There Is Nothing As Indian English Poetry Criticism Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

If English itself is not our own then how to talk of
Indian English poetry and its criticism,
Had there been we would have heard,
If English as a language exists, where does it,
Where is it spoken in India,
An overseas language is it,
An official language, a link language,
The language of science and technology?

Even if the Indians have practised, attempted their hands at
Writing verses in English, it is but a translator's version,
An interpreter's version, a tourist guide's attempt of,
A foreigner's language adjusting to Indian clime,
But as the writers write we imitatively, laboriously,
Striving to contribute and add to,
Interpreting India, Indian land and ethos,
But fail and falter we quite miserably
With a shaky start and sustenance.


Indian English poetry is in reality a study in minor voices,
Slender and slick volumes of poesy,
Generally, poetasters, non-poets, commoners and rhymers
Crowd and cram the pages
Of voluminous anthologies
Where entries can be qualitatively poor
Though the volumes bulky and quantitatively voluminous.

Whereas the ragged men as researchers and guides
Take the space from us as for criticism,
The novices turn into critics and reviewers overnight,
The mediocre professors and mediocre students
As the new publishing critics of the evolving genre
Where the poets can be contacted for books,
Where the carbon copies too matter it,
Where the books are almost out of print, out of stock,
Lying unpublished or full of writerly bluffs.