Introduction
One of the most widely known and published Indian English poets of our time is Jayanta Mahapatra. He belongs to the famous trinity of modern Indian English poets including Nissim Ezekiel and A. K. Ramanujan. Jayanta Mahapatra was born in the city of Cuttack in the Indian state of Orissa where he received his education and subsequently became a professor of Physics. At the age of forty he turned from Physics to poetry.
His contribution to Indo-Anglian poetry includes his enlargement of its themes, the originality of his approach to and treatment of his themes, and his imagery which is sometimes perfectly realistic, sometimes symbolic, sometimes surrealistic, and sometimes of the common, familiar kind. He has written a number of excellent imagist poems. His use of images and symbols in poetry speaks volumes of his trained mind and disciplined art.
Imagery in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra
There is a profusion of imagery in the poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra, and the imagery covers a very wide range. Some of Mahapatra’s poems can be described as Imagist poems, following the movement in early 20th century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language.
“Dawn at Puri” is an imagist poem. The panorama of Puri is artistically portrayed with vivid images and symbols. Mahapatra depicts the temple town of Puri with its ‘endless crow noises’ and ‘a skull lying on holy sands’ — a startling imagery created with the juxtaposition of the abstract with concrete.
“Indian Summer” is remarkable for clear and exact imagery, judicious choice of words and compactness. “Hunger” describes the enjoyment of sex by the protagonist with whom a poor fisherman makes an agreement to offer his teenaged daughter as a sexual partner. The poem primarily has two structures of images: flesh related and poverty related.
“The Whorehouse in a Calcutta Street” presents the image of the woman as a symbol usually identified with ‘discarded things’. “A Missing Person” contains a picture of the darkened room in which a woman cannot find her reflection in the mirror. “Taste for Tomorrow” is also an Imagist poem describing the morning scene in the town of Puri.
Some of the poems of Mahapatra contain symbolic imagery. “The Exile” has a mixture of the literal and the symbolic kinds of imagery. “The Moon Moments” contains symbolic imagery alongside realistic pictures. There is also animal imagery in Mahapatra’s poetry, as seen in “Total Solar Eclipse” where the behavior of animals during the solar eclipse is realistically and vividly pictured.
The frequently used image of Nature in Mahapatra’s poetry denotes the subjective response as distinct from the image of the universal ethos. The city occupies a central place in Mahapatra’s poetry, linked with corruption and industrialization in modern human life.
Conclusion
Jayanta Mahapatra has made a mark in Indian poetry for various attributes of his poems, imagery being one of them. He is a skilled and conscious craftsman who stirs his images and symbols thoughtfully. His images are his medium, a tool to wipe out the blurred curtains and portray his experience.
Works Cited
- Das, Bijay Kumar. The Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2009. Print.
- Khan, A. A., & Rahul Mene. Jayanta Mahapatra: His Mind and Art. New Delhi: Adhyan Publishers & Distributors, 2011. Print.
- Mahapatra, Jayanta. “Freedom as Poetry: The Door.” Door of Papers, Essays and Memoirs. New Delhi: Authorspress, 2007. Print.
- ---. The Best of Jayanta Mahapatra. Calicut: Bodhi Publishing House, 1995. Print.
- Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna. Twelve Modern Indian Poets. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.
- Mitra, Zinia. Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: Imagery and Experiential Identity. New Delhi: Authorspress, 2012. Print.
- Parthasarathy, R. Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.