Abstract:
This paper looks into the problems of Sri Lankan English poets
who made a significant contribution in Sri Lankan English poetry. There have been
tensions and differences of opinion among critics and linguists on the use of
language, idiom, imagery and the themes used by the writers. Having considered
some work by important poets like Kamala Wijeratne, Lakdasa Wikkramasinha,
Anne Ranasinghe, Jean Arasanayagam, Suresh Canagarajah, Patrick Fernando and
Richard de Zoysa and criticism by DCRA Goonetilleke, Rajiva Wijesinha, Thiru
Kandiah, Suresh Canagarajah, Neloufer de Mel, Arjuna Parakrama, Kamal de
Abrew, Ruvani Ranasinghe and Wilfred Jayasuriya, the study analyses the goals of
Sri Lankan writers in English. Critics have spoken of an innovative idiom to express
Sri Lankan experience in English but intelligibility is the other problem faced by
international readers. The study focuses on the possibility of evolving a new idiom
to express Sri Lankan life in English.
