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Prison Days and Other Poems

Prison Days and Other Poems

Agyeya
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‘These poems have appealed to me greatly. They have stuck in my mind . . . And so I commend these poems and perhaps they might move others as they have moved me’
Jawaharlal Nehru

Agyeya was jailed as a revolutionary by the British authorities in the early 1930s-an experience that indelibly shaped his literary output. The verses in this collection vividly conjure the horror and tedium of imprisonment: the sound of iron gates clanging shut and the shadows cast by the bars of a cell. But Agyeya’s vision never descends into bleakness. Even quarantined, he is constantly aware of the pulse of life radiating outside the prison walls-the lotuses in bloom, the gushing breeze, the mighty seas-as well as the solidarity and compassion that unites those in captivity.
Written between 1933 and 1938, Prison Days and Other Poems astutely captures the mood before Indian independence, when freedom was still merely a dream.
‘The grand old man of Hindi literature . . . [Agyeya’s] poetry and fiction were only the logical culmination of a multi-faceted career’
India Today

Imprint: India Penguin

Published: Jun/2018

ISBN: 9780143426776

Length : 104 Pages

MRP : ₹250.00

Prison Days and Other Poems

Agyeya

‘These poems have appealed to me greatly. They have stuck in my mind . . . And so I commend these poems and perhaps they might move others as they have moved me’
Jawaharlal Nehru

Agyeya was jailed as a revolutionary by the British authorities in the early 1930s-an experience that indelibly shaped his literary output. The verses in this collection vividly conjure the horror and tedium of imprisonment: the sound of iron gates clanging shut and the shadows cast by the bars of a cell. But Agyeya’s vision never descends into bleakness. Even quarantined, he is constantly aware of the pulse of life radiating outside the prison walls-the lotuses in bloom, the gushing breeze, the mighty seas-as well as the solidarity and compassion that unites those in captivity.
Written between 1933 and 1938, Prison Days and Other Poems astutely captures the mood before Indian independence, when freedom was still merely a dream.
‘The grand old man of Hindi literature . . . [Agyeya’s] poetry and fiction were only the logical culmination of a multi-faceted career’
India Today

Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback
Ebooks

Agyeya

Agyeya(1911-87) was the pen name of S.H. Vatsyayan, regarded as one of the foremost figures of Hindi literature who was instrumental in pioneering modern trends inthe realm of poetry, fiction, criticism and journalism. As a young man, he joinedthe movement for India's independence alongside Bhagat Singh and ChandrashekharAzad, and was even arrested by the British authorities. His monumental novel Shekhar: Ek Jeevani, widely regarded ashis masterpiece, was drawn from his own experiences in prison and has been published in Penguin Classics as Shekhar: A Life. He has also won the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Jnanpith Award for his poetry. Prison Days and Other Poems, a collection of his verses, has also been published in Penguin Classics.

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Agyeya(1911-87) was the pen name of S.H. Vatsyayan, regarded as one of the foremost figures of Hindi literature who was instrumental in pioneering modern trends in the realm of poetry, fiction, criticism, and journalism. His monumental novel Shekhar: Ek Jeevani, widely regarded as his masterpiece, was drawn from his own experiences in prison and has been […]

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