Poems of various French authors, translated into English, with notes, by Toru Dutt.

Indian poetry in English began with the imitation of English Romantic poets but gradually Indo-Anglian poets began to write on Indian themes based on Indian contexts and Indian social scenario. Indo-Anglian poetry has received world recognition and some of the poets are held in high esteem. This anthology containing 35 essays is an attempt to represent the gamut of Indian poetry in English, both pre-Independence and post-Independence, from diverse critical perspectives. The thirteen poets covered in this anthology include Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Toru Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu, Nissim Ezekiel, A.K. Ramanujan, and Kamala Das. The essays in the book offer innovative perspectives and touch upon different aspects of Indian poetry in English. The tone of the essays varies from personal to argumentative to objectively discursive. The book, with diverse and thought-provoking essays, will be highly useful for undergraduate and postgraduate students of English Literature. Besides, those who are interested to know about Indian Poetry in English will find the book quite illuminating and interesting.

In this study, ten independent critical essays and a coda explore the English-language poetry of South Asians in terms of time, place, themes and poetic methodologies. The transnational perspective taken establishes connections between colonial and postcolonial South Asian poetry in English as well as the poetry of the old and new diaspora and the Subcontinent. The poetry analysis covers the relevance of historical allusions as well as underlying concerns of gender, ethnicity and class. Comparisons are offered between poets of different places and time periods, yielding numerous sociopolitical paradigms that surface in the poetry.

Indian poets who wrote in English—a small middle class minority—were divided from the regional language poets by more than language for long. The English poets had a selected readership, were known unto themselves, in academic circles if they were widely published, but were looked down upon with a kind of derision by regional writers. However, the scenario has changed now. From English being spurned as a colonizer’s tongue that was nobody’s language, it has now become everybody’s language with English medium schools, English movies, ads, soaps and serials. For a generation living in a global village, genuine readership and appreciation of English poetry is no longer an encumbrance. This book, in its second edition, continues to educate the students with diverse and thought-provoking essays that vary from personal to argumentative to objectively discursive English literature and to those who are genuinely interested in Indian English poetry. The Fourteen poets selected in this anthology are Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Toru Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore, Aurobindo Ghosh, Sarojini Naidu, Jibanananda Das, Nissim Ezekiel, Jayanta Mahapatra, A.K. Ramanujan, Arun Kolatkar, Rajagopal Parthasarathy, Kamala Das, and Dilip Chitre. The poets included are all on the syllabi of major universities in India.