ABSTRACT
Michael Madhusudan Datta (1824-73) was not as great a poet as John Milton. As an Englishman, I can say this without fear of apparent condescension, for Madhusudan himself would have agreed. In his flamboyant English letters, we find that the only limit to his ambition and self-confidence was set by Milton. After the publication, in 1861, of the first two books of Meghniid-badh Kiibya, he wrote to his friend Rajnarayan Basu: The Poem is rising into splendid popUlarity. Some say it is better than Miltonbut that is all bosh-nothing can be better than Milton; many say it licks Kalidasa; I have no objection to that. I don't think it impossible to equal Virgil, Kalidasa and Tasso. Though glorious, still they are mortal poets; Milton is divine.2
