HYDERABAD: An interesting poetry event titled ‘Tradition and Individual Talent: Poets of Hyderabad Remember the Bards of England’ was held this Saturday at British Council Library. Students, critics, academicians, poetry afficiandos of the city gathered for an interactive poetry session. The poets on the panel talked about their favourite British poets and how they were influenced by several of their works.
The event was initiated by city poet, Jhilam Chattaraj, who read from her latest book, ‘When Lovers Leave and Poetry Stays’, Authorspress, 2018. She discussed about poets like WB Yeats, Dylan Thomas and GM Hopkins and how they influenced her poetry.
The other participating poet shared her admiration for PB Shelly’s poetry and read her poems tracing the influence of other prominent English authors including Virginia Woolf. Poet Paresh Tiwari, read haibun from his book, ‘Raindrops Chasing Raindrops’ (Red River Press, 2017). He paid tribute to poet Ezra Pound and referred to prominent British haiku poets.
A student and performance-poet Pavan Kumar of Little Flower Degree College, talked about British poet William Blake and performed a few poems inspired by the poets of the Beat Generation. The reading was followed by an interactive discussion on poetry, its distillation process and production. It also highlighted the importance of libraries and cultural spaces such as the British Council Library in promoting creativity and intellectual discourses.