Shades of Social Life in the Poetry of O. P. Bhatnagar

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Poetry of Bhatnagar is unlike the common run and it is surely not a kind of after dinner amusement. It is not a soft and pleasant hobby. Bhatnagar never writes poetry that seems out of touch with men’s lives and real interests. He tells Prof. S. B. Srivastava in an interview, “Poetry can become significant when it reflects and contains responses to specific human situations”. He also feels that poetry and life are essentially one. Both have to be lived and both have to be perpetually corrected and reformed. He remarks, “For me there is no difference between life and poetry”. His poetry is integrated to social structure and he wants to prepare people for the most sweeping changes. It is his concentrated aspiration to portray the struggle of humanity. So, we should value work to avoid a waste of life. Like the gentle dew that falls unseen and unheard and yet brings into blossoms, the fairest of roses is the contribution of Bhatnagar’s poetry in the field of Indo-Anglian poetry. Silent, unperceived, yet potent in its effect, it is revolutionizing thought. Those who keep their eyes open and those who understand the working in mind will find immense change that may occur in the society of India by never ceasing the permeation of Bhatnagar’s message, left in the pages of his poetry.