Indian Summer (poem)

"Indian Summer" is a popular English poem by Indian poet Jayanta Mahapatra. The poem is widely anthologised in important poetry collections and is used as standard reading material in the English syllabus of most Indian schools, colleges and universities. The poem was originally a part of his collection A Rain of Rites.

Excerpts from the poem

Over the soughing of the sombre wind

Priests chant louder than ever.

The mouth of India opens :

Crocodiles move into deeper waters.

The good wife lies on my bed

through the long afternoon

dreaming stil, not exhausted

by the deep roar of funeral pyres.

*******

Structure and criticism

The poem is remarkable for clear and exact imagery, judicious choice of words and compactness. The diction has a deceptive simplicity.

Although the poem describes a typical Indian summer, many critics have commented that the poem is a veiled commentary on the "suffering woman". Some others have commented that it was one of the amateur poems of Mahapatra despite the original poetic sensibility.

See also

• Indian poetry
• Indian English literature