Critical Appreciation of ‘Don’t Call Me Indo-Anglian’ – Syed Amanuddin

Introduction

Syed Amanuddin’s ‘Don’t call me Indo-Anglian’ is a poem of identity of the poet. It’s a cry against the marginalization of the writer on the basis of nation and language.

Central Idea

Poet is angry towards those people who categorize him into Indo-Anglian and put him along few writers. He says ‘I hate hyphens’ and ‘I damn all hyphenated minds’. He doesn’t want to be called only Indian or Anglo or Indo-Anglian. He wants to be called as a Poet. No other category will pacify him.

Themes

1. Marginalization on the basis of nation and language – The main theme of the poem is marginalization of the poet. He hates this categorization done by some prejudiced fellows. Poet hates ‘all labels and label makers’. If he writes in English doesn’t mean he is a Britisher and if Cauvery is flowing in his veins, or Chamundi hills stands tall in his mind don’t make him Indian only.
2. Search of self identity – Poet is squeezed between a hyphenated term called ‘Indo-Anglian’. He refused to be part of any such group. In the whole poem poet is searching for his identity. He angrily asks to not treat him like a ‘moon specimen’ and don’t put him in such narrow categories to be reanalyzed and reclassified by someone else in future. He at the end claims to be considered as a Poet who has been in existence since forty centuries with different names and now he is Amanuddin.

Figure of speech

1. Alliteration – ‘Mistaken Misinformed’, ‘rather roam’ and ‘cloistering me/crippling me’ have repetition of consonant sounds /m/, /r/ and /k/ at the starting of words hence it’s alliteration.
2. Consonance – ‘Rather roam’ is an example of consonance too as after first consonant sound there is change of vowel sound too.
3. Assonance – ‘An abortive affair’s has repetition of vowel sound /a/ hence it’s assonance.
4. Synecdoche – ‘Hyphenated mind’ has synecdoche as term ‘mind’ is being used for a person.
5. Anaphora – In stanza 4th, line 3-7 is starting with ‘I have’ hence this repetition of same words at the starting of these lines made it case of Anaphora. Similarly last three lines of the poem are starting with ‘I’.

Writing Style

Syed Amanuddin’s style of writing is modern and unique. It has resemblance of E.E. Cummings. He uses unorthodox syntax and spellings. For instance ‘And’ is written as ‘N’ only. He doesn’t follow rules like capital letter should come after full stop. This experiment with style supplements his purpose of searching an identity for himself.

POET is capital

Poem’s second last line is ending with all capital word ‘POET’. This indicates poet as a living entity who is alive since a long time.

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

There are six stanzas with no uniformity in number of lines. There is also no Rhyme scheme or meter. Hence it’s written in free verse.

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