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 behaviors 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!
Episode 2 - Nissim Ezekiel
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This Week in Poetry
This Week in Poetry With Prof.Nedumaran is a podcast series aimed at fostering a passion for poetry through listening to select poems as they are read by an expert. <br /><br />Poetry is an auditory experience. Words, chosen and arranged by the poet when read aloud come to life lighting up the content the poet has packed in the words and sounds. A good poem brightens up our moments. It gives us the glory and the grief, the ebb and flow of life eventually, helping us understand ourselves and others in a better light. Frost said a poem is a clarification of life; it raises questions, stirs our curiosity, builds imaginary bridges to negotiate doubts and uncertainties.<br /><br />The podcast presents some of the best moments in the history of civilization. Listening to the best minds can be a very invigorating exercise, energising, entertaining and profoundly illuminating. <br /><br />Prof. R.Nedumaran with his thirty some years of teaching and living poetry at The American College, Madurai reads poems of his choice from English and Tamil Literatures for your listening pleasure.<br /><br />“The word / was born in the blood / grew in the dark body,beating / and flew through the lips and the mouth” Pablo Neruda the Latin American poet in his poem, The Word. <br /><br />Words are a source of life. Reach the source through the sounds. “ The sound makes no sense unless it is heard” Robert Frost.<br /><br />A poem is always an attempt at clarification of life. A poem is a performance.<br />Come let's perform poetry ! Let the sounds of life from the poems we read give us joy and light.<br /><br />Welcome to This Week in Poetry with Prof.Nedumaran.
This Week in Poetry With Prof.Nedumaran is a podcast series aimed at fostering a passion for poetry through listening to select poems as they are read by an expert. <br /><br />Poetry is an auditory experience. Words, chosen and arranged by the poet when read aloud come to life lighting up the content the poet has packed in the words and sounds. A good poem brightens up our moments. It gives us the glory and the grief, the ebb and flow of life eventually, helping us understand ourselves and others in a better light. Frost said a poem is a clarification of life; it raises questions, stirs our curiosity, builds imaginary bridges to negotiate doubts and uncertainties.<br /><br />The podcast presents some of the best moments in the history of civilization. Listening to the best minds can be a very invigorating exercise, energising, entertaining and profoundly illuminating. <br /><br />Prof. R.Nedumaran with his thirty some years of teaching and living poetry at The American College, Madurai reads poems of his choice from English and Tamil Literatures for your listening pleasure.<br /><br />“The word / was born in the blood / grew in the dark body,beating / and flew through the lips and the mouth” Pablo Neruda the Latin American poet in his poem, The Word. <br /><br />Words are a source of life. Reach the source through the sounds. “ The sound makes no sense unless it is heard” Robert Frost.<br /><br />A poem is always an attempt at clarification of life. A poem is a performance.<br />Come let's perform poetry ! Let the sounds of life from the poems we read give us joy and light.<br /><br />Welcome to This Week in Poetry with Prof.Nedumaran.Listen on
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Appears in episode
Ramanujam Nedumaran
Episode 2 - Nissim Ezekiel