https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Birds_of_North_EuropeBirds of North Europe - Revision history2026-07-31T11:36:32ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Birds_of_North_Europe&diff=251417&oldid=prevCleanupBot at 04:09, 2 January 20222022-01-02T04:09:12Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{About|a poem|birds of Europe|List of European birds}}<br />
"'''Birds of North Europe'''" is a poem by [[Tabish Khair]], the internationally acclaimed Indian English author and journalist. The poem won First Prize in the Sixth All India Poetry Competition conducted by [[The Poetry Society (India)]] in 1995.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.indianpoetry.org/comp6.htm |title=Award Winning Poems - AIPC 1995 |access-date=2014-04-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317101536/http://indianpoetry.org/comp6.htm |archive-date=2015-03-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The poem brought the first major literary award for Tabish Khair, who is better known as a novelist of repute.<br />
<br />
==Excerpts from the poem==<br />
<br />
:Twenty-four years in different European cities and he had not lost<br />
:His surprise at how birds stopped at the threshold<br />
:Of their houses. Never<br />
<br />
:Flying into rooms, to be decapitated by fan-blades or carefully<br />
:Herded through open windows to another life, never<br />
:Building on this lampshade<br />
<br />
::: *****<br />
<br />
:Did not intrude into private spheres. demanding to be overlooked<br />
:Or worshipped. They did not consider houses simply<br />
:Exotic trees or hollowed<br />
<br />
:Hills. Not being particularly learned, he did not know the thread<br />
:Of fear that knots the wild to the willed, not<br />
:Being well-read, he<br />
<br />
:Did not remember the history behind their old and geometrical<br />
:Gardens, could not recall a time when the English<br />
:Parliament had killed a bill,<br />
<br />
:Shocked by a jackdaw's flight across the room. He simply marked<br />
:The absence of uncaged birds in their homes. He thought<br />
:It was strange.<br />
<br />
==Comments and criticism==<br />
<br />
The poem has received positive reviews since its first publication in 1995 in the book ''Emerging Voices''<ref>''Poetry India - Emerging Voices'' by H K Kaul, ''Virgo Publications'', 1995</ref> and has since been widely anthologised.<ref>''Contemporary Indian Poets'' by Jeet Thayil, ''Fulcrum'', Bloodaxe Books, 1996</ref> The poem has been frequently quoted in scholarly analysis of contemporary [[Indian poetry in English|Indian English poetry]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020324/spectrum/book10.htm |title= Fourteen Contemporary Indian Poets – Rana Nayar in ''The Tribune''}}</ref><br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
*[[The Poetry Society (India)]]<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20150317101536/http://indianpoetry.org/comp6.htm Sixth National Poetry Competition 1988 - Award Winners]<br />
*[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/contributors/contributions/ankit-khandelwal/Keep-going-and-stay-true-to-your-original-impulse-Tabish-Khair/articleshow/17986971.cms An Interview with Tabish Khair]<br />
* [http://www.gbv.de/dms/goettingen/571649416.pdf ''Contemporary Indian Poetry''] by [[Jeet Thayil]]<br />
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20121216063849/http://www.indiawrites.org/poetry/poetry.html ''India Writes'' - Contemporary Indian Poetry]<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.duckduckgo.com/?q=Indian+poems "Popular Indian Poems"]<br />
*[http://www.sugarmule.com/43Khair-t.htm Tabish Khair Poems]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Indian poems]]<br />
[[Category:1995 poems]]<br />
[[Category:Works originally published in Indian magazines]]<br />
[[Category:Works originally published in literary magazines]]</div>CleanupBot