Episode 2 - Nissim Ezekiel

Hello there! Welcome to This week in Poetry with Prof. Nedumaran. In this episode we will be exploring the poems of Nissim Ezekiel.“Best poets wait for words”- Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher.Nissim Ezekiel waited for his words throughout his academic, poetic,public life. Through his poetry he asserted his identity as Indian, though born of Jewish parents. He was a promoter of poetry. Bruce King, the author of Modern Indian Poetry in English firmly declares, “ Others wrote poems; Ezekiel wrote poetry”.Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa TS, Night of the Scorpion and Enterprise are up for reading in this episode.Goodbye Party is an interesting satire on our speech patterns and behaviours in certain social contexts.Night of the Scorpion written in the sixties is Ezekiel's vision of the spoken voice. His mother is poisoned by a scorpion's sting.The poem recalls how the father responded, how the ‘peasants’ behaved in that context and the final ‘motherly comment’. Ezekiel presents reality as” observed, known,felt and experienced”. No room for the intellect to play. Enterprise - The poem is about a journey. A metaphor for searching for the self. A quest.Well without much ado. Let's join the Party! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit poetryprofessor.substack.com