A Glimpse of Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poetic World

Abstract

     Jayanta Mahapatra is one of the leading modern Indian English poets. He entered very late in the poetic creation but he has created a landmark. His multiple volumes have been published. He belongs to Orissa and his poetry is full of local colour. The natural surroundings are used as background to express his ideas. He has taken a variety of themes which he has taken from his own personal experiences from his surroundings such as poverty, sufferings of women, people suffering from diseases, religious issues etc. There is evident deep contrast between Indian and Western culture, Hinduism and Christianity, science and metaphysics. It is through his matured poetic art that the poet has shared his personal experiences. Apart from symbols and other poetic tools, imagery is the key element of his poetic design. There is abundance of natural and other images. The poet has expressed his ideas in a very condensed language. His images are drawn from the world of external and internal reality. Along with the poet we take a journey to the mystical world. This paper is an attempt to get a glimpse of Jayanta Mahapatra’s poetic world.

Key words: Loneliness, Poverty, Rain, Sufferings, Temple, Women.