7986 ISSN 2286-4822 www.euacademic.org EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. III, Issue 7/ October 2015 Impact Factor: 3.4546 (UIF) DRJI Value: 5.9 (B+) A Comparative Study of Love and Life in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra and Ratan Bhattacharjee DEEPIKA PANT Assistant Professor Department of English D.S.B Campus, Kumaun University Nainital, Uttrakhand India Abstract : Great literature conveys “timeless truths” but in quest of an alternative paradigms, postcolonial literature often dismisses the traditional images, metaphors and symbols throwing the gauntlet to the imperial efforts bent on imposing their own precept and concepts on the third world literature. The subtext of the Western writings accepts modification in the East –West cultural counter. This paper aims at exploring the points where the vision of two poets on love and life converge and diverge. Both of them wrote profusely on love and life. One is the most veteran poet of Indian English poetry and the other is an emerging voice of love in Indian love literature. It is interesting that their realistic approaches are not as simple as they appear at a cursory glance by a reader. Their use of symbols and images are much planned and purposive, giving love poetry its unique features in Indian English Literature) Keywords: Love, Indian English Literature, Jayanta Mahapatra, Ratan Bhattacharjee, postcolonial leit motif, symbology, east –west encounter. “The Ballad of the Bleeding Bubbles is like a breath of cool, fresh air on a hot, humid day,” wrote the famous Australian poet and painter Rob Harle in his analysis of the poems of