This article focuses on Jayanta Mahapatra’s poem Indian Summer and has well-documented sections. It begins with a brief introduction to the poem and the poet separately. In the third section, the article offers a summary of the poem. After that, it delves into a line-by-line analysis and explanation of the poem. The article shares critical commentary on the poem and the poet’s poetic style and craft and ends with a conclusion.
NOTE: At the end of the article, after the conclusion, a section is dedicated to the BA and MA students. It argues how the poet’s name and fame matter when critically dealing with a poem. Please read the article carefully. All the best!
The Text of the Poem Indian Summer by Mahapatra
Over the soughing of the sombre wind
priests chant louder than ever;
the mouth of India opens.
Crocodiles move into deeper waters.
Mornings of heated middens
smoke under the sun.
The good wife
lies in my bed
through the long afternoon;
dreaming still, unexhausted
by the deep roar of funeral pyres.
Jayanta Mahapatra, one of India’s foremost poets writing in English, crafts poems rooted in Indian culture and laced with universal themes of alienation, death, and spirituality. His poem “Indian Summer” encapsulates these elements, vividly depicting the Indian landscape and human condition amidst both physical and spiritual heat. This poem touches upon the slow, oppressive atmosphere of an Indian summer while invoking more profound, symbolic images of life, death, and the intersection of personal and collective experience.
Background of the Poet
Born in 1928 in Cuttack, Odisha, Jayanta Mahapatra was one of the first Indian poets to write exclusively in English. Unlike many Indian poets of his time, Mahapatra did not delve into the nationalist or post-colonial themes that were popular during the mid-20th century. Instead, he often focuses on the private world of emotions, relationships, and the immediate physical environment, all with an undercurrent of cultural and historical influences. His poetry blends personal memory with communal history, often evoking literal and metaphorical landscapes. Common themes in his works include the Indian ethos, spirituality, cultural identity, and the sense of displacement and alienation.
Mahapatra’s poetry does not attempt to idealise Indian life but instead reflects the land’s and its people’s complexities. He has a keen eye for the subtle nuances of daily life, particularly as they are affected by the inescapable forces of time, death, and history. His poems often wrestle with the tension between tradition and modernity, as well as between the spiritual and the mundane.
Summary of the Poem
“Indian Summer” unfolds like a meditation on the slow burn of life in an Indian summer, where the physical heat becomes a metaphor for the characters’ internal and existential conditions. The poem describes priests chanting louder than ever, perhaps signalling an intensification of spiritual or religious ritual in response to the oppressive climate. The “mouth of India opens,” a powerful and evocative image that suggests physical hunger and perhaps spiritual or emotional yearning.
As crocodiles move into deeper waters, the natural world seems to echo the human need for refuge from harshness. The mornings, littered with “heated middens,” symbolise decay and the weight of accumulated waste—whether literal or metaphorical—under the scorching sun.
In the more personal stanza, the speaker’s wife lies on the bed, perhaps languishing under the weight of the heat and the long afternoon, yet she remains “unexhausted” by the deep, existential roar of funeral pyres. Here, Mahapatra subtly connects the personal and the universal, the domestic and the eternal, under the unrelenting gaze of an Indian summer.
Line-by-Line Analysis
Line 1: “Over the soughing of the sombre wind”
The word “soughing” refers to a soft, murmuring sound by the wind, indicating a slow, dreary movement. The adjective “sombre” reinforces the melancholic atmosphere that pervades the poem. This line introduces the natural setting, where the wind’s somberness reflects the internal mood of the characters or the broader cultural environment.
Line 2: “priests chant louder than ever;”
Here, Mahapatra brings in the figure of the priest, often a symbol of tradition, religion, and ritual in Indian society. The priests’ chants grow louder, suggesting an intensification of religious or spiritual practices, possibly in response to an existential crisis or the oppressive nature of the summer. The religious tone of the poem begins to emerge here, as the speaker implies a kind of desperation in these louder chants.
Line 3: “the mouth of India opens.”
This is a potent image. The “mouth of India” could symbolise the nation, opening up in hunger, exhaustion, or supplication. It may also represent a collective voice—one that seeks relief from the hardships of life, whether through religion, spiritual practices, or the rituals of daily existence. The image hints at a broader cultural or national hunger beyond the physical.
Line 4: “Crocodiles move into deeper waters.”
This line introduces a striking natural metaphor. Crocodiles are creatures often associated with patience, lurking, and danger. Here, their movement into deeper waters can be seen as a response to the heat, seeking refuge or coolness. On a symbolic level, it may represent the retreat of darker, primal instincts to a more inaccessible place or a withdrawal from the harshness of the environment.
Line 5: “Mornings of heated middens”
The word “middens” refers to refuse heaps, and here, Mahapatra evokes the image of mornings dominated by the stench and smoke of decay. The heat intensifies the staleness and waste of life, much like an oppressive summer accentuates the harsher realities of existence.
Line 6: “smoke under the sun.”
The smoke rising under the sun adds another layer of intensity to the oppressive heat. This image of heat and decay resonates with themes of mortality and impermanence, as the smoke can be seen as a metaphor for life’s fleeting and ephemeral nature under the relentless pressure of time.
Line 7: “The good wife”
In contrast to the bleak external environment, the poem now focuses on a personal, domestic image. The phrase “good wife” is loaded with cultural significance, especially in traditional Indian society, where a “good wife” is expected to fulfil her duties, remain loyal, and silently bear the burdens of life.
Line 8: “lies in my bed”
The wife, lying in bed, could symbolise exhaustion or resignation in the face of life’s harsh realities, but there is also an intimacy implied in this line. The physical space of the bed becomes a private world, separate from the public and spiritual realm evoked earlier in the poem.
Line 9: “through the long afternoon;”
The phrase “long afternoon” is a common trope in literature to symbolise the slow passage of time, especially during periods of heat or waiting. The long afternoon could symbolise the length and monotony of life itself or a moment of personal stasis in the face of broader existential concerns.
Line 10: “dreaming still, unexhausted”
Despite the harshness of the heat and the funerary images that surround her, the “good wife” is still dreaming, unexhausted. This speaks to a kind of inner resilience or an inability to be fully consumed by life’s harshness.
Line 11: “by the deep roar of funeral pyres.”
The poem ends with a chilling image of funeral pyres, which, in Indian tradition, are associated with death and cremation. The deep roar suggests the omnipresence of death, both literal and metaphorical. The wife’s ability to continue dreaming despite the proximity of death reinforces the theme of life’s persistence, even in the face of inevitable mortality.
Critical Commentary
“Indian Summer” by Jayanta Mahapatra is a rich, layered poem that juxtaposes the external environment of a harsh Indian summer with the internal, personal experiences of the speaker and those around him. The oppressive heat serves as a metaphor for broader existential concerns—spiritual hunger, the inevitability of death, and the passage of time.
Mahapatra’s imagery is deeply rooted in the Indian context, from the chanting priests to the funeral pyres, yet the emotions and themes are universal. For example, the crocodiles moving into deeper waters may symbolise the instinctual retreat from discomfort, something any reader can identify with. At the same time, the “mouth of India” opening can be read as a plea for relief, whether physical or spiritual.
The contrast between the external world—marked by decay, smoke, and death—and the personal world of the “good wife” lying unexhausted in bed creates a tension that drives the poem. The wife’s continued dreaming, despite the proximity of death, suggests a resilience or denial that is both poignant and troubling. Mahapatra seems to be asking whether personal dreams and domestic life can continue despite the overwhelming realities of existence.
Mahapatra’s fascination with the Indian landscape is not surprising to those who dwell in the academic world of Indian English literature. However, there is a newness about the poet’s penchant for natural landscapes every time he sketches the same in his poetry. As described in the paragraphs above, Mahapatra can quickly juxtapose the external with the internal, the fire with the cold, the tension with the reconciliation, and everything else with its exact opposite, albeit in a pacifying form! The poet has used such transitions in many short poems. For example, in a poem titled Summer (Re-Reading Jayanta Mahapatra 125), the poet strikes an image of a mango tree and cold ash under it. However, quickly, like in the poem we discuss here, Indian Summer, the poet shifts from the world outside to the world inside a girl’s mind, who is shown combing her mother’s hair.
Jayanta Mahapatra’s Indian Summer embodies a striking contrast between external chaos and internal tranquillity, a dynamic often associated with the Indian sensibility. The figure of the “Good wife” lying in bed is particularly significant in this context. Her peaceful repose amidst the scorching heat and the distant “deep roar of funeral pyres” symbolises the remarkable ability of the Indian populace to maintain inner calm even in the face of death and decay. While the landscape outside is marked by decay, symbolised through the imagery of burning pyres and the oppressive heat, the wife remains unaffected. Her ability to dream to remain “unexhausted” despite outside turmoil indicates a spiritual resilience deeply ingrained in Indian culture. Death, in the Indian worldview, is not an abrupt or tragic end but a natural realisation of life’s transitory nature. Accepting death as an inevitable and even welcome event forms the backbone of this spiritual fortitude. Mahapatra’s use of this imagery subtly conveys a core aspect of “Indianness”—the capacity to transcend the chaos of the external world through inner peace, a characteristic rooted in a long-standing philosophical and spiritual tradition. The wife’s serenity in the face of death reflects a profound detachment, where the temporal world and its tumult are understood as part of a larger, cosmic order, allowing individuals to remain calm and spiritually resolute.
Conclusion
In “Indian Summer,” Mahapatra crafts a profoundly personal and universally resonant poem. Through his vivid imagery and careful juxtaposition of the external and internal worlds, he explores themes of mortality, spiritual yearning, and resilience in the face of hardship. The oppressive Indian summer, with its heat, smoke, and funeral pyres, becomes a metaphor for the existential challenges that define human life. Despite the intensity of these challenges, a quiet persistence is embodied by the “good wife,” whose dreams remain unexhausted. Mahapatra’s poem leaves the reader with a lingering sense of the inescapability of death and the resilience of life in the face of it.
NOTE:
Though the poem does exhibit typical Mahapatra romance with the Indian landscape and spiritual richness, it does not stand firm against many of his poems, which share the same themes and subjects. Many critics believe, and it appears to be the fact, that this poem is one of Mahapatra’s earlier attempts. Therefore, the abrupt transition from the external to the internal is not smooth (as found in many poems by Mahapatra). However, as academicians always do, we somehow compel ourselves to critique the name rather than the work. Indian Summer is a good poem, no doubt. However, even judging by Mahapatra’s standards, it lacks smoothness, the richness of the concluding imagery, and a rhythmic flow that glues the poem from the beginning to the end (with an intellectual, emotional or even lyrical unity). It exhibits an abrupt and unaided change of scene and almost saves itself by sticking to Mahapatra’s plan–hold dealy to nature (of humans and the Godly beings).
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Alok Mishra