Continuum Becomes Calcutta (An Old and Rare Book)

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This is the English version of my Bengali book of poems styled Kali-Kali-Kalikata published in 1973. Here modern scientific ideas are pressed into service to yield poetry. The task is a difficult one. Theoretically, it is possible to make poetry out of anything whatsoever within the cognizance of man. Still the practice has been different. Here theory and practice do not coincide. And most of the world's best poetry has been content with a narrow-range of subject- matter. Lucretius (c. 99-55 B.C.) was a man of a scientific turn of mind and an ardent believer in the Epicurean system of philosophy. His great didactic poem-'De Rerum Natura ('On the nature of things')-in six books of some 7,400 hexameters, sets forth the atomic theory of Epicurus and explains the phenomena of the world. Later Dante (1265-1321 A.D.) wrote La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) in terms of the Thomist philosophy. Then came Goethe (1749-1832) who gave beautiful expression to know- ledge and ideas. Among the poets of thought may be mentioned Donne (1572-1631) of England, who is an example of masculine strength and intellectual power in English verse. Then John Davidson (1857-1909) made a kind of poetry out of Darwinism. Jules Laforgue (1860-87) of France is the most interesting interpreter of the 19th century science. Alfred Noyes (1880-1958) shows the human side of science. And Conrad Aiken (1889-) of the USA is the most successful exponent in poetry of contemporary ideas 'the remotest discoveries of the chemist' have been apprehended with a certain passion. In this case his emotions are tinged with ideas. Their examples have not been repeated conspicuously in recent years. Now, about this poetry. Thought in poetry, it may be stated, becomes an experience-it modifies the poet's sensibility.