The depiction of love in Sri Lankan English poetry

Abstract

The topic of the research is the depiction of love in Sri Lankan English poetry. The poems Words to a daughter by YasmineGooneratne, A Soldier’s Wife Weeps by Kamala Wijeratne, Fisherman Mourned by his Wife by Patrick Fernando and The Gift of Love by Jean Arasanayagam have been selected as the primary sources. The representation of love in these poems is scrutinized in terms of the effect of the Sri Lankan culture on the expression of love and how the artists have utilized the English language in their works. The analysis of the previous research done on Sri Lankan English poetry reveal that they have researched on the reconciliation of the indigenous traditions and Western traditions, the role of the English language and the fusion of local idioms and the English language in Sri Lankan English poetry. The effect of Sri Lankan culture on the expression of love and the use of language in Sri Lankan English love poems is the gap in the research. The methodology that is followed in this research is content analysis. This research proves that Sri Lankan culture has influenced the depiction of love in Sri Lankan English poems and that the use of language in the expression of love reflects Sri Lankan social and cultural values, beliefs and traditions and manifests a typically Sri Lankan usage of English.