CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF “EVENING LANDSCAPE BY THE RIVER” BY
JAYANTA MAHAPATRA
INTRODUCTION TO
EVENING LANDSCAPE BY THE RIVER:
The
poem "Evening Landscape by The River" is written by a
famous poet Jayanta Mahapatra. In this poem the poet is conveying immense
sadness that is beyond any type of typical heartbreak. The memories of the dead
people are affecting the narrator. It is very hard to imagine that they are
gone. The narrator's mind is in deep sorrow. Thus, the poem flows around grief
and mental pain.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF
EVENING LANDSCAPE BY THE RIVER:
Jayanta
Mahapatra is an excellent Indian English poet. He was born on 22 October 1928
at Cuttack in Orrisa. He is the first Indian poet to win Sahitya Akademic award
in English poetry. By religion he is a Christian. He did his higher education
in Patna, Bihar and did is graduated in Physics. In 1949 he became physics
lecturer at Ravenshaw Collage Cuttack. Before retirement in the year 1986 he
composed 18 books of poems. In his poems we find all sorts of emotion like
love, sadness, pain, separation, faith and death. Most of his poem focusses on
human relationship.
CRITICAL
APPRECIATION OF EVENING LANDSCAPE BY THE RIVER:
The poem
“Evening Landscape by The River” written by Jayanta Mahapatra depicts a
scene by a river in Orrisa. The poet is conveying the extreme sadness that is
beyond any heartbreak. The poet surveys the scene and the image of broken
shacks of fishermen, of frail and still temples, of an infant crawling in a
hut, of light laughter and abundant darkness makes the poet sad. The atmosphere
is so gloomy that one can forget everything even the faces of the dear ones who
have departed from this world. The feeling of sadness and the harsh reality
makes the poet to close his eyes. The poor fishermen live in broken shacks
situated close to the river. The temple situated at some distance is absolutely
still in meditation. In a nearby hut an infant after waking up from its sleep
begins to crawl on the floor. The sound of light laughter is heard. The river
is full of water and in the dark of evening, the moonlight is falling
unsteadily as if it were not there to continue.
It is
quite natural that Mahapatra in his various poems depicts the eternal theme of
the cultures of Orrisa. The Orrisa landscape is directly related to history and
the social condition which revolves around rites and rituals of the society.
Mahapatra aften seen dilling with the landscape of Orissa. They are ‘Dawn’, ‘Village’,
‘Old Places’, ‘A Twilight poem’ and so on. The scene in this poem is adjacent
to the river. Here one can witness poverty, miserable condition of the fishermen,
the dilapidated condition of river side dwellers, the atmosphere is gloomy and
the sadness remains alive in the surrounding. The poet is presenting the real
picture of the people residing in Orrisa.
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