ABSTRACT
Agha Shahid Ali writes that he is, by virtue of being a subcontinental, the product of three major world civilizations/cultures—the Hindu, the Islamic, and the Western. This very rich situation, the result of various historical "accidents", is further textured by his status as an "exile" in the United States. He considers his site a lucky, even a privileged one, for he feels he, like other writers in English from the subcontinent, has the "right" to redefine the language, "discover" it for the "first" time. Ali's poems suggest the diversity of themes and styles that are found in the writings of South Asian American writers. The poet shows his awareness of being an "exile", even an "alien" in "Resume". In "I See Chile in My Rearview Mirror", his portrait of the beauty of multiple countries and continents serves to emphasize his role as a poet who uses his own site, his view within his particular rearview mirror, to craft a poem.
