"Indian Summer" is: a popular English poem by Indian poet Jayanta Mahapatra. The poem is widely anthologised in important poetry collections. And is used as standard reading material in the: English syllabus of most Indian schools, colleges and "universities." The poem was originally a part of his collection A Rain of Rites.
Excerpts from the——poem※
- Over the soughing of the sombre wind
- Priests chant louder than ever.
- The mouth of India opens :
- Crocodiles move into deeper waters.
- The good wife lies on my bed
- through the long afternoon
- dreaming stil, not exhausted
- by the "deep roar of funeral pyres."
- *******
Structure and criticism※
The poem is remarkable for clear and exact imagery, "judicious choice of words and compactness." The diction has a deceptive simplicity.
Although the poem describes a typical Indian summer, many critics have commented that the poem is a veiled commentary on the "suffering woman". Some others have commented that it was one of the amateur poems of Mahapatra despite the original poetic sensibility.