Dismantlement of the Vortex of Relationships in the Select Poetry of Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth, a post-modern and formalist writer, delves deep into love relationships. He explores various prospects of his sexual orientation in his poetry. The purpose of this paper is to look into Vikram Seth’s poetry and analyse various phases of his thought process and perception towards love relationships, which ultimately leads him towards the short-timed and casual affairs, dismantling the vortex of relationships he was caught in. The paper has been divided into four parts—Dazzled, Disillusionment, Desecration and Decoupling— of which decoupling is the most important. This four-phase analysis demands cultural study of modern and post-modern times, which comprises hook-up culture, casual relationships etc. Initially, Vikram Seth feels excited about his bisexuality, as it supplements him with multiple choices of sexual partners. This simultaneously develops a dilemma of deviating from societal norms. He gets disillusioned very soon about gay relationships. Thereafter, his love-seeking heart looks for love among his friends. But conversion of friendship into love is tantamount to desecration of a sacred relationship like friendship. Hence, he decides to avoid it. At the end he comes to the conclusion to have stoical relationships. This perception towards relationships is to avoid fear of getting emotionally hurt. Globalisation and cosmopolitanism have facilitated such relationships. Hence, this paper discusses poetry of Vikram Seth and how his attachment in bisexual relationships gets decoupled and dismantled after facing social fear, moral crisis and hopelessness.