This poem, through which Nazrul celebrated human creative powers, asserted his affirmation of the individual human capacity for heroic action and human unity and solemnly called for rebellion against all forms of oppression (including that of the British in India) elevated him to the status of a national figure.[7] He included literary elements from Hindu, Islamic and Greek mythology in this poem.[4]
Bidroho Poem
Upon returning from the first world war in 1919, Kazi Nazrul Islam started living in Kolkata along with his close friend Muzaffar Ahmed. In December 1921, while they were living at Taltala Lane in Kolkata, Nazrul wrote the poem. According to Muzaffar Ahmed, the poem was first published on 6 January 1922 in weekly Bijli Magazine. Upon its release, the poem gained widespread popularity and some other magazines also published the poem including The Moslem Bharat, Prabashi, Modhumati, and Shadhana magazine.[8]
"Song of Myself" might be the most egotistical poem ever written: it's all about me, myself, and I. In the first line, American poet Walt Whitman kindly informs us that he is going to celebrate himself, and throughout 52 glorious sections, he does just that. It takes guts to write a long epic poem about yourself, and Whitman was nothing if not gutsy.
First published in 1855, without a title, as part of his collection Leaves of Grass, the work we now call "Song of Myself" just might be the most important and influential American poem out there. For one thing, it represents a huge break from the formal traditions of the past. Whitman wrote his verses without a regular form, meter, or rhythm. His lines are highly rhythmic, and they have a mesmerizing chant-like quality. Few poems are as fun to read aloud as this one.
The poem has also helped shape the idea of what it means to be an American. It is a "democratic" poem that draws all different kinds of people and places into itself and tries to forge them into a unity. As you read "Song of Myself, you might wonder why Whitman is so eager to be friends with, literally, every single person he has ever met. It might help to remember that the poem was written only a few years before the outbreak of the Civil War, and Whitman viewed friendship as the last hope to save a fractured union.
The 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass was Whitman's first published book of poems, and he kept revising and adding to this book throughout his life. Before becoming a published poet, Whitman had worked as schoolteacher and a journalist. He didn't go to fancy schools, and he taught himself writing by soaking up Shakespeare and other classics on his own. Whitman, and this poem especially, embody the ideal of "self-reliance." This principle was famously described by the American Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson and is marked by a nonconformist spirit and a belief that the best way to do things is to go your own way. No surprise, then, that when Emerson read the first edition of Leaves of Grass, he became one of Whitman's biggest fans. He famously wrote Whitman a letter that began, "I greet you at the beginning of a great career."
But "Song of Myself" wasn't without its controversies. The poem's frank depictions of sexuality and eroticism earned it a somewhat scandalous reputation. Whitman's contemporary, the equally influential poet Emily Dickinson, wrote about Whitman in one her letters, saying: "You speak of Mr. Whitman. I never read his book, but was told it was disgraceful." When Whitman became more famous later in his career, he edited out some of the juiciest bits of "Song of Myself," which is why many readers, including Shmoop, prefer the first edition. (Whitman also tended to get a little long-winded in his later years.)
"Song of Myself" is an American classic, but we encourage you to exercise your own "self-reliance" by being open in your own reading of it. The poem means so many things to so many different people, and its diversity and openness are its greatest strength. It has influenced almost every major American poet of the 20th century, including T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, and John Ashbery. It has also been profoundly important to writers of other nationalities, especially Latin American writers like Pablo Neruda and Jorge Luis Borges. In many ways, "Song of Myself" represents the best that American poetry has to offer.
If you are an American or know anything about America, you will likely know and understand this poem even before you read a single line. No other poem so perfectly encapsulates all the noise, confusion, and grandeur of the American idea as well as this one. Put simply, you should care about "Song of Myself" because it's about you.
That's right, Whitman wasn't only writing about himself, a guy from Long Island named Walt Whitman. At a deeper level, he meant this poem to be universal. His poetic persona is like a big vacuum sucking up everyone and everything into itself. When, after September 11, 2001, the French newspaper Le Monde wrote the headline, "We Are All Americans," Whitman would have cheered, because that's exactly how he felt. He didn't mean in the narrow sense that everyone is or should be like the people living inside the borders of a single country. Nope, for Whitman, "America" was an ideal that anyone could strive for, an ideal of independence, equality, optimism, and brotherly love. (We'll just note in passing that Whitman's poetry has been an important source of wisdom for both Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama.)
Now, the word "assume" can be mean "believe" or "take for granted," but it can also mean, "to take on" or "become." This second meaning becomes increasingly important throughout the poem, as Whitman tries to unite his identity with all different kinds of people, including you, the reader. He never judges and rarely criticizes. He is someone to whom you could tell your deepest, darkest secrets, and he'd probably chuckle, pat you on the back, and invite you for a walk. There's something comforting and uplifting about the way he tries to bring people together using words.
Unfortunately, Whitman didn't succeed in making all of his fellow Americans see the common bonds between them: the Civil War started five years after this poem (included in Leaves of Grass) was first published. But Whitman was endlessly optimistic, and he believed that the real "America" and the real "democracy" were still around the bend. As the end of the poem states, Whitman is still out there, somewhere, waiting for the rest of us to catch up with him.
Favorite Poem Project - "Song of Myself"John Doherty, a construction worker, discusses why he loves "Song of Myself," and reads Sections 50 and 52. This is just one video from the very cool Favorite Poem Project, which interviews a wide variety of people to learn about their favorite poems.
Though popularly labelled as the Rebel poet of Bengal, Nazrul had been digging ceaselessly into the esoteric depth of his Self and Soul, both taken as complementary to each other in the form of individual and universal concepts respectively. This inward investigation of a seemingly loud and overt social dissenter like him make his readers puzzle, although temporarily, to strike an assesment of him as a poet and philosoper grown out of tariqat and its mystic practice, known as Sufism. That Nazrul wanted to change the existing social order grown in the wake of colonial subjugation, looking for the earthly gain and equitable shares of wealth for people belonging to all classes including the grassroots level, is apparently incompatible with the concept of Islamic mysticism, verily known as Sufism, that does not approve of any wordly gain except enlightened and selfless reunion with God, the source of all creations, peace and eternal light. In fact, in Nazrul there is a duality of this worldly possession and divine selflessness, right from the beginning of his poetic career when he wrote his towering poem 'Bidrohi' (The Rebel, December 1921), suggesting diverse interpretations of the conflicting shades of the Self in the word-picture 'AMI' or 'I'. In this poem of 141 uneven lines, Nazrul refers to this 'I' almost in each line, in a bid to diversify his identity which tends to defy the height of the Himalayan peak or the seat of the Creator, but finally expresses his interest of calming down, suggestive of surrendering to the Universal Self (implied in the last few lines of the text), when he will discover a world of peace at the end of all struggles in an oppression-free world. In this poem he also proclaims himself as a hermit, rather a warrior equipped with the weapon of tunes, and a prince with a royal attire of pale gairik (red ochre, the colour of selfless hermits). (Ami sanyasi, sursainik / Ami jubaraj, momo rajbesh mlan gairik). It reminds us of the Gautam Buddha, the prince who retired from royal affluence, attired in gairik dress. In fact this is a cherished situation of all mystic rebels who are in constant struggle to free them from their sinful self trying to get united with the divine self, a symbol of purity, sublimity, stability and peace. This is exactly the practice of all Sufis, since the connotation of Sufism or Islamic mysticism is the selfless experiencing and actualization of the truth analogous with none but God, the Omnipotent. Every Sufi passes through an arduous path of struggle to free him from self-interest and it is certainly his insurgence against the corrupt self. Nazrul did the same thing at individual and collective level while waging his war against all possible forts of subjugation, oppression, tyranny and dominance.
Hemanta-Salil combination revolutionised bengali modern music completely. Bengalees were stunned after the release of "Gaanyer Bondhu". Never before such a song was composed in bengali. With Hemanta's rich and melodius voice with perfect pronuciation and Salil's unique and unparalleled lyrical and compositional superiority changed the course of bengali modern music for ever. Salil achieved another milestone by composing some of the famous poems of his dear friend the revolutionary poet Sukanta Bhattyacharya. These songs have since become a part of the Bengali culture and the poems are not read as poems anymore. They have metamorphosed into songs. Such was the power of Salil's composition. There is an amazing version of "Abaak Prithibi" recorded by Debabrata Biswas - so completely different to Hemanta's rather laidback version of the same song. There's also a hindi version of Gaa.nyer Bodhu. This song was recorded by Hemanta most probably on his own initiative. The opening melody line is different and so is the arrangement. Doesn't sound like Salil at all. And the lyric ( no idea who wrote it) is pretty pathetic.Sadly this golden combination did not continue for long. There was a long gap before Salil would compose some new songs for Hemanta. But that was too late. By then Hemanta had already lost his golden voice and often he found it difficult to hold notes. Singing Salil's songs became more of a punishment than a challenge. Their last joint effort was in 1981 and 1982. Several superb compositions were recorded by Hemanta but the result was poor. Shibaji Chattopadhyay recorded one of them "aar dur nei" later which sounds much better. Sadly one of Salil's best compositions in the '80s "aar kichhu naa" recorded by Hemanta was too complex for him andits really painful to hear him sing that. I wondered why Salil never asked Shibaji to rerecord this song. 2ff7e9595c
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