The Poetic Art of Nissim Ezekiel

Nissim Ezekiel is one of those few men of letters who become legends in their life-time. A playwright of credentials, a critic of encyclopaedic range and an academician in his own rights, Ezekiel will, however, be remembered primarily as a poet. His poetic odyssey spanning a period of over half a century saw the publication of eight volumes including the Akademi Award winning title Latter Day Psalms. His first book, the epoch-making A Time to Change introduced the Modernist element in Indian poetry in English. A winner of several coveted laurels including the prestigious Padma Shri for his contribution to ‘Indian Literature in English’, Ezekiel has become a phenomenon in the later half of the twentieth century. The present book claims to provide, for the first time, a systematic graph of Ezekiel’s expanding poetic sensibility taking into account the whole gamut of his poetic output. Beginning with significant biographical details and formative influences, it formulates Ezekiel’s poetic creed, literally a ‘workshop criticism’ to use T.S. Eliot’s terminology. Worked out in three well-marked phases—the Romantic, the Realist, the Humanist—the book discerningly examines the stylistic niceties of this versatile artist. The concluding chapter demonstrates how cultural anguish and anxiety which form his early poetry finally yield to an unusual sense of acceptance and affirmation—‘My backward place is where I am. ‘The post-colonial poetry in English owes much to Ezekiel for creative fecundity, critical insight and astute craftsmanship. The present book asserts its indispensability for offering a perceptive critique of one of the father figures among contemporary Indian men of letters.