Among the Bengali Poets other than Rabindranath Tagore known outside the Bengali-speaking area, the most notable are Kazi Nazul Islam and Jibanananda Das. Except that they were born within a year of each other, there is. however. hardly anything in common between them. In fact they represent two altogether different faces of Bengali poetry.

Nazrul Islam, an embodiment of Hindu-Muslim cultural synthesis, lived a life full of exciting events. He had a brief stint in the army, experience of which enriched his poetic vision. He responded vigorously to the Indian national movement: he was a political activist who welcomed the October Revoloution, and he went to jail for his inflammatory poems and journalistic writings.