Abstract:
Tamil poetry with pure rhyme and grammatical tradition has now reached an evolutionary development as modern
poetry, verse poetry, and new poetry. When new poetry originated or was introduced in Tamil, many criticisms
were presented about its acceptability. Now new poetry has received authorization among these criticisms and
resistance. However, scholars claim that the new poetry is an internal development in Tamil poetry and verse
poetries of Subramaniya Barathy were the pioneering initiatives in this process, but this is not introduced from
western literature. Some wrong evaluations about the new poetry were due to the ignorance of differences between
verse poetry and new poetry. Some contradicting opinions about the pioneering new poets are available in this
scenario. This is because critics give more different explanations about the origin and nature of new poetry. At
this juncture, it will not be possible to research the history of new poetry with these kinds of prevailing theoretical
dilemmas. Therefore, this article is written to research the prevailing opinions in the Sri Lankans’ literature world
about new poetry. In this respect, this article historically evaluates the new poetry's criticisms. Here, this research
pinpoints the emphasis in Sri Lankan literary criticism on the idea that new poetry emerges from internal elements
of traditional people without being a form of poetry introduced from the west or resistance to tradition. The theory
of new poetry, which Sri Lankan literary criticism emphasizes, says that the new poetry should emerge from what
the Tamil grammatical texts classify as form, content, and methodological elements of a poem. This article presents
the need to identify and explore Sri Lankan new poetry in this theoretical context and to construct a history of new
poetry and the practical issues in emphasizing this theory in the contemporary context. This research emphasizes
the importance of researching the new poetry in Sri Lanka.
