Poet Ilangkannan

POET ILANGKANNAN
Poet Mu.Ilangkannan, is a rare kind of poet? He retired, as an additional director of Statistics.We can not imagine a statistician to be a poet displaying fine sentiments. But you can see in his poems a powerful portrayal of human life with a deep commitment to values.
Apart from compilation of his poems he has done another marvelous thing. He has authored an epic. While everybody deviates from the traditional verse and wishes to write free verse, Ilangkannan, has given an epic written in accordance with the rules laid own by the prosody works.
This epic does not try to promote superstitions and religious fanaticism like most of the other epics.the epic has its hero, a representative of the common man, the legendary leader, Kamarajar.
Titled as 'Kaamaraasar kaaviyam' this epic has given the biography of Kamarajar through fine poetry. It may be considered as a 'History of Tamilnadu' written in verse. The struggle for freedom, Kamaraj's participation in various agitations against the British regime, the sacrifices he had done for the country, the achievement of freedom, the emergence of Kamarajar as a powerful leader, efficient Chief minister dynamic president of the All India Congress Committee, a King-Maker who had a role in making Prime Ministers and his sad demise are described in detail in this epic.
I do not know whether in any other Indian language, there is an epic like this, which describes the freedom movement in such a fine way.
Here I have given one of his poems, which is quite capable of explaining his poetic genius.
He had written this elegy after the sad demise of his father.
This poem not only shows us his poetic genius but also his excellent and commendable personality.

An Elegy to my Father