An Introduction To The Poetry Of Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Description

FAIZ AHMED FAIZ (1911-1984), poet, teacher, editor, freedom- fighter, dramatist, critic, progressive writer and Lenin Peace Prize recipient, was the author of eight collections of poems in Urdu and is considered one of the great poets of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. He was no mere ‘dreamer of dreams’. Great poets like Faiz are warriors and act as the conscience their times. Countries have frontiers but the war against slavery and exploitation has no frontier. Faiz espoused the cause of freedom in Pakistan, and for the peoples of the world. He ranks with poets like Pablo Neruda, Nizam Hikmat and Louis Aragon. His poetry, rich with the classical blood of Ghalib and Iqbal, acquired a characteristic hue and he excelled in both the nazm and ghazal form, blazing a trail of love and revolution. This is the first English language study to be published anywhere of the poetry of Faiz and a critical appreciation of his life and times.

Author Biography

Imdad Husain, Professor Emeritus, Ph.D. (Edinburgh University) worked under the late Sir Herbert Grierson and Professor Geofrey Bullough. He taught postgraduate classes in English at the Government College, Lahore, for many years. For some years he also served the Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan and was posted as Educational and Cultural Attache in the Pakistani Missions in Washington and London. He has written extensively on cultural matters in newspapers and magazines.