'THE ROOTS OF OUR SMALL CRIES' IN THE LANDSCAPE OF THE POETRY OF JAYANTA MAHAPATRA (Pages 82-89) by Mr. G. Sreekanth* and Dr. P.V. Ravi Kumar** in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Shaped with a capacious account of philosophical angst about the question of belonging and identity, the Landscape in Jayanta Mahapatra’s poetry is preserved with the deepest pathos of his ceaseless conflict between cleft identity and faith. It shuttles between two extremes and finally recedes into an unfathomable silence. This essay analyses the poet’s inherent feelings wrapped in silence and movement of every fragment of historical and natural landscape which is transformed into the inscape where he mostly unburdens his agitated self. The consequent ebb and tide on the surface of his poetry are poems themselves in the form of autobiography. The transcendental voyage of soul through the scattered debris of landscape, reforms its self with a cathartic effect. His experiment is symbolically and metaphorically molded anew at every turn and finally emerges as a technique. Certain techniques of physics Mahapatra introduced into his poetry are the first of its kind. They enlarge the scope in the much neglected Indian English poetry. In the postcolonial and a multicultural viewpoint, landscape as an avant-garde literary technique in Mahapapatra’s poetry challenges the contemporary western literature. Key Words: History, Identity, Landscape, Silence, Transcendence.