A Different History

Sujata Bhatt

Contents• Who am I?• Her rewards• What do I write

?• Who were my in

fluences?• My writing style

• The Poem• Its message• Its theme• Its structure• My Contempora

ries

Who am I?• Born in 1956 on the 6th of May in

Ahmedabad, India• She was brought up in Pune, India until

1968 when she went to America and went to the University of Iowa where she received an MFA

• She now lives in Germany with her German husband, Michael Augustin who is a writer and her daughter. Main menu

Her Rewards• Commonwealth Poetry Prize – Asia

1988• Alice Hunt Bartlett Award- 1988• Cholmondeley Award -1991• Poetry Book Society-1991• Italian Tratti poetry prize-2000• Poetry Book Society- 2000

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What do I write?• She has written a series of poetry

collections which she has received numerous awards for.

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• Buzinem Carcanet press -1988

• Monkey Shadows Carcanet press-1991

• The striking rose carcanet press

• Point no. point Carcanet Press

• Augatora Carcanet Press- 2000

• The colour of Solitude Candedition Carcanet press-2008

• Pure lizard Carcanet Press- 2008

Who were my influences?

• My travels and culture influence my writing.

• When I was twelve my main models were Christina Rossetti and Waler de la Mare

• My main influence was Eleanor Wilner, who I still turn to and reflect on when writing poems

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My writing style• http://dramafacilitator.wikispaces.com/a+differen

t+history+analyticall+essay

• Personification• Short• Metaphors• Religion • Repetition• Rhetorical questions

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My Contemporaries• John Ashberry • Meena Alexander • Tejdeep • A.K. Ramanujan• Sudeep Sen • K. Satchidanandan

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The Poem

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Its Messages• In the first sentence, Bhatt talks about

‘Great Pan’, who is a god of the nature in Greek religion. She speaks of him emigrating to India, as if it were a heaven.

• In the 3rd sentence, she talks of books been abused and that being a sin. Then later on, she makes reference to how you should treat books with respect, so you wouldn’t offend the tree, whose paper was made.

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Its Theme• During her lifetime, Bhatt has experienced 3

different cultures. The Indian culture, the American culture and the German culture.

• She has had to adapt from all of them and now she choose which culture is truly hers. The poem is reflecting her past and she is telling us about the differences in the cultures and how people act strangely towards people from different cultures.

• This poem is telling the reader how different the world is. She interrelates the Indian culture through this poem by mentioning the gods.

Its Structure

•The poem is written in free verse and there is space every 2nd stanza.