Jayanta    Mahapatra(1928-) needs no introduction. Perhaps any discussion on Indian English Poetry is incomplete without reference to his poetical works. Physicist, bilingual poet and essayist, Jayanta Mahapatra holds the distinction of being the first Indian English poet to have received the Sahitya Akademi Award (1981) for Relationship.He started writing poetry at the age of thirty-eight, quite late in normal standard. And immediately his poetry received accolades from knowledgeable quarters. Rooted in mythical-historical past of Orissa, and yet not unaware of the sociological changes in the contemporary society, he beautifully recreates in the mode of his poetic expression the landscape and people around him. In his poetry, Mahapatra sings of the hearts and minds of many things of nature, on the basis of his sincere love for all creation. Poverty, deprivation, social injustice, the plight of the Indian woman and prostitution recur in his verses. He says, “All these things happen around me.” He cannot ignore them and write about the ‘better things’ of life—-about the lives of the upper classes. His belief in poetry as a social reality sets him off from other contemporary poets writing in English.