Trends in contemporary assamese poetry- with special emphasis on recent poetry

Trends in contemporary assamese poetry Bhaskar J Nath It was in a summer afternoon of 2008 and I was in a a tete-a- tete with distinguished scholar and critic Harekrishna Deka, who after a brief pause in conversation expressed his dissatisafaction at literary merit of some of the recent assamese poetry and with a sharp critical literary acumen he said that it had become a general trend in assamese poetry to compose some love lyrics without any strenuous intellectual effort and sharing and celebrating the same in a close coterie of like minded pals. He added with regret that it was not a positive mark for the literature and nation, which is obviously degrading the literary quality. It instantly reminded me of English literary man Alexander pope, who outraged by the phenomenal rise of typical poetry of poor merit took a dig at them as Grub Street Poets and lambasted them satirically in his famous satirical work ‘An Epistole To Arbuthnoth. He was so much harassed by some poetasters during his lifetime that he had to say to his servant” Shut, shut the door, good John! fatigued, I said,Tie up the knocker, say I'm sick, I'm dead/The Dog−star rages! nay, 'tis past a doubt/All Bedlam, or Parnassus, is let out/Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand/They rave, recite, and madden round the land/What walls can guard me…/No place is sacred, not the church is free/Even Sunday shines no Sabbath day to me/then from the Mint walks forth the man of rhyme/Happy! to catch me, just at dinner−time/oh good John shut,shut the door.’’ Alexander pope as he writes , was so much embarrassed that some would came to him with request to write preface for their collection of poems, and even ask for lending them five or six pounds. Alexander pope refers to them as grub street poets. It must be accepted that amidst the typical hullabaloo in the grub street , there are some outstanding and brilliant poets in contemporary literary scene of assam for whom poetry is not just ‘spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling”, or “metrical composition”, it is an intellectual exercise and fruit of studious involvement. Poetry in assamese literature has a long intellectual tradition which has a rich history of thousand years from Charya pad, Madhav Kandali and Shankar Dev to post war modern poet Nilamoni phukan and others , assamese poetry has witnessed many intellectual and cultural movement as well as transition. From the romanticism of nineteenth century english poetry to the modern poetry of T S Eliot, Ezra pound, Baudelaire, Auden, had its own bearing on assamese poetry. of late post modernist approach also seen in recent assamese poetry, which is definitely a good sign for assamese literature. Unlike the recent poetry, their predecessors of post war poetry brought a change to poetry in both form and content. As Mahasweta Barua puts it “ modern poetry takes many forms. some poets still use traditional lyric form and rhymes, whereas others use blank and free verse in ordinary rather than poetic language….their poems are both symbolic and realistic’1. Among the twentieth century poets who are still writing in this century Samir Tanti is one of them. His collection namely YUDDHABHUMIR KOVITA(poem of battlefield) and SHOKULUR UPTYAKA( valley of tears) reflects the pangs of hegemonic ally suppressed people which represents the sentiments and emotions of all suppressed people of decolonized under developed and developing nations. According to Mahasweta Barua’ “ harsh realities often make these poets revolutionary and leftist in their view the world over., but there is a leftism that is not necessarily aligned to any one political ideology”2. poets who have been immensely contributing to poetic literature from twentieth century are Nilamoni phukan, Hiren Bhattacharya,Ajit baruah,Nagen saikiaSsamir Tanti, Sananta tanti,Harekrishna Deka,Anupoma Basumotry, Nilima thakuriya haque, Anis Uz Zaman, Lutfa hanum selima Begum, Nilim Kumar etc. Discontentment, rise of materialism , decay of human value in the awake of changing socio-economic condition and search for universal and true value has shaped the modern poetry. While there are some exceedingly brilliant poets exploring life and reality and experimenting with the latest global intellectual stuffs such as magic realism , decontructive thinking in poetry, some are still confined to silly romantic fantasy that resembles the archaic romanticism. Poetry in assamese literature seemed somewhat begins to decline in terms of poetic value and standard at the hand of some poets who ventured in to the poetic real especially after the 20th century.There have been wave of typical love poetry marked only by puerile romantic fantasy which seemed to have ill impact on poetry. This section of poets driven by the craze for easy popularity and easy intelligibility, and triggered by aweful lack of intellect and study contributed to the grub street culture in assamese poetry. This was asserted by formerly head of the deptt of assamese , Dibrugarh university Karabi Deka Hazarika in her preface to EHEJAR BOSOR AXOMIYA KOBITA published recently3. Markets of assamese poerty is flooded mostly by this section of poetasters with commercialized publication of booklets of poetry, without conforming to intellectual norms and tradition.’ But still we will have to believe in wordsworthian classification of ‘public ‘ and ‘people’. Taste and power of judgement of ‘people’ supersedes the ‘public’ and ‘people’ are those section of readers who prefers to consume a canonical text rather than a typical Mills and Boon classic.”4 Contrary to some new entrants who are accused of deteriorating the quality of poetry, some of the recents poets like Rajiv borah, Ganga mohan mili, Jivan Narah,Megon Kachari, Rudra Singha Matak,Kamal kumar Medhi, M kamaluddin Ahmed, Parag Jyoti Mahanta, Rajani Bordoloi et are trying to explore the beauty and frangrance of rural life, folk lores as well as folk life, vernacular idioms . Exasperated at the changing time and fast declining values, their soul searching efforts results their poetry. contrary to stereotype assamese grub street poets, Rajib Borah has made effort to achieve a balanced and studious harmony between both the form and content and trying his hand in exploring latest theoretical apparatuses in his poetry. Heavily influenced by the ebb and flow of slapsodic and intermittent socio political upheaval of assam, an insatiable longing for the idyllic and pastoral life also found echoed in his poems. Rajani Bordoloi and parag jyoti mahanta’s poetry also deeply marked by a sense of emotional longing for past . parag Jyoti’s collection NACH BUDUKIR NACH is a remarkable achievement. This section of recent poets has enriched the literature of assam unlike their counterparts who are alleged to have degraded the artistic merit of poetry. we can in fact term them in the tone of Raymond Williams as “ socially committed artist”, who are socially extremely conscious and reflects their passions, angers and bemoans the changing time. Unlike their western or other counterparts of the sub continent , recent assamese poetry marked mostly by the regional contour and influence of national and international upheavals ,socio-economic phenomenon like Globalization, Americanisation, pangs of newly Decolonized third world nations and West Asian crisis not found echoed in their poetry. It remains largely confined to the influence of the socio-economic turmoil of the home and remained unexposed to world because of true intellectual understanding and proper study. While subjectivity or pure personal undertone pervades through and dominates the poetry of some upcoming poets and they seemed to have failed to relate themselves to the world outside their personal world. “Some recent Assamese poets” as observed by eminent scholar Harekrishna Deka ‘ has relegated poetry to some extent and its celebrated through some coterie or grouping of their own. This has become a general tendency”5. Post war assamese poetry as divided by Mahendra Borah as JANATAR KOBI(poet of people) and NIRJANATAR KABI(poet of loneliness)6 , based on the classification of William H. Hudsons . This may classified in English as objective or impersonal poetry and subjective or personal poetry. while “Hem Baruh, Birendra kumar Bhattacharya, Syed Abdul Malik and Ram Gogoi belongs to the former, Homen Borgohain, Pobindra Borah, Dinesh goswami, Nilamoni Phukan belongs to the latter”2. These poets revolutionsed the concept of assamese poetry and ushered in a high intellectual tradition in assamese poetry. These poets are also termed as new poets . So far the recent subjective poetry in assamese concerned, it seemed to have been inspired by the emotion of love, dejection and frustration and poets’s desire for love in the awake of changing social order rampant in assamese literature. It strictly bears a personal undertone. This category of latest assamese poets who have picked up their pen after last decade of twentieth century, although it has gained considerable popularity and has been able to create a sizeable chunk of easy readership, it has reduced the quality of poetry .’Active politician and former AICC president turned poet Deva kanta Baruah first paved the way for modern assamese poetry and he is hailed as the path breaker in new assamese poetry. He started a new poetic revolution in terms of both form and content in assamese poetry of which his poem AMI DUWAR MUKALI KARO is celebrated as the foremost one // There is a portrait on my table painted by Nicholas Rorickor what is the title of it ? we mark the opening// Thus poet Debakanta opened the door of new poetry and following his mark his succsessors marked an epoch in assamese poetry which are termed as NATUN KOBIT(New poems).As critic william Hudson has put it “ one chief element of poetry is its revealing power.it opens our eyes to sensous beauties and spiritual meanings in the worlds of human experience and of nature to which otherwise we should remain …..the true poet ,whatever his range and quality, is one in whom the power of seeing and feeling the sensous beauty and spiritual meaning of things exist in a pre eminent degree, and to whom more another special power has been granted- the power of so expressing and interpreting what he sees and feels as to quicken our own imagination and sympathies, and to make us see and feel with him”7. But it cannot be denied that positive and qualitative Celebration and circulation of poetry among the coeterie has not contributed to literature. From time immemorial it has built the plinth of the very literature on which we are proudly standing. The little coeterie of Bloomsburry group of virginia woolf, Forster and Maynard Mackes had given birth to an intellectual movment in cambridge. “Recent platform Cave Canem organized by Toi Dericotte has evolved to a literary movement in African american literature”8.Not to talk of the ‘Hem, Majiu and Bezboruah group’9 of Nineteenth century who had shaped the literary history of assamese litearture. We are optimistic as “ we will wake/ in the furrows of new farmhouse of our grandson’s/in our fossil they will read the comic tales of the people who remember past births”10. Reference and notes: 1. Mahasweta Barua, “Twentieth century assamese literature”, published in “ a handbook of twentieth century literature of india”- edited by- Nalini Natrajan & Emmanuel sampath Nelson. 2. Ibid 3. “Ehejar Bosor Axomiya kobita”- edited by K D Hazarika. 4.Bhaskar J Nath, “ Kavya sahityar pathak, ruchibodhar sangstaran aru dibrugarh biswabidyalayar yuva mancha” GARIMA, 2008 5. “ Harekrishna Dekar hoite Bartalap’, Annual Journal, Dibrugarh university PGSU, 2008 6. Preface to “Natun kobita”, Banalata—edited by Mahendra Borah 7.William H Hudson, “An Introduction To The Study Of Literature”, Kalyani publishers, Page 90 8.Bhaskar J Nath “Krishnaga Andolonor samajik patabhumi aru African American Sahitya”, GARIYOSI,2008 9. Refers to the literary trio of Hema Chandra Goswami,Chandra Kr Agarwalla and sahityarathi Laxminath Bezbaruah 10. Naba kanta Baruah’s poem “polox”( The silt)- translation this authors own (This critical esssay was published by THE SENTINEL in weekly supplement MELANGE,14th sept,14)