Swatantra Dev Kotwal
Name of the Book: The Beautiful World
Genre: Poetry
Author: Ashok Kumar Sharma
No of pages: 120
Year of Publication: 2023
Price: Rs 685.00
Publisher: Bharti Publications,Darya Ganj New Delhi
‘The Beautiful World’ is the third book of poetry from the pen of Ashok Kumar Sharma who has earned for himself a name as columnist, writer, poet, interviewer and literary critic, besides having been a great teacher & teacher trainer. Poetry is the music of the soul and great poetry is that which, apart from having rhyme, rhythm and thought, touches the emotional chords of the readers of varying moods and phases of life and provides them sublime joy and pleasure. Spread over 120pages, ‘The Beautiful World’ comprises as many as 76 poems in English language pulsating with thought, rhyme and rhythm. This antholgy is a bouquet of colourful flowers of myriad shades and hues. The poet seems to be a keen observer of Nature, people, surroundings etc. Nothing seems to have escaped his incisive eyes. No wonder, this anthology contains poems of sentiment and reflection, love and affection, sorrow and fancy, besides poems on pastoral and rural landscape and of course, on sublime romance.
The poem ‘Immortal Love’ is in the form of a dialogue between Rose and the Fragrance, which is full of lyrical intensity depicting spiritual and integral bonding between Rose and its fragrance.
‘Together we live, together we die
Even after you wither, in you, I lie
So never can I be separated from you
Wherever you grow, there I will be too’.
The poem ‘The Pretty Sheep’ depicts the strong and selfless love of a mother for her young one who has been out of her sight and whom she can’t find:
‘To you, I will bring him just now
There, he is playing with the cow
Telling her that he too loves you a lot
And likes to be with you in cold & hot’.
The poem ‘The Sworn Foes’ depicts the psychological conflicts of foes who are always there to find faults with those they don’t like:
‘They will always keep you in mind
Nothing good in you, will ever find
About you, they bother to know a lot
Where you went & what you bought’.
In the poem, ‘Woes of a Married Daughter’, the poet brings out the nostalgic feelings of childhood of a daughter even though she is happily married.
‘Though at the inlaws’ home, I do enjoy a lot
Old memories of childhood often me haunt
How much good inlaws a girl may have got
Her parental home a girl ever forget cannot.’
The poem ‘Summer Breeze’ is a musical lyric in which the poet praises the summer breeze for its soothing effect & acknowledges the blessings of God in the form of heavenly bodies such as the Sun, the Moon, Stars, Breeze, Morning etc
‘Fresh, fresh breeze
Come to me, please
Like the happy bees
With cold, me freeze.’
In the poem’ The Ideal Way to Live’, the poet sounds a little philosophical and asserts that there is no ideal way to live life and the perfect way to live life is by adaptation to the new situations:
‘Let me however tell you a golden rule
There isn’t any ideal way to live this life
Always remain humble, calm and cool
And adjust to situations to avoid strife.’
In the poem ‘Changes in Nature’, the poet pleads for maintaining the pristine beauty of Mother Nature
‘Keep all the streams and rivers clean
Let all the forests be thick and green
Let the animals live a life of their own
Let all the fields, with crops, be sown
Cover all the waste land with myriad trees
And feel the joy of cool refreshing breeze’.
In the poem ‘What will People Say’, the poet urges the readers to move forward and never bother what the people will say.
‘So never bother what people will think
Let the mind always think free
With the set changes, let it form a link
So that it blossoms like a tree.’
The book, though compact, bears testimony to the poet’s versatile poetic talent. It is worth every penny spent on it. Every poem has a great message for the reader. Printed on a very high quality paper, it has an easily readable font and soothing look. It contains short but meaningful and thought provoking poems. Therefore, it ought to be bought by those who are interested in English literature in general and English poetry in particular.
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