Skip to main content

Book Review: Years Spent by Lalit Kumar

Years Spent by Lalit Kumar is a beautifully written poetry collection. The book presents a gamut of themes and emotions that will surely spellbind the readers. Among all aspects, the versatility of the collection is superb and it needs true appreciation by the readers of poetic genre.


The poet did a good job by segmenting the poems in five sections i.e. Life and Exploration, Freedom and Adventure, Pain and Loss, Success and Achievement, Love and Passion.

Before we examine the book segment wise, let’s see what the title poem “Years Spent” means specifically. It’s a beautifully written poem in simple words. It narrates the vagaries of author's life, how he felt at different junctures. At the end, he seeks inspiration from “Butterfly” that epitomizes detachment from the past deeds and looking to fly away afresh, to soar high. Pragmatic yet inspiring!

Life and Exploration:

This segment holds 23 short poems, lucidly presented. The major theme in these poems is the innocent reminiscences of the poet and some musings that he still longs while living in some far-away country. A Nudge of Memory and Across the Border depict that a man can go anywhere in search of comfort and success but home country’s memories always haunt. It is a well-captured section about emotions and nostalgia about old good days. For sure, it will provoke many readers if they are in the same predicament as the author. The poems in this section are heartfelt, imaginative and enjoyable from a literary point of view. The poet did not make any efforts to confound readers, he talked and expressed as it came to his heart…simplicity at its best. Though themes can vary, yet it does not subside the poetic juice from this section.

Freedom and Adventure:

Appreciative fashioned poems, full of gratitude and brimming with astonishing beauty that surrounds us and our ambience. Theme of “nature” is abundant in this section. Being adventurous is a virtue… a sort of boldness, the poet nudges you to be like him, be it Munnar or Wyoming, California and so on. A sense of fearlessness pervades through the poems of the Freedom and Adventure section. A few last poems with illustration of motor cycle are way impressive and stir an ignition of being bohemia and vagabond.

Pain and Loss:

It houses 8 short poems. It’s a different section altogether, probably the poet went too much into introspection. It’s slightly tough to comprehend his vista and feeling, the best way is to reread.

Success and Achievement:

This segment looks at the core aspects like desires and being ambitious etc…that takes it all to become a successful person in life. The poems are inspiring and motivational with its essence.

Love and Passion:

The poem Nature is superb; it studies the face of a lover in comparison with the purity of nature. In fact, this section is smooth and radiates positive passionate vibes that are needed to fulfill a relationship. Also this segment is high on fervent love, with an equal élan it balances the gusto of love with the agony of separation.

Overall, it’s a beautiful and engaging collection of poems that transcends its genre. Carefully crafted and meticulously presented, this book is going to linger in your mind and heart for a longer time. The illustration at the end of each poem brilliantly compliments the overall theme and content of the book. All in all, pick it up and take a refreshing break for yourself from the mundane of your life.

Buy from Amazon

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should
68 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo
64 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r
23 comments
Read more