Lyric Poetry: Origin, Nature and Characteristics

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India: Prof. Frank D’Souza’s book of short essays and articles entitled ‘Frankly Speaking’ was published in 1987. He was held in the highest regard by his peers for his scholarship and erudition. With his wife Cecilia, Prof. Frank used to write lyrics to songs which his wife would set to music.

His book Lyric Poetry takes you through a journey of understanding the strength and lyricism that can be achieved with the written word without music, along with the importance and beauty of this form of poetry. Prof. Frank starts with a discussion of the meaning of lyric poetry; he then goes into its origins and evolution through time where lyric poets pay homage or umbrage to love, death, life, God and war.

This published version of the book ‘Lyric Poetry’ by Prof. Frank D’Souza has been a labour of love from me, says his daughter Daphne D’Souza PIllai.

“My dad entrusted the publication of the book to me before he passed away in the year 1986. He was the recipient of a University Grants Commission award in the humanities in the late 1970’s and undertook research on lyric poetry and its origins, nature and characteristics."

Says Dr. Daphne, “Prof. Frank’s manuscripts were found written in his own handwriting, which could be deciphered by very few people known to him. To add to this, a couple of chapters had verses in the Greek and Latin versions. I was able to track most of these lyric verses for authenticity using modern research methods. Some of the manuscript pages were missing, and I had to go through a suitcase full of his handwritten notes to figure out the missing links and bring continuity to his writing."

“My father lived during a time when there was no internet freely available, he had to rely entirely on the treasure house of books on lyric poetry, some of which may no longer be available to the public. I have tried my best to retrieve the bibliography as mentioned in the manuscripts: the name of the author, title of the book and the name and year of publication. The publication year was left out whenever I was unable to find this information."

“The putting together of this book to fulfil my obligation to my dad has taken me around six years. I worked during the pandemic specially during the night hours to read his manuscript, interpret his thinking and type them on my notepad. This exercise took me on an expedition to a beautiful lyrical world as I had to delve into the lyric origins just like my father did and relive the lyric arts from Greek times to modern times." said Dr. Daphne. The publication of this book is my tribute to Dad.

Grand Daughter Minerva Pillai says, “When I was asked to write the foreword to this book, I joked about how I would start it by talking about how Catholic guilt was a powerful thing. You see, the author of this book, my grandfather Joseph Frank D’souza passed away in 1986. One of my grandfather’s last requests to his daughter (my mother) Dr. Daphne Pillai was to publish this book. Unfortunately, this was put on the back burner while she raised her 3 infant children, got her PhD in English Literature and held esteemed posts at a variety of academic institutions and non-profits etc. While a lot of the manuscript that was written by him were eaten away with time, they came back into the spotlight in the last few years. The era of Covid gave us all a new appreciation for the things that are important to us before we meet our Maker (and parents) when it is our time. This put my mother into high gear out of fear that when she meets her father at the pearly gates, he would frown at her for ignoring his life’s work. Thus, the Catholic guilt part."

But in reality, this book is an expression of love-love of a daughter for her father and love of a teacher for his subject- in this case the subject being lyric poetry. As will be discussed in the editorial, this book was recreated in the style as was found in Prof. Frank’s notes to fully recreate his thoughts and feelings about the subject.

Prof. Frank, as he was known, was born on July 24, 1917. Goan in origin, he lived in the community of Dadar in Mumbai, India with his wife Cecilia and three daughters Gloria, Daphne and Freda. He began his career in 1938 as a Fellow in St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai soon after receiving his bachelor’s degree and the prestigious Ellis prize in English Literature from the University of Mumbai. He got his Master’s Degree from the University of Mumbai, topping his class in April 1941.

Dr. K.M. Vasudevan Pillai, Founder of the Pillai Group of institutions and a student of Prof. Frank, recognised the significance of this work on lyric poetry as a valuable contribution to literary scholarship and was instrumental in getting it published.