Poetry in the Time of COVID-19: A Polyphonic Reading of the Pandemic
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic prompted an unprecedented global poetic response, as writers turned to verse to document and process collective trauma. This paper proposes a polyphonic reading of pandemic poetry, drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin?s dialogic theory to analyse the crisis not as a single narrative but as a chorus of diverse perspectives. Examining works by poets including Jim Carruth, Carol Ann Duffy, Rukhaya MK, Meena Kandasamy, Nandini Sen Mehra, Imtiaz Dharker, and Simon Armitage, this study traces how Anglophone pandemic poetry operates simultaneously as testimony, critique, elegy, and consolation. The poems move from initial estrangement and isolation to the raw exposure of structural inequalities affecting migrant workers and expatriates, the disruption of death rituals, and glimpses of environmental and human renewal. By examining this convergence of diverging viewpoints, the analysis demonstrates how poetry functions as a therapeutic, critical, and archival force that preserves multiplicity while pointing toward a shared humanity in the face of global adversity.
Keywords: COVID-19, pandemic poetry, polyphony, migrant lives, new normal
How to Cite?: Dr. Zeenath Mohamed Kunhi, "Poetry in the Time of COVID-19: A Polyphonic Reading of the Pandemic", Volume 15 Issue 4, April 2026, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), Pages: 436-441, https://www.ijsr.net/getabstract.php?paperid=SR26405161549, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21275/SR26405161549