Edappally Raghavan Pillai Edappally Raghavan Pillai Edappally Raghavan Pillai (30 May 1909 – 4 July 1936) was a Malayalam poet who was closely associated with Changampuzha Krishna Pillai. They are considered as Shelley and Keats of Malayalm poetry. Pillai has been compared by Kesari Balakrishna Pillai to Giacomo Leopardi of Italy. Raghavan Pillai's best poem is perhaps "Maninadam" (The sound of the bells) which he wrote a short while before committing suicide by hanging himself from a tree. The farewell song opens by: It is believed that the famous pastoral play "Ramanan" by Changampuzha is an elegy based on the life and death
Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady above in his "Journal" on more than one occasion [see December 5, 1750 and July 4, 1786].) Samuel Johnson in his "Lives of the Poets" also faulted the "Elegy" on similar grounds, referring to "the illaudable singularity of treating suicide with respect." A different kind of criticism, one on artistic grounds, is made by Maynard Mack in his important biography "Alexander Pope: A Life." Mack acknowledges that there are beautiful passages in the poem, but also finds that it is marked by a certain incoherence between elements and attitudes which are not fully reconciled, such as the idea of Roman