Edappally Raghavan Pillai

Edappally Raghavan Pillai (Malayalam: ഇടപ്പള്ളി രാഘവന്‍ പിള്ള) (30 May 1909 – 4 July 1936) was a romantic Malayalam poet who committed suicide at a young age. He along with his close friend Changampuzha Krishna Pillai brought in a new breath of life into the Malayalam poetry of the 1930s.[1] They are considered as Shelley and Keats of Malayalm poetry.[2]

Raghavan Pillai has been compared by Kesari Balakrishna Pillai to Giacomo Leopardi of Italy.[3]

Raghavan Pillai's best poem is perhaps Maninadam (The sound of the bells) which he wrote a short while before his death. The farewell song opens by:

“

The tolling bell; It is the sweet knell
Of the day of the death; I am coming;
Let me say my farewell words
To friends who come to see me off.

 ”

It is believed that the famous pastoral play Ramanan by Changampuzha is an elegy based on the life and death of his friend Raghavan Pillai.[1] It is a play writtern in the form of verse which captures the loveliness of the landscape of Kerala with its evergreen trees and its numerous rivers.

Selected works

References

  1. ^ a b George, K. M. (1992). Modern Indian Literature, an Anthology: Surveys and poems. Sāhitya Akādemī. ISBN 9788172013240. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=m1R2Pa3f7r0C&pg=PA789&lpg=PA789&dq=edappally+pillai#PPA789,M1. 
  2. ^ Das, Sisir Kumar (1995). A History of Indian literature. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 9788172017989. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=sqBjpV9OzcsC&pg=PA207&lpg=PA207&dq=edappally+pillai. 
  3. ^ Poetry - The Second Generation of Romantics

Further reading