Free-Verse Front in Modern Poetry

Though there are many Telugu Literary Associations, the Free-verse Front established by Kundurti, championed the spread of “Free Verse”. Sri Anjaneyulu is known for Free verse which is his mission and objective in life. Free Verse Front is the brain child of Kundurti Anjaneyulu. Kundurti, known as the Father of Free Verse fulfilled one of the historical responsibilities through his Free-Verse Front. It was established in 1966 with the cooperation of a few friends of his. He successfully ran this organisation without seeking any kind of help either from the government or from non­-literary persons or associations.

Sri Kundurti instituted some awards in the name of the Free-Verse Front to spread and encourage good poets for writing in Free-Verse. Every year he awarded a prize for the best poetic anthology. The Deed of Trust was announced in 1979. Encouraging young poets, avoiding awarding prizes to those who have already received prizes from other organisations and to the established poets are the aims of the Free­Verse Front. Kundurti never interfered with the judgement of the three member committee to choose the best poet. So far Twenty eight Free-Verse poets received this award like Seelavi, Varavara Rao, Cherabanda Raju, Sivareddy, N. Gopi, Papineni, Kondepudi Nirmala, Jayaprabha, Yendluri Sudhakar and Afsar. These poets have been recognised by the literary world. The anthologies written by these poets represent various trends and movements in Telugu Poetry.

Though some of the anthologies are contrary to the ideologies of Kundurti, such as Progressive, Objective, Revolutionary etc., they were also awarded the prize, which shows the honesty of the founder. The value of this award was felt more prestigious than the Sahitya Akademi Award or any other award.

The Free-Verse Front endeavoured for the popularisation of the Free Verse not only through the awards but also the publication of books. “Vachana Kavita - Vividh Kavula Pathalu – DRIKPATHALU” is the first volume published in 1967 by this organisation. The anthology “Taram Taram” consisting of free verses of hundred Progressive Poets was published in 1976. This volume shows the diversification of Free Verse. “Down to the Earth” is another volume of forty poets, published in 1994 with the aim of enabling the non-Telugus to learn about Telugu Free Verse. The preface of Prof. Chekuri Rama Rao in “An anthology of Modern Telugu Poetry” praised this volume.

In my interviews with popular poets and critiques the role of Free-Verse Front received great approval in promoting and spread of Free Verse. A few of them opine that Free Verse need not be popularised as it has already been an established poetic form while some do not feel so.

On the whole Sri Kundurti fortified Free Verse and worked hard for its spread. He preached against Traditional Verse (PADYAM). He stated that poetry can be written by any body but some felt that Free Verse was diluted by this generous statement. In those times such publicity and such generosity was needed. The establishment of Free Verse strongly points out the earnest endeavour of Kundurti and his personality.

It is not correct to say that Free Verse Front is not needed now as it is very much needed even today to encourage good poetry, and for the spread of the modern out-look. But a word - narrative poetry and long poetry should he properly recognised and appreciated as desired by Kundurti. The Free-Verse Front should give fillip to contemporary trends and movements. Today’s well known poets, were also encouraged by these awards which shows that the Free-Verse Front played a pivotal role in their growth. To conclude, the Free-Verse Front has a major role to play in the years to come.