Early Indian Poetry in English An Anthology, 1829-1947

Nineteenth century Indian poetry in English has generally received a bad press. It has been dismissed as imitative, tepid, unIndian, unpatriotic, and interesting only as sociology. This may have had something to do with the agenda of the available anthologies that have tended to stress the spiritual and the oriental aspects of the poetry, and avoid the polemical, the political, the quietly personal. This anthology is an attempt to change that situation, and re-map the poetry that was written in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection spans a wide canvas of poetry of various forms. There are short, long, and very long poems. Also included are lyrical epics , operatic burlesques , dramatic phantasies , to name a few. Apart from the fine and diverse selection of poets and poems, a strength of de Souza s anthology and something that will give it a long shelf life, is her general introduction and her brief introduction to each poet. In the former, she assesses the work d one by previous anthologists (Dunn, Goodwin, Kabraji, Gokak) and rightly takes issue with those who ignore or underplay the immense role played by English in shaping 19th century Indian literature as a whole. In the latter, she uncovers fresh biographical material on many of the poets, and in a few cases attempts a biographical sketch where none previously existed. This anthology also includes works of, among others, Henry Derozio, Kasiprasad Ghose, the Dutt brothers Shoshee, Govin, and Greece, B.M. Malabari, Toru Dutt, Joseph Furtado, Sarojini Naidu Annaji, Beram Saklatvala, Samuel Solomon, and Raman Vakil. Various essays in the Appendices will be useful for the reader.de Souza, Eunice is the author of 'Early Indian Poetry in English An Anthology, 1829-1947' with ISBN 9780195677249 and ISBN 0195677242.