In India poetry in English was, generally speaking, looked down upon and considered a second rate creative activity. However, there arose in the '60s and '70s a cluster of powerful poets who reflected through their poetry a growing and foreboding essence of what popularly came to be known as 'Indianness'. They were also conscious of their own poetic idioms, styles and techniques. They were vigorous in experimenting and enhanced their poetry by speaking with a brutal candour, and marked by the kind of creative tension that generates good poetry. In the '80s and '90s there emerged a group of well educated younger generation of poets, conscious of their craft, displaying a resilience of poetic themes. They had a down to earth flexible approach, varying their themes from love to social exposure and inquisition. Consequently the number of poetry journals grew among the literati of the country. There was also an interaction and interplay of ideas between the older generation of the Indian poets writing in English and the younger generation.
North East India also witnessed the emergence of such a younger group of poets in the '80s and early '90s whose poetry, written in feverish moments of societal crisis, attracted the attention of critics and literary journals of India and abroad. Coincidentally these poets all live in Shillong and it was the poetry page of the Telegraph Colour Magazine edited by the celebrated Indo English poet Jayanta Mahapatra which gave them the opportunity to be published and break new grounds in the Indo-English poetry scene. In the mid and late 90's the North East Forum for English studies was established in Guwahati, and formed mainly by some College teachers; and the North East Writers Forum consisting of creative writers in this part of the country devoted much of their energy in encouraging the art of poetry in English in the region. This article will focus on these poets from Shillong as certain binding themes of personal, social and historical concern unified their poetry and gave it a distinct flavour, marked by an astonishing sense of lyricism.
The poets who readily come to the mind are: Desmond Leslie Kharmawphlang, Robin S Ngangom and Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih, votaries of the poetry of feeling. Their verse immediately attracted critical attention for their universal concerns, kneading these with localized themes. Their poetry was lyrical, imbued with a striking poise, clarity and spontaneity. They empathized with one another in their themes, and their 'influences' were many: Neruda, Arghezi, Gullen, Pessoa, Jayanta Mahapatra to name a few. Yet these 'influences' on their poetry did not stultify their verse, rather they empathetically related experiences of these poets to their own poetic credos cleverly. They believed in encouraging younger poets and helped them to publish their poetry in their mouthpiece Lyric. Lyric, the poetry journal of the Shillong Poetry Circle subsequently gained reputation as a standard poetry journal acclaimed by critics in Sahitya Akademi's "Indian Literature", "The Times of India", "The Indian Express", "Business Standard" etc. Lyric published the works of poets on a national and international scale, and was scrupulous in its editing and selection. The chief architects of Lyric were the poets mentioned above though much of the pioneering work in publishing it was achieved by Robin Ngangom and Desmond Leslie Kharmawphlang.
If we speak of a general 'Indianness' a poetry written in English in India, these poets nonchalantly subverted such a notion, by writing poignantly and memorably of their home-town, a shared nostalgia for the past, and the prevalent social issues with their attendant pitfalls. They evinced a remarkable racial, sociological and historical memory to capture iridescent moments of their society in transition. Makarand Parajpe the critic has described them as "ethnic" poets. They believe that the best of poetry and its finer instincts has the indelible stamp of the native genius; in William Wordsworth's decree 'it is man speaking to man'. They glimpsed such a primal functioning in the best of poetry and attempted to encapsulate this in their verse. They effectively used the oral tradition and mythology of their cultures and related these to their poetic vision, philosophy and craft. Above all they viewed the strenuous craft of writing poetry as essentially meditative and philosophical, devoid of any 'ism'. Surely an original and invigorating body of work had come to permanently stay in the India poetic scene. The focal point of discussion here is that all these poets were in love, with the traditional and cultural moorings of their societies. They hearkened to the past, to its nostalgic calls; they were romantics and idealists in sharp contrast to the modernism and neo-modernism of current literary trends. They shunned clichés, preferring to use candidly the pristine-ness of the English language; and were truly neophytes in the art of writing poetry.
This kind of 'Indianness' fraught with local sentiments did not fail to touch the literary sensibilities of the rest of the country and these poets were immediately recognised for staking poetic claims and voices of their very own. They were propelled by their own poetic conscience and genius, intuitively feeling the urge to write what has already been termed as 'ethnic' poetry. Yet what were the actual social themes in their poetry? A careful analysis reveals that there is in their poetry a deep seated conflict between 'what is' and 'what could have been', the hiatus as it were between past and present. This in turn generated a poetic tension and tinged their poems with a metaphorical sadness. A strong historical sense pervades the best of their poetry capturing moments of reality as also the debate between reality and realism. A lot of their verse is rich for its song like utterance of tired revellers and sunburnt time-weary myths. "How do we recreate the past?" is their tired question. The elements of hurt, tiredness, sadness recur as motifs in their poetry: impelling, wraithlike and haunting.
The dialogue between the urban and the rural thematically weaves into their poems and much of them are dialogic in the best sense, between the inner contemplated realities and the outside world. At the same time the modern angst of being and becoming besets their poetry layered as it is with deep humanistic perspectives, with the 'rural' or 'small town' syndrome. A very positive element in their poems is a finely tuned introspection and the ability to achieve moments of self criticism.
Desmond L Kharmawphlang looks at the past in an ambivalent manner writing of it at times, with a kind of ferocity. The past is permeating, yet the past and the present interface with a sense of longing: the emotional pause created between the past and the present leads to sadness layered with irony; notwithstanding a touch of sarcasm.
"I never get tired of talking about my hometown,
In summer the sky is pregnant,
Swollen with unborn rain
Winter arrives, with a tepid sun
Touching the frozen hills, the... boats on lakes.
Long ago, the men went beyond the Surma
To trade, to bring some women...
Later came the British with gifts of bullets,
Blood-money and religion.
A steady conquest to the sound of guns began."
(“The Conquest”)
Kynpham Singh Nongkynrih writes about the Earth Summit, a cosmic event in an ironical, trenchant vein. The poem is satirical and is a caustic comment on politicians yet it is intertwined subtly with the humanising touch, tempered as it is with sadness.
"The first ever Earth Summit
was given a big building up for weeks,
almost like the death of Rajiv Gandhi
... At Nan Polok
the parking lot
humbles down
fifteen of our proudest
Pines".
(“The Parking Lot”)
His "Winter Song" vivifies the charming winter season in Shillong and is once again an intrusion into the social fabric of the times; of what is happening around us.
"…The nights cavort with willing virgins
and virgin drinkers, singing hymns
in wobbly tones."
In his "The September Song" and in Robin S. Ngangom's "The Strange Affair of Robin S. Ngangom" there are vibrant portrayals of the current society and of social trends experiencing painful, horrific processes of change and transition. The poets here voice anguish yet there is objective distancing from the subjective reality when the poet finds solace in the self.
"...My love, how can I explain
that I abominate laws
which punish a man for his past,
Only the night seems to understand
that we must bear it again
When I am gone
I would leave you these:
a life without mirrors,
The blue ode between pines
and the winter sky, the
secret understanding of
roots and the earth,
But where can one run from the homeland,
where can I flee from your love?
They have become pursuing prisons
which hold the man
with criminal worlds".
(“The Strange Affair of Robin .S. Ngangom”)
Kynpham Singh Nongkynrih writes about the Earth Summit, a cosmic event in an ironical, trenchant vein.
It is pertinent to observe here that Desmond Kharmawphlang and Kynpham Nongkynrih are also effectively bilingual poets writing felicitously both in English and Khasi. Poetry, after all, knows no language, is god inspired, resonating with the music of words.
The dexterous intermingling of social, political, historical, satirical and personal themes makes these Shillong poets a class apart by themselves. These are the canons of poetry by which we are to study them critically. The article has only been able to give to the reader a taste and sampling of their poetry.
Ananya S. Guha lives in Shillong in North East India and works in the Indira Gandhi National Open University. He writes for newspapers and magazines on education and subjects of general interest.
North East India also witnessed the emergence of such a younger group of poets in the '80s and early '90s whose poetry, written in feverish moments of societal crisis, attracted the attention of critics and literary journals of India and abroad. Coincidentally these poets all live in Shillong and it was the poetry page of the Telegraph Colour Magazine edited by the celebrated Indo English poet Jayanta Mahapatra which gave them the opportunity to be published and break new grounds in the Indo-English poetry scene. In the mid and late 90's the North East Forum for English studies was established in Guwahati, and formed mainly by some College teachers; and the North East Writers Forum consisting of creative writers in this part of the country devoted much of their energy in encouraging the art of poetry in English in the region. This article will focus on these poets from Shillong as certain binding themes of personal, social and historical concern unified their poetry and gave it a distinct flavour, marked by an astonishing sense of lyricism.
The poets who readily come to the mind are: Desmond Leslie Kharmawphlang, Robin S Ngangom and Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih, votaries of the poetry of feeling. Their verse immediately attracted critical attention for their universal concerns, kneading these with localized themes. Their poetry was lyrical, imbued with a striking poise, clarity and spontaneity. They empathized with one another in their themes, and their 'influences' were many: Neruda, Arghezi, Gullen, Pessoa, Jayanta Mahapatra to name a few. Yet these 'influences' on their poetry did not stultify their verse, rather they empathetically related experiences of these poets to their own poetic credos cleverly. They believed in encouraging younger poets and helped them to publish their poetry in their mouthpiece Lyric. Lyric, the poetry journal of the Shillong Poetry Circle subsequently gained reputation as a standard poetry journal acclaimed by critics in Sahitya Akademi's "Indian Literature", "The Times of India", "The Indian Express", "Business Standard" etc. Lyric published the works of poets on a national and international scale, and was scrupulous in its editing and selection. The chief architects of Lyric were the poets mentioned above though much of the pioneering work in publishing it was achieved by Robin Ngangom and Desmond Leslie Kharmawphlang.
If we speak of a general 'Indianness' a poetry written in English in India, these poets nonchalantly subverted such a notion, by writing poignantly and memorably of their home-town, a shared nostalgia for the past, and the prevalent social issues with their attendant pitfalls. They evinced a remarkable racial, sociological and historical memory to capture iridescent moments of their society in transition. Makarand Parajpe the critic has described them as "ethnic" poets. They believe that the best of poetry and its finer instincts has the indelible stamp of the native genius; in William Wordsworth's decree 'it is man speaking to man'. They glimpsed such a primal functioning in the best of poetry and attempted to encapsulate this in their verse. They effectively used the oral tradition and mythology of their cultures and related these to their poetic vision, philosophy and craft. Above all they viewed the strenuous craft of writing poetry as essentially meditative and philosophical, devoid of any 'ism'. Surely an original and invigorating body of work had come to permanently stay in the India poetic scene. The focal point of discussion here is that all these poets were in love, with the traditional and cultural moorings of their societies. They hearkened to the past, to its nostalgic calls; they were romantics and idealists in sharp contrast to the modernism and neo-modernism of current literary trends. They shunned clichés, preferring to use candidly the pristine-ness of the English language; and were truly neophytes in the art of writing poetry.
This kind of 'Indianness' fraught with local sentiments did not fail to touch the literary sensibilities of the rest of the country and these poets were immediately recognised for staking poetic claims and voices of their very own. They were propelled by their own poetic conscience and genius, intuitively feeling the urge to write what has already been termed as 'ethnic' poetry. Yet what were the actual social themes in their poetry? A careful analysis reveals that there is in their poetry a deep seated conflict between 'what is' and 'what could have been', the hiatus as it were between past and present. This in turn generated a poetic tension and tinged their poems with a metaphorical sadness. A strong historical sense pervades the best of their poetry capturing moments of reality as also the debate between reality and realism. A lot of their verse is rich for its song like utterance of tired revellers and sunburnt time-weary myths. "How do we recreate the past?" is their tired question. The elements of hurt, tiredness, sadness recur as motifs in their poetry: impelling, wraithlike and haunting.
The dialogue between the urban and the rural thematically weaves into their poems and much of them are dialogic in the best sense, between the inner contemplated realities and the outside world. At the same time the modern angst of being and becoming besets their poetry layered as it is with deep humanistic perspectives, with the 'rural' or 'small town' syndrome. A very positive element in their poems is a finely tuned introspection and the ability to achieve moments of self criticism.
Desmond L Kharmawphlang looks at the past in an ambivalent manner writing of it at times, with a kind of ferocity. The past is permeating, yet the past and the present interface with a sense of longing: the emotional pause created between the past and the present leads to sadness layered with irony; notwithstanding a touch of sarcasm.
"I never get tired of talking about my hometown,
In summer the sky is pregnant,
Swollen with unborn rain
Winter arrives, with a tepid sun
Touching the frozen hills, the... boats on lakes.
Long ago, the men went beyond the Surma
To trade, to bring some women...
Later came the British with gifts of bullets,
Blood-money and religion.
A steady conquest to the sound of guns began."
(“The Conquest”)
Kynpham Singh Nongkynrih writes about the Earth Summit, a cosmic event in an ironical, trenchant vein. The poem is satirical and is a caustic comment on politicians yet it is intertwined subtly with the humanising touch, tempered as it is with sadness.
"The first ever Earth Summit
was given a big building up for weeks,
almost like the death of Rajiv Gandhi
... At Nan Polok
the parking lot
humbles down
fifteen of our proudest
Pines".
(“The Parking Lot”)
His "Winter Song" vivifies the charming winter season in Shillong and is once again an intrusion into the social fabric of the times; of what is happening around us.
"…The nights cavort with willing virgins
and virgin drinkers, singing hymns
in wobbly tones."
In his "The September Song" and in Robin S. Ngangom's "The Strange Affair of Robin S. Ngangom" there are vibrant portrayals of the current society and of social trends experiencing painful, horrific processes of change and transition. The poets here voice anguish yet there is objective distancing from the subjective reality when the poet finds solace in the self.
"...My love, how can I explain
that I abominate laws
which punish a man for his past,
Only the night seems to understand
that we must bear it again
When I am gone
I would leave you these:
a life without mirrors,
The blue ode between pines
and the winter sky, the
secret understanding of
roots and the earth,
But where can one run from the homeland,
where can I flee from your love?
They have become pursuing prisons
which hold the man
with criminal worlds".
(“The Strange Affair of Robin .S. Ngangom”)
Kynpham Singh Nongkynrih writes about the Earth Summit, a cosmic event in an ironical, trenchant vein.
It is pertinent to observe here that Desmond Kharmawphlang and Kynpham Nongkynrih are also effectively bilingual poets writing felicitously both in English and Khasi. Poetry, after all, knows no language, is god inspired, resonating with the music of words.
The dexterous intermingling of social, political, historical, satirical and personal themes makes these Shillong poets a class apart by themselves. These are the canons of poetry by which we are to study them critically. The article has only been able to give to the reader a taste and sampling of their poetry.
Ananya S. Guha lives in Shillong in North East India and works in the Indira Gandhi National Open University. He writes for newspapers and magazines on education and subjects of general interest.
