A Lament

Manmohan Ghose

Manmohan Ghose was an Indian poet and one of the first from India to write poetry in English. He was the son of Dr Krishna Dhan Ghose and his wife, Swarnalata Basu. His younger brother was Aurobindo Ghose, the politician and spiritual leader. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, St Paul's school in London and won an open scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford. His work was published in Primavera:Poems by Four Authors, with Laurence Binyon, Arthur S. Cripps, and Stephen Phillips. Ghose later met Oscar Wilde at the Fitzroy Street Settlement, who reviewed Primavera in Pall Mall Gazette, with particular favour towards Ghose. During this time in London Ghose met many other members of the "Rhymers' Club" set such as Lionel Johnson, Ernest Dowson, who were both very fond of him. In 1893, after his father's death, Ghose returned to India and took a series of teaching posts at Patna, Bankipur, and Calcutta. In 1897 he was appointed Assistant Professor of Dacca College. After the death of his wife Malati Banerjee in 1918, his health deteriorated and he aged prematurely. For 30 years Ghose had cherished the dream of returning to England and even booked a passage along with his daughter in March 1924, but after a short illness on 4 January 1924 he died in Calcutta. more…

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