, ‘dust soaked with rainwater’, ‘bherenda flowers’. All these scenes and sights are so sensuous that these bring forth our senses and make us feel with the greatest satisfaction. In fact, this makes us fall in love with the trees and grasses and lead us to prove that love by preserving them.

Man’s craving for success and power is commonly found. The poet too has found this and still he does not feel for those pomp, pelf and power; rather his satisfaction lies in the fact that he has built his ‘home in Bengal’s rural scene’ where ‘ravens fly in palmyra groves in evenings’, ‘birds fly in mornings to blue tamarind forests’. He hears owls singing in ‘kadam tree’ branches late in moonlit nights, dripping dew drops, rustling river. The poet’s vision is no doubt eco- friendly when the concept of ‘green village’ is emerging on part of the environment conscious people, the poet has long back pictured it and made us think of it.

The most recited and familiar poem of this volume is “I Have Seen Bengal’s Face”. Here his insistence is on the incomparable beauty of Bengal which

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is entirely the beauty of nature of Bangladesh. He has of course intense love for all of them and he is sure for himself that the world is incapable of showing him anything more beautiful than this Bengal has gifted us. He is enamored with the beauty of fig tree, ‘dawn swallows roosting under huge umbrella-like leaves’. He is fascinated to discover ‘a leafy dome/Jam kanthal bat hijal aswatha trees all in a hush/Shadowing clumps of cactus and zeodary bushes’. It is not that this is only present-day scenario. Rather it’s the tradition of thousand years of Bengal as even ‘long ago, Chand came in his honeycombed boat/To a blue Hijal Bat Tamal shade near the Chamap and he too sighted all there. Another mythological reference is to -Lakshindar’s tale. He tells us even Behula too saw all these beauty in her hard days in Ganguri. But the important part here is that nature sympathizes and accompanies us in our weal and woe which is clear from the fact that in Amara ‘when she danced like a desolate wagtail, Bengal’s rivers, fields, flowers, wailed like string of bells on her feet’.

In the same tune, in “There is a land”, the beauty of the country is just incomparable. Here the poet discovers that ‘the river goddess Varuni lives in the lap of the Ganges’ and ‘bestows her bounty on the rivers Karnaphuli, Dhaleswari, Padma, Jalangi. He marks ‘the grass and paddy fields of blue Bengal’ as Bisalakshi’s boon. Then whether death is painful and losing everything is a pertinent question. The answer is no, so the poet will have no sorrow when he leaves and disappears ‘into the far-off fog, because of the satisfaction that he has lived ‘in a land where the dust / smells of mist grass’, ‘Bengalis throng everywhere’, and ‘inhale forever in sravan’s rains the soft soothing rhythms of mystic songs and fairy tales, folklores and open air plays. What gives him satisfaction at death and even after death in the warm touch of all these elements which are natural or produced in touch of nature.

In the title poem “Beautiful Bengal”, the poet longs to come again to the bank of Dhanshiri, if not as human beings, then he may come back ‘as a white- breasted shankhachil or a yellow-becked shalik’ that shows the value of these lives and charm of these lives. He would like to ‘return to this autumnal rice-harvest laden land’, ‘float one day into the jack-fruit tree shade’, ‘pass floating in the fragrance of the aquatic kalmi plant’, ‘come lovingly again to Bengal’s rivers, fields, farmland,/To the green wistful shores of Bengal lapped by Jalangi’s waves’. Here one can ‘see the evening breeze’, ‘hear an owl calling in shimul branches’, see a boy ‘scattering parched rice in some grassy yard’, the boys ‘rowing a boat’, ‘in the muddy Rupsha river the white stroke’ and the poet can be found among them. Here ‘muddy Rupsha’ can remind us of the Buriganga which is no muddier rather poisonous for throwing toxic chemical elements. The poet’s craving for being in touch with them shows nature’s capability for attraction which in course makes us feel the magnanimity of nature. A poet is the true worshipper of beauty. The

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unique can be offered ‘by nature otherwise a man of finest spirit can not have this kind of touch. This is a clear advocacy in favour of nature. This championing act has been carried out by the poet throughout his works. In “The Shalik Bird Which Dies”, the poet mourns for the passed away but even here feels sorrow for the rivers for their flow being checked and they ‘have silted up and meandered’. This seems to be a warning against occupation of watery places and rivers by filling them up. In “While I Sat Down to Write These Poems”, nature comes to him as inspiration and makes him write these poems, so again we can recall Wordsworth In nature and the language of the sense, The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul Of all my moral being. (Tintern Abbey)

In “I Love These Raindrops”, Das has eulogized raindrops, ‘silvery drops of rain water’ that ‘caressed’ his hair, ‘touched’ him, the touch seems to him as the ‘passionate kiss of a girl in love’. Here comes the question of desertification that results from deforestation. Here his implied emphasis is on afforestation without which these raindrops will not touch us.

Conclusion

Jibanananda Das is undeniably the most prominent poet of Bangla literature in its modern era supposed to have started in the thirties of the last century. He, a detached man, has added new dimensions to poetry with his habitual and spiritual attachment with nature. His nature is not only the projections of the creator and objects to be depicted with sensuousness, rather his nature is vivid and lively, well delineated and unblemished. His alignment with nature is emotional and intellectual, fascinating and soothing. His is the love that perpetuates in life, in death and even after death. His poems help us to realize the fact that without healthy nature, it is quite impossible for human beings to exist peacefully. Here lies the contribution of the poet in raising awareness in conservation and preservation of our environment and the poet is strongly poetically vocal providing the message. He expresses his heart, his embittered feelings and protests against the suicidal acts against environment which is seen to be done by the environmentalist these days.

Endnote

1All the excerpts quoted from Jibanananda Das have been taken from Jibanananda Das: Selected Poems with an Introduction, translated by Alam Fakrul.

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