Benjir Abrar

StrayBird, the literary forum of the English department of Stamford University, celebrated World Poetry Day on March 21 by organising a poetry session.
The special guest of the session was Helal Hafiz, poet and recipient of Bangla Academy Award. Poet Hafiz, with reference to his poetry, discussed how social and personal life influenced his poetry. Referring to different poets of the world, he discussed how poetry was influenced by time. The poet admitted that though he was never involved in politics, it was the demand of the time when he wrote the line “ekhon joubon jar, juddhe jabar tar shreshtho somoy (those who are young now, the time is ripe for them to go to war)”.
Students of the English department presented poetry through different art and culture mediums, adding flavour to the poetry session. The audience enjoyed different forms of poetry recitation with music and dance. Poems by William Wordsworth, Rabindranath Tagore, Pablo Neruda, Nazrul Islam and Syed Shamsul Haque were recited.
Self-written poems were also read out by students and teachers. The programme ended with the poetic drama of Kabi Nazrul Islam ‘Putuler Biye’ (Doll’s Wedding), which was performed by the students and directed by Zihad Amin.AKM Waliul Islam, professor and chairman of the Department of English, inaugurated the programme, while Zakia Noor Matin, chief coordinator of StrayBird, planned and directed the whole event.