Kaziranga, Assam (poem)
Kaziranga, Assam was a poem written by American science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp about the Kaziranga National Park. It was first published in 1970 in Demons and Dinosaurs, a poetry collection. The poem was reprinted as Kaziranga in Years in the Making: t…
Kaziranga, Assam lands on the page like a badly‑photographed safari brochure, but you’re reading a poem, not a wildlife guide, and that distinction matters. Sprouted in 1970’s Demons and Dinosaurs, L. Sprague de Camp’s verse attempts to graft the thunderous bulk of the Indian rhinoceros onto a sci‑fi scaffolding that collapses under its own weight; the 2005 re‑print in Years in the Making merely reheats the same ash. The opening line, “the grass‑sleeve of the plain, a golden quiet,” is serviceable, yet the poem never earns the wild’s rage – it’s more a tourist’s postcard than an elegy. If you must sample de Camp’s lyrical foray into Assam, read it alongside the actual Kaziranga National Park guidebook; the contrast is a reminder that the poem’s prose‑like cadence is more about fitting a Western imagination into an exotic frame than about the park’s stark ecology. Skip the poem if you crave genuine immersion; reserve your breath for the real rhinos in the morning mist, not for de Camp’s nostalgic, over‑indexed nostalgia masquerading as poetry.
Source · Wikipedia · Kaziranga, Assam (poem) · CC-BY-SA
- Tips coming soon — this entry is freshly seeded from Wikipedia.