MICHAEL MADHUSUDAN DUTT [25 January 1824 – 29 June 1873]:

A BENGALI REBEL POET

“Madhusudan was a tremendous Rebel”-William Radice

MICHAEL MADHUSUDAN DUTT : AN (IWE) BENGALI REBEL POET

MICHAEL MADHUSUDAN DUTT :AN (IWE) BENGALI REBEL POET

Prof. Sukla Basu,a revered analyst of Dutt’s poetry in a recent Seminar in Santiniketan stoutly defended Madhusudan’s position that European thinking formed Dutt the Bengali poet, but the sense and substance of that formidable oeuvre remained Indian to the core, even where in the Chaturdaspadi, Dutt was making use of the Italian sonnet form to excavate his own poetic persona.-Sukla Basu (Sen)

NB. Prof. Sukla Basu (Sen) teaches English at the Department of English and Other Modern European Languages, Visva- Bharati, Santiniketan.

MICHAEL MADHUSUDAN DUTT : AN (IWE) BENGALI REBEL POET

MICHAEL MADHUSUDAN DUTT :AN (IWE) BENGALI REBEL POET

‘You may take my word for it, friend Raj, I shall come out like a tremendous comet and no mistake,’ wrote Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-73) to his friend Rajnarayan Basu in July 1861. The appearance of Michael Madhusudan Dutt (i.e. Datta) in Bengali literature was indeed not unlike that of a striking comet.

MICHAEL ,THE REBEL

CLASSICS OF MADHUSUDAN

MICHAEL ,THE REBEL

CLASSICS OF MADHUSUDAN

MICHAEL,THE REBEL

Title : The English made Madhusudan a true Bengali.

MICHAEL,THE REBEL

Let those who feel that they have spring of fresh thought in them, fly to their mother tongue--Madhusudan

He wrote a number of Bengali plays at this time - Sermistha, Kissen Cumari and Maya Kanan; farces like Ekei ki Boley Savyata, Booro Shaliker Gharhey Ro and a few Bengali or english translations including the famous Bengali play called Nil Durpan by the notable Bengali playwrite Dinobandhu Mitra.-

MICHAEL,THE REBEL

In reading my poem, you must look - 1st to its imagery; 2nd to the language in which those /images and thoughts are expressed; 3rd to the individual flow of each verse.Poet's comment on his new blank verse style, a radical departure from the established practice, in a letter to one of his closest friends

MICHAEL,THE REBEL

“What Vidyasagar is to the Indian social reform Madhusudan is to the Indian Literature”- AMIT CHAUDHURI.

MIC

HA

EL,T

HE R

EB

EL

Madhusudan was a gifted linguist and polyglot. Besides achieving fluency in Indian languages including Bengali, Sanskrit and Tamil, he was well versed in the European classical languages of Greek and Latin. He became fluent in Italian and French.

MICHAEL-THE REBEL

“Tell me not in mournful numbers,Life is but an empty dream.Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal”.- Longfellow

MICHAEL,THE REBEL

“...to Homer and Milton, as

well as to Valmiki, he is

largely indebted, and his

poem is on the whole the

most valuable work in

modern Bengali literature” –

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

"Mother Tongue,“My Bengal i ! your storehouseis ful l of treasures. Yet, I had

sl ighted you,for I yearned for the r ichesof the foreign lands,where in my sleepless nightsand in sorrow I begged in vain. Then said my goddess in my dream:"Oh chi ld, what have you doneto your fate? Why are youbegging here and there?You unwise soul , come backTo your mother's lap. I was happy to obey,and in t ime, I struckthe r iches of my mother tongue.

Link. Stable URL: http:/ /www.jstor.org/stable/27560845

দাঁ� �ড়া�ও পথি�ক-বর, জন্ম যথিদাঁ তব

বঙ্গে�! থিতষ্ঠ ক্ষণক�ল! এ সমা�থি�স্তঙ্গেল

জনন�র কঙ্গেল থি�শু লভঙ্গে যেযমাথিত

থিবর�মা মাহী�র পঙ্গেদাঁ মাহী�থিনদ্রা�ব$ত

দাঁঙ্গে%�ক& ঙ্গেল�দ্ভব কথিব শ্রী�মা�&স)দাঁন!

যঙ্গে��ঙ্গের স�গরদাঁ� �থিড়া কবতক্ষ-ত�ঙ্গের

জন্মভ+থিমা, জন্মদাঁ�ত� দাঁ% মাহী�মাথিত

র�জন�র� ণ ন�ঙ্গেমা, জনন� জ�হ্নব�

Madhusudan’s Tomb.

MICHAEL,THE REBEL

MIC

HA

EL ,T

HE R

EB

EL

“Stop a while, traveller!Should Mother Bengal claim thee for her son.

As a child takes repose on his mother's elysian lap,Even so here in the Long Home,

On the bosom of the earth,Enjoys the sweet eternal sleep

Poet Madhusudan of the Duttas”-Modhusudan Michael

But, stop a while and behold the similarity between Madhusudan’s ‘epitaph’ and that of S. T. Coleridge’s. It appears that Madhusudan adopted if not copied Coleridge; Judgment is yours---

Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772-1834

S.T. Coleridge was buried in the aisle of St. Michael's Church, Highgate, London, England. He was originally buried at Old Highgate Chapel but was re-interred in St. Michael's Church in 1961.

'Stop, Christian Passer-by! - Stop, child of God,

And read with gentle breast. Beneath this sod

A poet lies, or that which once seem'd he. -

O, lift one thought in prayer for S.T.C.;

That he who many a year with toil of breath

Found death in life, may here find life in

death!

Mercy for praise - to be forgiven for fame

He ask'd for praise - to be forgiven for fame

He ask'd, and hoped, through Christ.

Do thou the same!‘

Link:

http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/coleridge.htm

Dutt was largely ignored for 15 years after his death. The belated tribute was a tomb erected at his gravesite.

His epitaph, a verse of his own, reads:

“Stop a while, traveller!Should Mother Bengal claim thee for her son.As a child takes repose on his mother's elysian lap,Even so here in the Long Home,On the bosom of the earth,Enjoys the sweet eternal sleepPoet Madhusudan of the Duttas.

Link. "A poet of epic proportions". THe Daily Star. Retrieved 23 July 2012. & www.wikipedea.org