The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets

by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (compiler)

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, a well-known poet, translator, and critic-historian, has here put together an unusually sensitive selection of fine verse in English by his best contemporaries. Complete with insightful biographical and critical introductions to each poet, this is the definitive
anthology of modern Indian poetry in English. The collection contains over 130 works by twelve poets, including Nissim Ezekiel, Jayanta Mahapatra, A.K. Ramanujan, Keki N. Daeruwalla, and Vikram Seth. Many of the poets chosen either present new facets of recongnized faces, or deliberately differ
from those repeatedly represented in standard anthologies. Good poems in English by Indians have appeared sporadically for perhaps a century; consistently good Indian poets writing in English have appeared essentially in the last four decades; and a small group of significant new voices in the past
few years has deemed necessary a carefully defined picture of the state of the art. This collection will be attractive to anyone interested in contemporary poetry, and in poetic usages of English in contemporary India.

Genres: Poetry, India

200 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 1993

About the author

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra was born in Lahore in 1947. He has published six collections of poetry in English and two of translation — a volume of Prakrit love poems, The Absent Traveller, recently reissued in Penguin Classics, and Songs of Kabir (NYRB Classics). His Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets (1992) has been very influential. He has edited several books, including History of Indian Literature in English (Columbia University Press, 2003) and Collected Poems in English by Arun Kolatkar (Bloodaxe Books, 2010). His collection of essays Partial Recall: Essays on Literature and Literary History was published by Permanent Black in 2012. A second book of essays, Translating the Indian Past (Permanent Black), appeared in 2019.

Mehrotra was nominated for the post of Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford in 2009. He came second behind Ruth Padel, who later resigned over allegations of a smear campaign against Trinidadian poet Derek Walcott (who had himself earlier withdrawn from the election process).

Mehrotra has translated more than 200 literary works from ancient Prakrit language, and from Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati.

Reviews

[Karthika · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few of the poems in here left me catching my breath while reading them. I enjoyed the poetry more than Arvind Krishna Mehrotra's commentary in between.

[Karthika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed some of the poems more than the others; and all of the poems more than Arvind Krishna Mehrotra's commentary in between.

[Sharanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A forgotten tribe in the world of elliots and Keats ! Glad to have discovered folks like Dilip Chitare and Keki Daruwala

[Anirban Nanda]

I am introduced to some really good poets in this anthology. Particularly the poems by A.K. Ramanujan, Arun Kolatkar(I became a fan when I read Jejuri a few months back), Dilip Chitre, Agha Sahid Ali, Vikram Seth (I always knew him as a good novelist. His poems; they are just brilliant), Manohar Shetty and one or two poems by Keki Daruwalla and Dom Moraes.

[Nilay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enhanced my knowledge about some of the great modern Indian poets, exactly as per the book title. I knew about some of them but the mini-biographies collected by Arvind were very precise and exactly as per requirement, neither more nor less.

Coming back to the book, it is exactly what i was expecting it to be. I was intrigued by the selected poems of Nissim Ezekiel, Arun Kolatkar and Agha Shahid Ali and was left hungry for more, pretty sure i am gonna spend the next few weeks reading more of their work and about their life. Not mentioning Dom Moraes here becuase i have already read (and loved) his selected poems collection which also has a very detailed and excellent introduction by Ranjit Hostoke. I am sure the other poets are also great in their league but were not exactly the type i love to read.

I am also interested to read the poems of Arvind Krishna Mehrotra now. I really liked this anthology curated by him and his perspective about these poets/poems.

[Mallika Mahidhar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a nice collection of poetry by various authors.