Indian Sensibility and milieu: A Relook at Nissim Ezekiel’s later poetry

Abstract

Nissim Ezekiel, an Indian English poet, is preoccupied with his alien background. Ezekiel has been considered the poet whose poetic works are chiefly concerned with ‘alienation’. But despite his Jewish consciousness, Ezekiel is always earnest of and passionate about his involvement with and commitment to Indian sensibility. He is drawn to Indian social fabric to the extent of confessing ‘My backward place is where I am’. The theme of ‘alienation’ recurs in his poems. But one cannot limit him to the tag as a poet with alien leanings. Ezekiel’s primary concern is with man and his mind. Ezekiel’s poems truly reveal Ezekiel’s essential persona always in search of life with its varied aspects, in harmony with his heart and mind. Ezekiel’s later poetry marks his growing consciousness of an identity that goes beyond his genetic root. Indian sensibility and milieu find a true expression in his later poetry. The paper in question attempts to trace the manner and ways how Ezekiel’s body of poetry of the later stage of his poetic career gradually upholds Indian ethos and values.