Nissim Ezekiel’s “Night of the Scorpion” recounts a family’s response after the speaker’s mother is stung by a scorpion. The poem observes villagers, religious explanations, practical efforts and a mother’s final words. Its strength comes from allowing different responses to suffering to appear side by side without turning the scene into a simple contest between ignorance and knowledge. The night…
Henry Louis Vivian Derozio was a nineteenth-century poet and teacher in Calcutta and an important early figure in Indian English literature. His writing emerged at a time when English education, colonial power and new intellectual movements were reshaping public debate. His legacy invites readers to consider how poetry can question inherited assumptions and make room for independent thought. Writ…
Part 67 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through Indian poetry. Keki N. Daruwalla was a major Indian English poet whose work is known for historical awareness, sharp observation and a willingness to confront violence, power and moral uncertainty. His poems often place the individual within landscapes marked by history, conflict and the uneasy relationship between civilisation and brutality.…
Part 63 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through Indian poetry. Sarojini Naidu’s “The Bangle Sellers” uses the colourful objects of a marketplace to explore women’s lives and the transitions associated with youth, marriage and maturity. Its musical language and vivid colours create a graceful surface, while the poem also invites readers to examine how women’s identities are represented thro…
Part 61 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through Indian poetry. Contemporary Indian English poetry is a diverse field shaped by many regions, languages and literary histories. Nandini Sahu is a poet and scholar whose work and criticism contribute to conversations about identity, myth, gender and cultural memory. This essay considers how contemporary poets use English while remaining in dial…
Part 44 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through Indian poetry. Toru Dutt’s poetry brings together Indian memory, English-language expression and a deep awareness of cultural translation. Though she died very young in the nineteenth century, her work helped establish an important place for Indian writers in English. Her poems often use landscape, family memory and inherited stories to explo…
Part 31 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through Indian poetry. Jayanta Mahapatra’s “Dawn at Puri” places the reader in a landscape where pilgrimage, poverty, ritual and private doubt exist side by side. Puri is not merely a picturesque setting; it is a place where religious devotion is visible in everyday life, and where the poet can observe the distance between sacred ideals and human suf…
Part 30 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through Indian poetry. Gieve Patel’s poem “On Killing a Tree” is often read as a striking account of how difficult it is to destroy a living organism that has grown over years. Its plain, almost instructional voice creates an unsettling contrast with the violence of its subject. This discussion analyses the poem’s key images and phrasing without repr…
Part 20 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through India’s poetic heritage. Toru Dutt’s “Our Casuarina Tree” is a deeply personal poem in which a familiar tree becomes a symbol of childhood, memory and the people who are no longer present. The poem moves from vivid description of the tree to reflections on time and loss. This article explores its imagery and emotional structure without reprod…
Part 13 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through India’s poetic heritage. Nissim Ezekiel’s “Night of the Scorpion” recounts a night when a mother is stung by a scorpion and the village gathers to respond. The poem observes the community’s explanations, rituals and the mother’s suffering with a mixture of affection, irony and restraint. It is a powerful example of Indian English poetry findi…
