ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Burmese nature poems, which are numerous enough in all periods of literature to fill a sizable anthology, interest in the life of country-people their work and diversions does not seem to have been manifested till the first half of the eighteenth century. From the 1870s onwards, poetical drama was the favourite form of reading. The principal characters were royal person ages and the main action of the play took place among them. By way of broad contrast, a number of commoners are introduced and usually made to behave as caricatures rather than as characters. In the twentieth century, with the novel, short stories, and magazine articles, we reach the age of prose. Here the field of choice is wide and might be used to drench the reader in sentiment. The little village of Tabegala stands by the side of the muddy little Tabegala creek. Except towards the creek, it is surrounded by a great flat open plain.
