countries, and the traditional poetry of fixed forms and standardized sentiments.

2

From the sixteenth century onwards, Indian literature which had hitherto been written almost entirely in Sanskrit, increasingly finds its natural expression in the vernaculars of the people of India. With the advent of the European peoples, the Indian literature received a new stimulus, and Punjabi has been no exception to it. Conversely, there have been numerous European writers who have felt drawn towards India and Indian literature and have sought to express their feelings for Indian life and culture in English. Sir Edwin Arnold, whose celebrated poem, the Light of Asia, was inspired by India and better known still, Henri Derozio, the author of the Fakir of Jungheera, and others, palpably derive from Indian source and are influenced by Indian models Our present day literature, however, cannot claim this privilege of having inspired any European work of distinction, though it owes most of its own colour and pattern to its prototypes conceived and evolved by European writers. This one sided movement is also markedly in evidence in the present poems of Mohan Singh.

3

Many people have attempted to say in what way modern poetry is distinguished from the old poetry. But as I see it, a poet is to be judged not so much by the historical period in which he lived. But by evaluating as to how far he has successfully attempted to express sensibilities of