My Science School

               Sylvia Plath was a genius who was troubled by mental illness. She published her first poem when she was eight, and won several literary contests while she was in high school.

               Sylvia Plath was born on October 27th, 1932. Her first poem appeared in the Christian Science Monitor. Plath graduated from Smith College with the highest honours in 1955. Later she studied at Newnham College in Cambridge on a Fulbright fellowship.

               She married Ted Hughes, the English poet in 1956, and moved to England in 1959. Shortly afterwards, ‘The Colossus’ her first collection of poems was published. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1962.

               Sylvia Plath wrote at a feverish pace during the last three years of her life. Death, self destruction, and a sense of isolation haunt her poems. Her thorny relation with her father was explored in poems such as ‘Daddy’. She suffered from severe clinical depression. She attempted suicide and sought treatment for her illness. Plath drew on her traumatic experiences to write ‘The Bell Jar’, her only novel. Sylvia Plath committed suicide in 1963.

               ‘Ariel’, a collection of her poems became a landmark in literature. She was perhaps the greatest American poetess of the twentieth century.

 

 

            Seamus Heaney wrote poetry that was pleasing to the ear. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1995.

            Heaney who was Irish, grew up in County Derry, and lived for many years in Dublin. ‘Death of a Naturalist’ and ‘Door into the Dark’, are his verse collections of great beauty.

            Heaney was often termed as a regional poet. ‘New Selected Poems, 1966-1987’, published in 1990 was a collection of poems that differed radically from his early verse.

            His collection ‘Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996’ was widely praised’. ‘District and Circle’, won the T.S. Eliot Prize, the most prestigious poetry award in the UK. Heaney was known for the translation of the epic Anglo-Saxon poem ‘Beowulf’, in 2000. He wrote 20 volumes of poetry and criticism, and edited several anthologies.

            Seamus Heaney passed away on 30th August, 2013. His body is buried at the cemetery of St. Mary’s Church, Bellaghy in Northern Ireland.

 

               The great sage Valmiki has the distinction of being the author of the holy epic ‘Ramayana’. The epic narrates the struggle of the divine prince Rama to rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana. ‘Ramayana’ consists of nearly 24,000 verses divided into seven Kandas and about 500 sargas.

               ‘The epic Ramayana’, dated variously from 5th century BC to first century BC. Valmiki is revered as Adi Kavi, the first poet.

               According to legend, Maharishi Valmiki was born as Ratnakara. At a very young age, Ratnakara went into the forest and got lost. A hunter, who was passing by, saw Ratnakara and took him under his own care. Ratnakara turned out to be an excellent hunter. Later, he started robbing people because he found it impossible to feed his large family.

               One day, Ratnakara tried to rob the great sage Narada. However, Narada was a divine sage, and he made Ratnakara understand that robbing and killing was wrong. He advised Ratnakara that by chanting Rama’s name, he could wash away all his sins. Ratnakara started chanting the name without stopping. As he performed his penance for several years, huge anthills grew around him and this earned him the name Valmiki. Later, Valmiki wrote ‘Ramayana’, the great epic. Valmiki-Adi Kavi was the torch bearer for generations of poets. 

 

 

               The ‘Mahabharata’ is one of the greatest marvels in the literature-of the world. Veda Vyasa was the sage who gave the world this storehouse of realism, wisdom, and compassion. He is also the author of the Brahma Sutras, and is considered an incarnation of Lord Vishnu himself.

               Veda Vyasa was a genius by birth. He performed rigorous penance and practiced austerity in the Himalayas in order to realize the Supreme Truth that he explained in the Vedas and Upanishads. There is a very interesting event associated with the writing of the Mahabharata. Veda Vyasa needed to concentrate on the composing, and he needed someone to write it down as he recited the verses. It was Ganesha, who agreed to do so.

               The Mahabharata is the longest epic in the world, longer than the Odyssey and Iliad put together! It is the narrative that contains all narratives. A verse from the epic reads, ‘What is found here may be found elsewhere. What is not found here will not be found elsewhere’. Is it any wonder that the Mahabharata- and Veda Vyasa - are considered to be immortal? 

               Kalidasa, India’s greatest Sanskrit poet and dramatist lived during the fifth century. His most famous works are the dramas ‘Abhijnanashakuntalam’ or ‘The Recognition of Shakuntala, ‘Vikramorvashiyam’ or Urvashi Won by Valour and ‘Malavikagnimitram’ or Malavika and Agnimitra.

               He also wrote the epic poems ‘Raghuvansa’ and ‘Kumarasambhava’ and the lyric ‘Meghaduta’. According to legend, Kalidasa was so handsome that he caught the attention of a princess who married him. However, as legend has it, Kalidasa had grown up without much education, and the princess was ashamed of his ignorance and coarseness.

               A devoted worshipper of the goddess Kali, Kalidasa is said to have called upon his goddess for help and was rewarded with a sudden and extraordinary gift of wit.

               He is then said to have become the most brilliant of the ‘nine gems’ at the court of the fabulous king Vikramaditya of Ujjain. 

 

 

               Kabir was a great poet-saint of the fifteenth century. His poems were written in vernacular Hindi. The Avadhi, Braj, and Bhojpuri dialects influenced the language of his poetry. Love for the Almighty and devotion to Him are the major themes of his poems. Kabir Das is believed to be the author of ‘Kabir Bijak’, ‘Kabir Parachai’, ‘Sakhi Granth’, ‘Adi Granth’ and ‘Kabir Granthawali’.

               Sur das was a sightless saint who wrote and sung lyrics in praise of Krishna. He lived in the sixteenth century. Vallabha Acharya is believed to have been his guru. The two holy men may have met in 1510. ‘Sur Sagar’ or ‘Sur’s Ocean’ is regarded as his masterpiece, and includes hundreds of devotional poems.

               Tulsidas was the author of ‘Ramcharitmanas’. ‘Ramcharitmanas’ is a retelling of the Sanskrit Ramayana in Awadhi. Tulsidas was a poet, and saint. ‘Geetawali’ and ‘Sahitya Ratna’ were the other important works of Tulsidas.

 

 

 

 

               Michael Madhusudan Dutt is known as the father of the Bengali sonnet. Born on 25th January, 1824, Dutt’s life was strikingly similar to Lord Byron’s. Dutt was influenced by the poems of Byron.

               ‘Maghnad Bodh Kavya’ is a tragic epic of Michael Madhusudan Dutt. Written in nine cantos, this outstanding epic is notable for its style and content. He also wrote poems on the agonies experienced by women, in love. ‘Tilottoma Sambhava Kavaya’ was Dutt’s first Bengali poem.

               ‘Tilottoma Sambhava Kavya’ was a trendsetter in Bengali literature. Michael Madhusudan Dutt wrote ‘The Captive Ladie’, a poem. However, the poem failed to impress critics.

               ‘Maghnad Bodh Kavya’ was the magnum opus of Michael Madhusudan Dutt. This tragic epic depicts the end of Maghnad, the son of Ravana. Michael Madhusudan Dutt died on 29th June 1873. 

               Rabindranath Tagore was a literary legend whose works linked the East and the West. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for ‘Gitanjali’, a collection of poems that shows Tagore’s insights into the relationship between nature and God. He was the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize.

               He was born on May 7th, 1861, in Calcutta in a famous family. His father, Devendranath Tagore was a noted social reformer. In ‘Manasi’ Tagore introduced new verse forms to Bengali literature. ‘Sonar Tari’ is another well known poetry collection.

               Tagore also wrote over 2000 songs. His songs and poems are popular throughout Bengal. In 1915, Tagore was offered a knighthood, but the patriot refused the honour in protest against the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Tagore wrote Jana Gana Mana, the National Anthem of India as well as Amar Shonar Bangla, the Bangladeshi national anthem. The Sri Lankan national anthem was also inspired by Tagore’s work. Tagore is also known as the Bard of Bengal.

               Sarojini Naidu was known as The Nightingale of India for her enchanting poems.

               She was born in 1879 to Aghore Nath Chattopadhyaya and Barada Sundari Dev. Sarojini Naidu was a prodigy. She wrote poems in English at the age of thirteen.

               Three year later, she was awarded a scholarship from the Nizam of Hyderabad which paid for her studies at King’s College in London. She continued her studies at Girton College in Cambridge. In England, she met Arthur Simon, the Nobel laureate and Edmond Gosse, the writer. Gosse advised Sarojini Naidu to write exclusively on Indian themes and she followed his instructions.

               She wrote about the life and the festivals of the people of India. Her first collection of poems was titled ‘The Golden Threshold’ and was published in 1905. Arthur Simon wrote the foreword to these poems. Gopal Krishna Gokhale and other great freedom fighters admired her poetry.

               Lyricism, symbolism, imagery and mysticism are features of her poetry. ‘The Bird of Time’, her succeeding collection, was published in 1912 in London by William Heinemann.

               Sarojini Naidu was also famous as a freedom fighter. Sarojini Naidu passed away on 2nd March, 1949. 

 

            Subramania Bharati was a great writer and a freedom fighter that is regarded as the father of the modern Tamil style. Known as Mahakavi Bharathiyar, which means Great Poet of Tamil, Subramania Bharati was born on December 11th, 1882. Subramania Bharati moved to Madras, present day Chennai, where he translated English into Tamil for various magazines. Later, he worked for the Tamil newspaper, Swadesamitran. He wrote essays and poems which were immensely popular at the time.

            Bharati is famous for ‘Kannan pattu’, ‘Panchali sapatham’ and ‘Kuyil pattu’.

            Many of his English works were collected in ‘Agni and Other Poems’ and ‘Translations’ and ‘Essays and Other Prose Fragments’.

            Subramania Bharati passed away on September 12th, 1921. 

            Nissim Ezekiel was an innovative Indian poet. He brought modernity to Indian poetry.

            Nissim Ezekiel is, therefore, known as ‘The Father of Post-independence Indian-English Verse’. Ezekiel himself was influenced by modern English poets.

            Nissim Ezekiel was born in Mumbai on 16th December, 1924. Moses Ezekiel, his father, was a professor of Botany at Wilson College, and his mother was principal of her own school. In 1947 Ezekiel took his BA in English Literature from Mumbai University. Then he studied philosophy at Birbeck College, London.

            ‘The Bad Day’, Ezekiel’s first book, was published in 1952. ‘The Deadly Man’, was a well known poetry collection. His other notable volumes of verse are ‘The Third’, ‘The Unfinished Man’, ‘The Exact Name’, ‘Snakeskin and Other Poems’, ‘Hymns in Darkness’, ‘Latter-Day Psalms’, and ‘Collected Poems 1952-88’.

            Nizzim Ezekiel was honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his poetry collection, ‘Latter-Day Psalms’.

            In 1988, he was awarded the Padma Shri. The poet struggled with Alzheimer’s disease in the last phase of his life.

            Nissim Ezekiel passed away in Mumbai, on 9th January, 2004. 

               Kamala Das, later named as Kamala Surayya was a fiery Indian writer. Her confessional writing invited comparisons with great writers like Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell. Love and betrayal were recurring themes in her poems and prose.

               Kamala was born on 31st March 1934. A part of her childhood was spent in the Malabar area of Kerala. Her father worked in Kolkata, and the great city was also home to Kamala during her growing years.

               ‘Summer in Calcutta’ was her first published book of poetry. The poems in this volume were highly original, and radically different from traditional Indian verse. ‘The Descendants’ followed.’ ‘The Sirens’, ‘The Anamalai Poems’, and ‘Only the Soul Knows How to Sing’ are other well known works of Kamala Das.

               She was also a popular columnist. Kamala wrote a sensational autobiography titled ‘My Story’, at the age of 42. Originally, it was written in Malayalam as ‘Ente Katha’. However, she later confessed that the autobiography was largely fictional.

               She passed away on 31st May, 2009. Kamala Das or Kamala Surayya is known as ‘The Mother of Modern Indian English Poetry’. 

            Derek Walcott was a distinguished West Indian poet and playwright.

            He was born in Saint Lucia on January 23rd, 1930. Walcott’s first published poem was printed in The Voice of St. Lucia when the poet was fourteen years old. He later attended the University of the West Indies, having received a Colonial Development and Welfare scholarship.

            Walcott borrowed money to self publish his first collection titled ‘25 Poems’, in1948. The poet sold the book on the streets of West Indies. ‘Epitaph for the Young: XII Cantos’ followed in 1949.

            The influence of Shakespeare, Eliot and Pound can be found in these poems. Walcott made his name with the collection ‘In a Green Night: Poems 1948-1960’.

            ‘White Egrets’ ‘Selected Poems’, ‘The Prodigal’ and ‘Tiepolo’s Hound’ were some of his other famous works.

             Walcott also founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. His play ‘Dream on Monkey Mountain’ won the Obie Award for distinguished foreign play of 1971.

            Walcott won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. Derek Walcott breathed his last on March 17th, 2017, in Saint Lucia.

               Shel Silverstein wrote memorable poetry for young readers. Silverstein was born on September 25th, 1930 in Chicago, US. He took to writing and drawing in his childhood days.

               His collections of poetry were hugely popular. Where the ‘Side-walk Ends’ won the Michigan Young Readers Award in 1974. Silverstein went on to win the School Library Journal Best Books Award in 1982 for ‘A Light in the Attic’.

               ‘Falling Up’ and ‘Don’t Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies’ were widely read. Silverstein penned children’s classics such as ‘Uncle Shelby’s story of Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back’, ‘The Giving Tree’, ‘A Giraffe and a Half’, and ‘The Missing Piece Meets the Big O’. ‘Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros?’ was an early work written under the pen name, Uncle Shelby.

               His books sold more than 20 million copies, and have been read in translation in over 30 languages.

               He has also written one-act plays for children. His songs won two Grammy Awards. He was nominated for Golden Globe as well as the Academy Award. Shel Silverstein passed away on May 10th, 1999. 

          Born in England, Ted Hughes was fascinated by myths and legends. Hughes studied anthropology and archaeology at Cambridge.

          Later, Ted Hughes fell in love with Sylvia Plath, the American poetess, and married her in 1956. The newlyweds settled in England. The following year, his first poetry collection titled ‘The Hawk in the Rain’ was published. ‘Lupercal’, published in 1960, won him great critical and popular acclaim. However, Sylvia Plath committed suicide in 1963. Hughes did not publish even a single poem during the following three years.

          Later, Hughes made a comeback as a poet. ‘Wodwo’, ‘Crow’, ‘Wolf watching’, and ‘New Selected Poems’, appeared in succession. Hughes was also a children’s writer. One such work, ‘The Iron Man’, depicts scenes from his childhood. Like some of his other works, ‘The Iron Man’ was created in collaboration with photographers and artists.

          ‘Birthday Letters’, one of his famous works, narrates his difficult relationship with Sylvia Plath.

          Hughes was one of the great writers of the twentieth century, and a leading poet of his generation. He was the Poet Laureate of Britain from 1984 until his death in 1998.