Aesthetic Sense of the Indian English Poetry: A study of the poetry of

A Young Indian Boy

project submitted to the Bethany Navajeevan Senior Secondary School in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the completion of internal assessment for English in Grade XI

Submitted by

D.ASHISH

Roll.No.: 2

February 2023

Internal Examiner External Examiner

Bethany Navajeevan Senior Secondary School

Bethany Nagar,Vencode 629171

 Declaration

I, D.Ashish, hereby declare that this project entitled Aesthetic Sense of the Indian English Poetry:
A study of the poetry of A Young Indian Boy submitted to the Bethany Navajeevan Senior
Secondary School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the internal
assessment for English in Grade XI, is a bonafide research work done by me under the
supervision and guidance of Mrs. Sujithra.G.R.,M.A.,B.Ed., Post Graduate Teacher,Department
of English, Bethany Navajeevan Senior Secondary School, Vencode.

Vencode D.Ashish

February,2023 Grade:XI

Roll.no.: 2

Bethany Navajeevan Senior

Secondary School

Bethany Nagar,Vencode
 Certificate

This is to certify that this project entitled Aesthetic Sense of the Indian English Poetry: A study of
the poetry of A Young Indian Boy is an authentic record of research work carried out by D.Ashish
under my supervision and guidance in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion
of the internal assessment for English in Grade XI submitted to the Bethany Navajeevan Senior
Secondary school, Vencode.

Mrs.Divya Rekha., M.A.,B.Ed Mrs. Sujithra.G.R.,M.A.,B.Ed

HOD,Department of English PGT, Department of English

BNCBSE BNCBSE

(Guide Teacher)
 Acknowledgement

I owe my sincere gratitude to the God Almighty for his abundant blessings in the preparation of
this project report. I am happy to acknowledge my heartfelt thanks to my supervising teacher
Mrs. Sujithra.G.R.,M.A.,B.Ed, Post Graduate Teacher, Department of English, Bethany
Navajeevan Senior Secondary School , Vencode, for her guidance and painstaking correction and
revision.

I do thank Mrs. Divya Rekha. M.A.,B.Ed. ,HOD, Department of English, for the timely help and
generous encouragement.

I am very grateful to Rev.Fr.Dr.John Christopher OIC, Principal, Bethany Navajeevan Senior

Secondary School, Vencode for the congenial research he has always tried to foster.

My deep sense of gratitude to the librarian the staff for the facilities they offered in the library.

I would also like to express my love and regards to my parents, teachers, friends and all those
who have helped me directly and indirectly, in the successful completion of this project work.

D.ASHISH
 CONTENTS

CHAPTERS CONTENTS PAGE NO.

I INTRODUCTION 1-3
II POETRY OF YOUNG INDIAN BOY 4-6
III CONCLUSION 7
IV STUDENT REFLECTION 8
V BIBLIOGRAPHY 9
 Abstract

Indian English poetry is the oldest form of Indian English literature, which has the attained, both
fecundity and excellence. It represents various phases of development of our multitudinous
cultural and national life right from the beginning of the nineteenth to the mid-nineties of the
twentieth century. It has three phases of development. In the first phase there is a number of co-
development which is responsible for generating Indian English poetry. The modern Indian
English poets have imitative Whitman, T. S. Eliot, Ezra pound, W. B. Yeats. They have also the
guardian streets to the new Indian poetry. There are some talented contemporary poets also who
are composing their work keeping with the recent social problems of Indian. These poets are
Pritish Nandy, Rabindranath Menon Dilip Chitre, Sharat Chandra, K. D. Katrak Gauri Despande,
Nandy is “innovative and profuse” in his poetry.
 CHAPTER-I

INTRODUCTION

Friends, this chapter will introduce you to the history of Indian English verses. It will provide you with
information of the growth of Indian English verses and its socio-cultural background. What are the
various themes in Indian English poetry?

When we talk about Indian English Literature, it is obvious to mention Indian English Poetry, since it is
the oldest form. The typical and actual India is beautifully being carved and described by Indian poets
who write in English.

A new form of English poetry had been discovered by Indian poets by using Indian culture, traditions,
issues etc and made the world know about them.

During the pre-independence era, few of the poets tried to ‘be English’ by copying the style and pattern
of the native English poets, they lost their identity by not paying heed to their own potential.

When British came to India, they brought their culture, language and religion along with them which
resulted in the writers and poets trying their hands in this foreign language and they are famed as well as
reputed till date.

Indian English differs from western or native English in a number of ways like theme, language, style of
writing, imagery etc. The poems were written in Indian English get more connected to Indians because it
is ‘for the Indians and by the Indian’. But when a poet writes for foreign audiences, the Indian touch in
the poem makes it worth reading.

Henry Louis Vivian Derozio is regarded as the first poet of Indian English poetry. He was criticized for
his writings were considered to be too western or it may be said that his poems contained the tint of
Christianity.
Sri Aurobindo, Sarojini Naidu, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Toru Dutt are remarkable Indian English
poets. Rabindranath Tagore used to write both in Bengali as well as English and translated his Bengali
work into English himself. The contemporary English poet, Nar Deo Sharma, because of his literary
achievements; is given an important place in this literature field.

The Hindu tradition of cremation and the process of throwing the ashes into the river are depicted by A.K
Ramanujan, an Indian English poet, in his poem ‘The Obituary’. When Kamala Das saw eunuchs
dancing on the streets of Calcutta, she got inspired and thus ended up with ‘The Dance of the Eunuchs’.
Honesty and authenticity are the key things which make a poem successful and gain ample amount of
audience.

Characteristics:-

In the poems like ‘The Railway Clerk’ by Nissim Ezekiel, there is a comprehensive use of
Indian English such as the suffix; ‘ing’ is unnecessarily being used and in a wrong way and that is
how most Indians use English typically.

Here the poet used this type of English as a tool to create humour and satire. When the Indian
poets started using the words from Indian languages (Hindi, Urdu etc) like “guru, goonda,
burkha, chapatti, pan” etc, people from all over the world automatically started borrowing
those words in English.

It is easy for a true reader to differentiate between an Indian poet and a western counterpart since
the essence of Indianness will remain in their writings. Jayanta Mahapatra is a prominent
Indian writer who possesses Indian sensibility.

In his poem “Dawn at Puri” he describes the importance of the pilgrimage, Puri, in the life of a
Hindu. To attain salvation, women desire to die here. Mahapatra uses landscape theme which
includes sensibility and the connection with roots.

Same is the case with other Indian poets, whether it is Nissim Ezekiel or A.K. Ramanujan, an
exception is hardly available. The language and the subject used by the poets reveal the
experience earned by them.

Modern poetry is full of ironic remarks. The new poets have used irony as a great weapon in their
poetry. New poets like Shiva K. Kumar, Ramanujan, Daruwalla, Grieve Patel, Arun Kolatkar,
Kamala Das, and I. H. Rizvi etc. excel in the use of the ironic mode. They have not the blind
followers of British English. They have evolved a distinct idiom to express their voice. They have
succeeded to nativize or indianize English in order to reveal typical Indian situations. Shiva K.
Kumar uses the apt idiom to describe the abominable practice of floor crossing in an Indian
politician: “Vasectomized of all genital urges for love and beauty he often crossed floors as his
wife leaped across beds.”
 Indianness is inherited from Indian writers and they can’t escape from it. Beliefs, attitude, myths,
allusion etc are the patterns used by the Indian poets. So nothing can be more inspirational for
Indians other than India.

Major themes dealt in Indian English Poetry

One cannot deny the fact that Indian poetry in English in the post - independence period is
different from the poetry in the pre - independence period or rather colonial period. All literature,
as Taine, the French critic said, is the product of the triad, the race, the moment and the milieu
and since for the Indians the attainment of independence in 1947 marks a great watershed in the
annuals of India's political history, the period preceding independence was naturally full of
political ferment and turmoil and the urge of the nationalist Indians to acquire a distinct national
identity to avoid being brow - beaten by the imperialist forces.

The Time - spirit that permeated colonial India and began to permeate independent India were
different. The sources of inspiration derived from the Indian ethos were ipso facto different. What
England and America witnessed in the early part of the 20th century, India witnessed in the post -
independence period. Indian English poetry therefore acquired a new dimension of modernity and
modernist trait in the 50s when the English and the American poetry had acquired it in the 20s.

Major Indian English Poets

Before Indians could write poetry in English, two related preconditions had to be met. First, the
English language had to be sufficiently indianised to be able to express the reality of the Indian
situation. Secondly, Indians had to be sufficiently Anglicized to use the English language to
express themselves. In 1780 India's first newspaper, 'Hicky's Bengal Gazette', was published in
English. In1817, the Hindu college, which later became Presidency College, the premier
educational institution of Bengal, was founded. More significantly, in 1835, Viceroy Macaulay,
in his famous Minute, laid the foundations of the modern educational system, with his decision to
promote European science and literatures among Indians through the medium of the English
language. The result was that English became in India, as later in other British colonies, a
passport to privilege.

Indian poetry in English began in Bengal, the province in which the British first gained a
stronghold. In addition, his poetry was largely an urban phenomenon centered in Calcutta. Infact,
for the first fifty years, it was confined entirely to a few Bengali families who were residents of
the city. Then, gradually it moved to other urban centers such as Madras and Bombay; even
today, Indian poetry in English remains largely urban. Moreover, because English was an elite
language in India, Indian poets in English came from the upper classes and castes.

When Indians first began to write poetry, it was not distinguished from that of the British in India,
or Anglo - Indians as they were called. Indeed, because India was a part of the British Empire,
Indian poets in English were not given a separate national identity; their early efforts were
considered tributary to the mainstream of English Literature.
 CHAPTER- II

POETRY OF A YOUNG INDIAN BOY

A SEED BROKEN

A seed sown on the soil,

born out of it.

Leaves, out a bit.

Roots down the soil, deep.

Time came for it,

to depart for a bit.

Place appeared new.

not only for few.

It worked a lot to repair the clot.

It turned tree,

made itself free.

Gave shelther and shade

Brave ever, as made,

 to withstand the invaders.

It shoot out flowers cum fruits.

Smelled and tasted nice cum wise.

This poem is a FREE VERSE form of poem*.

DROPS ON THE LEAVES

Its a hard rain that,

the day had.

Trees shed leaves down.

Drops often stick leaves.

some off the leaves on ground.

Drops that remains on leaves,

Evaporate to heaven.

Drops that fall on ground,

move down the hell.

MY GREATEST FEAR

Oh my dears,

lent your ears,

to my greatest fear.

Here you hear:

 the tears of my mother,

the gears of my father,

the years of my grandparents,

brings me the fear,

as they are near.

Rhyme scheme : aabb ccdbb

SIGHT TILL LOST

Travelled over a huge,

with several age groups,

came to my sight,

but not to my height,

being, I am eight.

Moved over my head

To the way for ahead.

I lost it, from sight,

Only for a night.

Rhyme scheme: abccc ddcc

By this chapter, you witness the Indian English Poetry. Such poems are produced not only by the efforts
of poets but also by the efforts made by the teachers to cultivate it. If young Indians could scribble such
poems, then what about the experienced one?
 CHAPTER-III

CONCLUSION

To sum up, we can say that in the ancient period the body of Indian English poetry has certainly
been greater during this period than in any later era. P. Lal has brought out a book over 130 poets
with the title Indian Poetry in English an Anthology in which he has composed selected poems of
new poets. The poetry of this period ranges from personal emotion and lyricism to complex
linguistic experiments, dry intellectualism, and satire. It has a new urgency of utterance but even
than it is not possible to escape this poetry completely from tradition. This penetrates deeper and
deeper into the poet consciousness and influences their observations of the living present and
past, thus runs into the present and shapes our future.

Our racial traditions, issuing from the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Ramayana, the Mahabharta, the
devotional saint poetry, the treasure house of Indian myth and legend, the memory of our racial or
local history, have shaped modern poetry. Sri Paramhansa Yogananda, Mahanand Sharma and
Krishna Srinivas represent the mystical and spiritual tradition of India in their poetry.

But they are not mere traditionalist. Their poetry is a fine coalescence of tradition and modernity.
Even poets like Nissim Ezekiel, A.K. Ramanujan, R. Parathasarthy, ArunKolatkar, Jayanta
Mahapatra, Gieve Patel, K.N. Daruwalla, Kamala Das, Shiva K. Kumar and many others can not
completely get rid of tradition.

The modern poets deal with the concrete experiences of men living in the modern world but the
concreteness of experiences is influenced by “the aroma of the private life of the experiencing
self.” P.K.J Kurup remarks: “They are mostly concerned with themselves and the surroundings
allied to them. Their poetry records the artists own life history and his struggle against himself.
 They centre themselves within their selves is an attempt to discover their roots, both as
individuals and as cultists, and during the process of which Endeavour their poetic personality
appears undisguised. Viewed in this perspective the poetry of most of the new Indian poets in
English reveals a tension resulting from their acute self-awareness and the restraint imposed upon
them by the hostile environment and becomes a private quest for values and an effort to peer into
the dark abysmal contents of the poet’s own mind.”

CHAPTER-IV

STUDENT REFLECTION

The topic has been chosen for the project as poetry is the best form of English Literature. By this project,
I Explored the history of Indian English Poetry and its advancement. Writing poems make you happy and
keen watcher of things around you. By this project I prove that Indian English poetry is the best poetry in
the world. Most of the poems are translated from our mother language to English, by this people around
the world come to know about our language and it special features.
 CHAPTER- V

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_poetry_in_English
 https://englishsummary.com/indian-poetry-inenglish/
 https://www.eng-literature.com/2016/01/essay-on-indo-anglican-poetry-poets.html
 Poems of 8th grade 📖 book.