Paperback, 61 pages
Published June 18th 1991 by Vintage (first published May 5th 1990)
ISBN- 0679730257 (ISBN13: 9780679730255)
edition language- English
original title- All You Who Sleep Tonight: Poems
Synopsis-
"Certainly not since Byron has anyone been more elegantly and literally amusing in verse." -- Philadelphia DailyNewsVikram Seth's novel in verse, The Golden Gate, was hailed by Gore Vidal as "the Great California Novel" and by the New Republic as "a tour de force of the transcendence of the mere tour de force." Now he brings his romance with the English language, his effortless access to the deepest reservoirs of feeling, and his ability to light up the plain surfaces of everyday life to this stunning collection of poems.
In All You Who Sleep Tonight Seth delves into the varieties of love -- love lost, remembered, and deferred. He evokes the unspeakable ironies of Auschwitz and the light-blasted streets of Hiroshima. He conducts the reader through Lion Grove in Suzhou, China, and across the Golden Gate Bridge on its fiftieth anniversary. Throughout, he displays the lyricism and attentiveness that distinguish the best poets of every era.
"Clear as a glacial pool, often as deep, Vikram Seth's new poems shine with unfashionable virtues. Seth gives joy by writing brilliantly well, unafraid to feel and to start us feeling." -- X. J. Kennedy
My Review-
In All You Who Sleep Tonight Seth delves into the varieties of love -- love lost, remembered, and deferred. He evokes the unspeakable ironies of Auschwitz and the light-blasted streets of Hiroshima. He conducts the reader through Lion Grove in Suzhou, China, and across the Golden Gate Bridge on its fiftieth anniversary. Throughout, he displays the lyricism and attentiveness that distinguish the best poets of every era.
"Clear as a glacial pool, often as deep, Vikram Seth's new poems shine with unfashionable virtues. Seth gives joy by writing brilliantly well, unafraid to feel and to start us feeling." -- X. J. Kennedy
My Review-
All Those Who Sleep Tonight
All You Who Sleep Tonight is a collection of love poems by Vikram Seth. He
places himself in different situations and writes poems that goes with each and
every situation. The whole book has been divided into five sections, namely,
Romantic Resides, In Other Voices, In Other Places, Quatrains and Meditations
Of The Heart. The title of the book, ‘All You Who Sleep Tonight’ has been
derived from the poem of the fifth section, which is also the last poem of the
book.
The language is simple and the plots used are nothing fancy, just normal
day-to-day locations where one could be for obvious reasons. None of it is too
hard to digest. My favorite section would be the Quatrains. Little is said
and more is expressed there. All of the poems in this section are four lines
long and yet their charisma is something you can’t ignore. The book has about
75 pages and doesn’t take time to read and assimilate, but the charm of the
simplicity of this book bewilders you. Even while I write this, I think of that
red little suitcase and how his heart breaks when an old man instead of whom he
is expecting to picks it up.
A must have for in every poetry lover’s collection.
About the Author-
Vikram Seth is the acclaimed author of three novels including The Golden Gate and A Suitable Boy, one of the most beloved and widely read books of recent times. He has also written five books of poetry, an opera libretto, a book of other libretti and two highly regarded works of non-fiction. He currently divides his time between the UK and India.
0 comments:
Post a Comment