The Spirit of Humanism in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel

Abstract

Nissim Ezekiel, the legendary Indian English poet has presented a wide range of subjects and themes in his poetry But the ‘leit motif’ of his whole poetic career is the feeling  of human predicament in general. How to live happily, calmly and ethically as an integrated human being, seems to be the basic concern of his poetic expressions. The basic tenet of humanism the dignity of human will, moderation, sense of permanent values both individually and collectively, negation of dogma and superstition all find beautiful expression in Ezekiel’s poetry. ‘A Time To Change’, ‘A poem of Dedication’. ‘In the Theatre’, ‘Commitments, ‘Hymns in Darkness’, ‘Later Day Psalms’, ‘Blessings’, are some of the important poems which expresses the poet’s desire and belief of achieving humanity through ordinary means without restoring to super human or  sub-human distortions of life’s facts. So the aim of my article shall be to probe the dictum of Ezekiel “human balance humanly acquired”