222 7, Ezekiel is quite happy to be called an urban poet, but his poetry speaks of a struggle towards this, rather than of easy acceptance of a natural place. In an article in Quest, L. Hess spoke of Ezekiel's "acknowledgement of a home" (the city) in the last two volumes, adding "a whole new dimension to Ezekiel's poetry" -- which implies that only later in his work has Ezekiel been successful in this matter. The attempt towards this is as early as the first volume, however. 8c The success, though urban, is primitive; this is the point. "Jamini Roy" outlines the development of a primal universe of discourse that belongs to the city-dweller; not to the inhabitants of the hinterland of "Enterprise," with whom the venturing city-dwellers cannot communicate. The new myth is personal, and fits the new conditions of the city in a way in which the old traditional body of myth could note 9» As, for example, superbly in "The Night of the Scorpion." 10. Language and Myth, trans. So K, Langer; Harper and Bros, 1946, 11. For example, "Woman Observed"; the poet feels shame and anger at the shame of the pregnant woman. Again, in "Platonic," personal identity, sex and a feeling of a wider love combine in the praise to a woman (admittedly only vaguely realised in herself): Your sunniness is not to be obscured By people, gods, or ghosts within the blood: You quietly burn and find the fire good, 12o Ezekiel was once art critic of the "Times of India," and his use of Cezanne should surely be interpreted up to the hilt: for Cezanne, impressions were of first importance (both logically and in the development of his technique); then formalisation had to be achieved, but without the toss or distortion of any of the impressionistic data. Thus Ezekiel is not out to fit the discordant facts of life into a distorting framework which is self-examination: he will take each on its own merits and delicately outline it in poetic form. (Part of his recent achievement has been the development of a pictorial quality to his verse)o