O. P. Bhatnagar’s Clarion Call to Reform Indian English Poetry

Abstract

O.P. Bhatnagar is an original poet expressing and asserting his originality of imagination, conception and treatment. He has also kept himself aloof from the dominant schools of poetry and attempts to function close to the centre of society without self-accusation and morbidity characteristic of modern poetry. While dealing with the complexity he tends to keep a delicate grasp of the world around him. His mission is to discover truth without self-indulgent esotericism. Above all, Bhatnagar is a true humanist who has been endeavoring all his life to ameliorate the status and raise the dignity of man in modern world dominated by the hawks and hyenas of politics. This paper iterates Bhatnagar's clarion call to modern Indo¬ English poets to stop window dressing, environment reporting, and start bringing poetry within the reach of the common man.