According to a widely disseminated version of the history of Indian verse in the second half of the 20th century, Nissim Ezekiel is at the centre of the group of poets who inaugurated the modernist revolution in Indian poetry in English. When Ezekiel returned from England in 1952, he brought with him a poetics that challenged the lyrical Romanticism of preceding generations of Indian poets; and along with like-minded contemporaries such as P. Lal, R. Parthasarathy and Keki N. Daruwalla, he replaced a tendency towards mystical obscurantism, of which Sri Aurobindo is seen to have been particularly representative, with an insistence of precision of expression and a sceptical rationalism that advocated a break with the past. Ezekiel and his contemporaries committed themselves to injecting a new seriousness into the writing of Indian verse, following European modernist masters such as T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound in their dedication to finding objective correlatives for both subjective emotions and abstract ideas. As Sudesh Mishra points out, the very title of Ezekiel’s first collection, A Time to Change (1952) seemed to signal his resolve to make a clear break with the Romantic past.
Ezekiel is one of the post-Independence India’s finest poets, and much of the strength of his writing lies in its individuality. While his earliest verse bears the imprint of his European Modernist influences, the more mature Ezekiel is a poet whose verse defies easy categorization. His distinctive poetic practice draws on a range of traditions — Judaic and Hindu, ancient and modern, Western and Eastern — creating a highly personal Indian landscape, albeit one that also has broader resonances as an embodiment of Post-Independence secularism.
The title of the volume Exact Name is appropriate for in this collection, the poet examines the nature and function of the poet, its defining the process, whereby images and symbols are used in poetry to give exact names to things and to human emotions. This he did by borrowing some lines from Juan Ramon Jimenez, which he used as an epigraph to this volume.
It is only in poetry where we attend to the sensory character of words that they become images too. To be a poet is to look at things with fresh wonder and to gain ‘the right mastery of natural things’. He treats poetry as ‘inspired mathematics’ trying to find the precise image for his emotional complex. Thus in The Exact Name, poetry is praised for its great gift of the process of naming things and the way it provides symbolic equivalents for our emotional thoughts.
In this collection, Ezekiel tried to extend the scope and subject matter of his poetry. He sought poetry in the ordinary and the common place. In the process, he showed a lot of human interest that his poetry always had. He has sought poetry in ‘the ordinariness of most events’ like Wordsworth and also like him gets tedious and trivial.
A Warning and A Woman Observed
It is from this point of view that one can justify ‘A Warning’ (for Linda Hess) in this collection. This poem is based on another poem by Linda Hess, entitled ‘Bombay Waterfront’, which appeared in Poetry India. Such a poem shows as much interest in the person who inspired it as in the poetry itself. Likewise the poet is surprised to find that a pregnant woman feels uncomfortable when she looks at a nude in the art gallery. Characteristically, Ezekiel finds that life is superior to art.
Paradise Fly Catcher and The Visitor
There are certain poems in this collection which look like an exercise in natural history. Thus the poem on ‘Paradise Fly Catcher’ tries to poetise the entire description of the bird, bodily lifted from an essay on ornithology. What raises it to the level of poetry is the juxtaposition of dreams and reality at various levels. Commenting on the above poem, Michael Garman rightly suggests the source of its poetics.
‘The Visitor’ shows Ezekiel’s fine gift as a verbal portraitist. The poem juxtaposes superstition with reason. The superstition on which the poem is based is a popular one in India — a cawing crow indicates the arrival of a visitor.
Night of the Scorpion
‘Night of the Scorpion’ is a brilliant poem of human interest. The poem has, as its setting a contemporary Indian tender family situation. The theme of the poet’s mother, stung by a scorpion is given multiple treatment, bringing in its sweep the world of magic and superstition, science and rationality, and maternal affection. The entire poem is built on irony, which reaches its climax in the last lines.
Philosophy
Ezekiel reserved certain tough poems for the early part of his book. One such poem was ‘Philosophy’ with which the collection started. ‘Philosophy’ brings out the love of metaphysics. ‘Philosophy’ tries to contra-distinguish the world of pure reasoning with that of poetry. The poet does believe in science and ruthless logic but there are worlds greater than this ‘cold lucidity’ where ‘residues of meaning still remain.’ This is the world of poetry which alone gives the apocalyptic vision.
Ezekiel finally rejects the world of abstraction. Instead he prefers the warmth of human relationship and the social smile. The study of these common things is preferred to the study of cold abstraction. This Augustan trait — “The proper study of mankind is man” — appears in the work of Ezekiel again and again. Hence, logic and metaphysics provide the poet with an occasional source of escape.