Gunadasa Amarasekara’s contribution to modern Sinhala narrative poetry

Abstract

Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often making use of the voices of a narrator and characters. At the same time, the entire story is usually written in metered verse. The above method is not a modern one in Sinhalese literature. We can find out so many examples in the past, like Muvadevdawatha, Sasadawatha, Kavsilumina and Kavyashekaraya. All of this is written in forms of religious propositions. Gunadasa Amarasekara's attitude however, is different. He was traditional, but did not support such a style. His first collection of poetry; Bhavageetha was published in 1995. Afterwards he wrote a few works of poetry and narrative poetry. The study is based on his narratives; Guruluwatha (1962), Asakdakava (2003) and Mathakawatha (2014). In this field he followed the tradition of classical and folk Sinhalese poetry. According to Vimal Dissanayake; Gunadasa Amarasekara influenced by William Wordsworth. Not only that, but he had followed the style of realistic figurative well. In this genre sometimes he tried to rebuild the old narrative poetry with works such as Asakdakava. His modern ones based on personal objects were criticized by many. However Amarasekara is one of the icons of modern Sinhala narrative poetry.