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Like the Bengali language, Bengali poetry traces its lineage to Pāli and other Prakrit socio-cultural traditions. An antagonism to Vedic rituals and laws heightened to a culmination in the Buddhist and Jainist movements. However, modern Bengali owes as much to Sanskrit. Like the society that thrived to populate the modern Bengal, Bengali language and culture appears to be a perfect amalgam of almost unanalysable elements. Bengali poetry is extraordinary and sweet.

Early Poetry (Inception at the Turn of the Millennium)

The history of Bengali poetry is usually divided into three major successive stages of development: Poetry of the early age such as Charyapad, Mediaeval period and the age of modern poetry.

Mystic Poem

Poetry of the oldest period, probably beginning from 10th century, is known for the mystic poems called [[Charyagiti]] or Charyapad, discovered from Nepal by Mahamahopadhyay Haraprasad Shastri.

Epic in Vernacular

Krittibas Ojha
Kashiram Das

Medieval Period (Bhakti Movement / Vaishnava Padabali / Shakta Padabali)

The period between 1350 and 1800, was the medieval period of Bengali poetry – known as the period of Jayadeva (12th century), the renowned poet from neighboring Orissa, Vidyapati (13th century) with his love lyrics, and Badu Chandidas, the author of Sri Krishna Kirtan, the most important philosophical work of the period. The period from 1500 A. D. to 1800 A.D. was known as the Late Middle Bengali period. During this period, there was a marked influence of Chaitanya and it was this influence that led to the development of Vaishnava literature. Chandidas(13th century) is one of the greatest poet of this time. Outside Vaishnava poetry, the most significant work of the sixteenth century was Chandimangal by Mukunda Chakravarti. Also, early in the fifteenth century Bengal got two of its best-known Muslim poets of Arrakan Daulat Kazi and Alaol(1607-1680).

Birth of Modern Poetry

Bharat CHandra probably marks the transition period of pre-colonial theocentric poetry and modern poetry. After Bharat Chandra there is a long list of poets notable Iswar Gupta before Michael Madhusudan Dutta (1834-1873) who is the founder of modern age of Bengali literature. Another great poet of this period is Biharilal Chakravarti’s (1834-94). Then Rabindranath Tagore(1861_1941), Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976), and many others begin the age of modern bengali poetry.

Kallol - Kavita - Parichay : Age of Modern Poetry

The modern age begins with a group of writers who wrote for Kallol, a modernist movement magazine founded in 1923. The most popular among the group were Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899 - 1976) and Mohitlal Majumder (1888-1952), Achintyakumar Sengupta (1903-1976), Satyendranath Dutta (1882-1922), Premendra Mitra (1904 - 1988) and others. Then Bengali poetry got into the brightest light of modernism in 1930s through the movement of few other little magazines such as Buddhadeb Bosu's Kabita and Sudhindranath Datta's Parichay.

The great poets of those movements— Jibanananda Das (1899 - 1954), Buddhadev Bose (1908 - 1974), Sudhindranath Dutta(1901 - 1960), Bishnu Dey (1909 - 1982), Amiya Chakravarty(1901 - 1986) and Samar Sen(1916 - 1987) were the main characters who made a significant effort to reshape Bengali Poetry.

Post World War II Poets

Dinesh Das (1913 - 1985), Sukanta Bhattacharya (1926 - 1947), Arun Mitra (1909-2000), Nirendranath Chakravarti, Subhas Mukhopadhyay (1919-2003

Poets of Islamic Ideals

Sayid Ismail Hossain Shiraji, Golam Mostofa (1897-1964), Farrukh Ahmed (1918-1974), Talim Hossain, Abdul Kadir (1906-1984)

Language Movement

Age of Confusion

Alokeranjan Dasgupta, Shankha Ghosh

Krittibas Movement

The modernist movement of modernizing Bengali literature was brought one step further during the 50s, especially with the emergence of the Krittivas magazine. Major poets of this period are Samar Sen, Manindra Ray, Mangala Charan Chattopadhyay, Kiran Sankar Sengupta, Ram Basu, Nirendranath Chakravarty, Birendra Chattopadhyay (1920 - 1985), Sunil Gangopadhyay, Dipak Majumdar, Tarapada Roy, Kiran Sankar Sengupta

Hungry Generation

The Movement called Hungry Generation was initially spearheaded by Malay Roy Choudhury, Samir Roychoudhury (his elder brother), Shakti Chattopadhyay (1933 - 1995),, and Haradhon Dhara (alias Debi Roy). Thirty more poets and artists subsequently joined them, the best-known being Binoy Majumdar (1934 - 2006), Utpal Kumar Basu, Falguni Ray, Subimal Basak, Tridib Mitra, Shambhu Rakshit, Anil Karanjai.and Japamala Ghosh Roy

Kaurab Cult

A new, refreshing, decentralized literature that breathed life into Bengali literature came from the Kaurab Magazine. [1]. Kaurab Online, an electronic version of the historic magazine, is also the first Indian poetry magazine in world wide web. Kaurab Online also houses an English translation site [2].

Bangladeshi Poets after '47

Sayed Ali Ahsan, Ahsan Habib(1917-1985), Jasimuddin(1903-1976), Abul Hossen, Sufia Kamal, Abu Zafar Obaidullah

Fifties & Sixties: Movement in Bangladesh

The Language Movement in '52 and the pre-'71 movement for Bangladesh vividly influenced a large group of poets of 50's & 60's who identified the new wave of Bengali poems that later on lead the Bangladeshi poetry for the decades. This golden period of bengali poems is notably marked by Shamsur Rahman(1929 – 2006),Shahid Kadri & Al Mahmud including other most important poets like Sanaul Hoque, , Hasan Hafizur Rahman, Sayeed Atiqullah, Fazal Shahabuddin, Syed Shamsul Haque, Sikder Aminul Hoque, Humayun Azad(1947-2004), Rafiq Azad, Nirmalendu Goon, Belal Chowdhury, Mohammad Rafiq, Asad Chowdhury,

Sixties:Youthful Dreams in West Bengal

Arunesh Ghosh, Manibhushan Bhattacharya, Bhaskar Chakrabarty, Debarati Mitra, Nabaneeta Dev Sen

New Voices in West Bengal

Seventies: poems of dreams and protests

Kamal Chakraborty, Mridul Dasgupta, Tushar Roy, Falguni Ray, Tushar Choudhury, Ananya Roy, Ekram Ali, Ranajit Das, Krishna Basu, Shyamalkanti Das, Shankar Chakraborty, Joy Goswami, Subodh Sarkar, Bitashoke Bhattacharya, Gautam Basu

Seventies: Atichetanaar kabitaa (Poetry of expansive consciousness)

Barin Ghoshal

Eighties: Responsible Dreams Mallika Sengupta, Jahar Sen Mazumdar, Sanjukta Bandopadhyay, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, Rahul Purakayastha, Sanjam Pal, Chaitali Chattopadhyay, Joydeb Basu

New Voices in Bangladesh

Seventies: Post Liberation War

In the seventies, a group of young writers came to the scene. They were the products of the liberation war that includes the poets like Abul Hasan, Uttam Kumar Barua, Suraiya Khanum, Mohammad Nurul Huda, Abid Azad, Shihab Sarkar, Asim Saha, Abdul Mannan Syed, Mahadev Saha, Farhad Mazhar, Humayun Kabir, Rubi Rahman, Helal Hafiz, Sabdar Siddiqi, Daud Haider

Poets of Eighties

A turning point came in the eighties when a number of poets started writing in a new vein such as Rudro Md. Shahidullah, Sajjad Sharif, Rezauddin Stalin, Abu Hassan Shahriar, Masud Khan and Subrata Augustine Gomes and Taslima Nasrin,

Eighties & Nineties: Little Magazine Movement

The mideighties saw the emergence of a cluster of little magazines, most of which concentrated on publishing the 'new' poetry. Among these, Ekobingsho, Gandeeb, Sangbed, Anindya etc. took the leading role. Then it was followed in nineties by publishing Nodi, Proshun, Pencha, Kichuddhoni, Damodor, Pranto, Chalchitro, Ghonta, Droshtobyo etc. Some notable poets of these little magazine groups are Khondoker Ashraf Hossain, Asim Kumar Das, Farid Kabir, Altaf Hossain, Subrata Augustine Gomes, Sajjad Sharif, Bishnu Bishwash, Sayed Tarik, Masud Ali Khan, Shantonu Chowdhury, Shoyeb Shadab, Rifat Chowdhury, Kajal Shahnewaz, Jewel Mazhar, Masud Khan, Bratya Raisu, Adittya Kabir, Shamim Kabir, Sumon Rahman, Shibli Muktadir, Bayezid Mahbub, Ashique Mostafa, Zahir Hassan, Santa Belal, Mujib Iram, Ebadur Rahman, Kamruzzaman Kamu

Next Generation of Bangladeshi Poetry

The few are just seems going to play a significant role in the next genaration of Bangladeshi Post Modern Poetry. Raad Ahmed, Utpal Kumar Barua, Kazi Andaleeb Amin, Abu Ahshan, Mesbaul Alam Arghya, Mukti Mandal, Shahed, Aronno, Javed Akter, Mahfuz, Niaz Ahmed Chowdhury

Next-Generation of West Bengal

New Poetry Consciousness

Swadesh Sen, Barin Ghosal, Swapan Roy, Pranab Pal, Ranjan Maitra, Dhiman Chakraborty, Jahar Sen Majumdar, Prabhat Gangopadhyay, Alok Biswas, Indraneel Ghosh, Arup Ratan Ghosh, Sabyasachi Sanyal, Abhijit Mitra, Aryanil Mukhopadhyay, Anupam Mukhopadhyay, Debanjan Das, Amitava Praharaj, Debashis Saha

Nineties : Parallel Poetry Movement

Aryanil Mukhopadhyay[3], Santanu Bandyopadhyay, Rajatendra Mukhopadhyay, Rudra Pati, Aniket Patra, Pradip Chakraborty, Rajarshi Chattopadhyay, Dipankar Mazumdar

Nineties : The major Poets of Nineties

Samyabrata Joardar, Mandakranta Sen, Srijato, Sandipan Chakraborty, Aveek Bandyopadhyay, Dipankar Bagchi, Sarbajit Sarkar, Sudip Basu, Binayak Bandyopadhyaya, Sibasish Mukhopadhyaya, Rana Roychwodhury, Pinaki Thakur ,Hindol Bhattacharjee,Sarthak Roychowdhury

Decade of Zero : New Voices

Somabrata Sarkar, Susnato Chowdhury, Anindita Mukhapadhyaya, Samragnee Bandyopadhyay, Anirban Das.