Anglophone Poetry in Colonial India, 1780–1913: A Critical Anthology (Series in Victorian Studies)

Anglophone Poetry in Colonial India, 1780–1913: A Critical Anthology makes accessible for the first time the entire range of poems written in English on the subcontinent from their beginnings in 1780 to the watershed moment in 1913 when Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature.Mary Ellis Gibson establishes accurate texts for such well-known poets as Toru Dutt and the early nineteenth-century poet Kasiprasad Ghosh. The anthology brings together poets who were in fact colleagues, competitors, and influences on each other. The historical scope of the anthology, beginning with the famous Orientalist Sir William Jones and the anonymous “Anna Maria” and ending with Indian poets publishing in fin-de-siècle London, will enable teachers and students to understand what brought Kipling early fame and why at the same time Tagore’s Gitanjali became a global phenomenon. Anglophone Poetry in Colonial India, 1780–1913 puts all parties to the poetic conversation back together and makes their work accessible to American audiences.With accurate and reliable texts, detailed notes on vocabulary, historical and cultural references, and biographical introductions to more than thirty poets, this collection significantly reshapes the understanding of English language literary culture in India. It allows scholars to experience the diversity of poetic forms created in this period and to understand the complex religious, cultural, political, and gendered divides that shaped them. Anglophone Poetry in Colonial India, 17801913: A Critical Anthology makes accessible for the first time the entire range of poems written in English on the subcontinent from their beginnings in 1780 to the watershed moment in 1913 when Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Mary Ellis Gibson establishes accurate texts for such well-known poets as Toru Dutt and the early nineteenth-century poet Kasiprasad Ghosh. The anthology brings together poets who were in fact colleagues, competitors, and influences on each other. The historical scope of the anthology, beginning with the famous Orientalist Sir William Jones and the anonymous Anna Maria and ending with Indian poets publishing in fin-de-sicle London, will enable teachers and students to understand what brought Kipling early fame and why at the same time Tagores Gitanjali became a global phenomenon. Anglophone Poetry in Colonial India, 17801913 puts all parties to the poetic conversation back together and makes their work accessible to American audiences. With accurate and reliable texts, detailed notes on vocabulary, historical and cultural references, and biographical introductions to more than thirty poets, this collection significantly reshapes the understanding of English language literary culture in India. It allows scholars to experience the diversity of poetic forms created in this period and to understand the complex religious, cultural, political, and gendered divides that shaped them. Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 A Note on Names 14 Abbreviations 16 Introduction 20 Sir William Jones 49 Sir John Horsford 63 James Atkinson 90 Reginald Heber 100 George Anderson Vetch 109 Horace Hayman Wilson 115 John Lawson 124 Thomas Medwin 133 Emma Roberts 140 James Ross Hutchinson 152 Henry Meredith Parker 159 David Lester Richardson 168 Honoria Marshall Lawrence 177 Kasiprasad Ghosh 188 Henry Louis Vivian Derozio 198 Henry Page 208 Sir John William Kaye 215 E.L. 222 Michael Madhusudan Dutt 231 Shoshee Chunder Dutt 242 Govin Chunder Dutt and The Dutt Family Album 249 Mary Seyers Carshore 266 Sir Edwin Arnold 278 Greece Chunder Dutt 284 Mary Eliza Leslie 290 Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall 298 Aru Dutt 306 Toru Dutt 313 John Renton Denning 324 Rabindranath Tagore 329 Laurence Hope 340 Rudyard Kipling 345 Manmohan Ghose 362 Joseph Furtado 368 Aurobindo Ghose 373 Sarojini Naidu 382 Appendix: Comic and Satiric Poets of the Long Nineteenth Century 392 Index of Authors 412 Index of Titles 414 Explores the entire range of poems written in English on the subcontinent from their beginnings in 1780 to the watershed moment in 1913 when Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The historical scope of the anthology will enable teachers and students to understand what brought Kipling early fame and why at the same time Tagore's Gitanjali became a global phenomenon.