Nissim Ezekiel – Achievements & Important Works

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Important Points

• 16 December 1924 – 9 January 2004
• Awarded Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his collection Latter Day Psalms.
• First Book – A Time to Change, written in 1952. This work introduced new form of poetry – Indian English Poetry. Its opening line is “We who leave the house in April, Lord, How shall we return Debtors to the wh-ore of love.”
• Nissim uses extrinsic approach.
• Another volume – The Deadly Man written in 1960.
• Co-founded literary monthly- Jumpo in 1961.
• The Exact Name published in 1965.
• Three Plays published in 1969 which included Nalini, Marriage Poem, The Sleep Walkers.
• He is considered as the father of Modern Indian Poetry.
• He was honoured Padmashri Award by the President of India in 1988AD.

Important Works

1. Time to Change, 1952.
2. Sixty Poem, 1953
3. The Discovery of India, 1956
4. The Third, 1959
5. The Unfinished Man, 1960
6. The Exact Name, 1965
7. Hymns in Darkness, 1976
8. Latter Day Psalms, 1982
9. Play: The Three Plays, Kolkata; Writers Workshop, India
10. Play: Do Not Call It Suicide, Madras.