Testimonial: Musings of a Romantic by Shankar Kashyap

“Musings of a Romantic” is a diverse collection of poems on love, nature, and humanity. What is different about this book is that the poems are categorized based on the poetic form used, and Kashyap gives a detailed introduction to each poetic form–even showcasing well-known poems for each category. In addition, the book has an index to help people understand poetry terminology.

All this additional information has helped me get more mileage out of the book. Kashyap’s poems are thought-provoking and use simple language. He intends them to be understandable by everyone and has no pretensions.

I don’t read poetry collections often because I have trouble deciphering them, but this book does not force you to perform mental acrobatics. It is beautiful and no-nonsense without being too simplistic.

You can find it on Amazon and learn more about it on the Facebook page of Literoma Publishing Services.

Book Review: Musings of a Romantic by Shankar Kashyap

Rating: 4/5

After composing beautiful pieces on love and longing in various poetic forms in Lady in Red, it was obvious that Shankar Kashyap would continue to amaze us with his eloquence. Musings of a Romantic features an exquisite collection of poems on love, humanity, and the river Sarasvati (the poet’s favourite river) and the book is structured to include some of the most common poetic forms used around the world.

An informative introduction gives us a detailed history of poetry writing right from its oral beginnings. The poems are categorized on the basis of the poetic form used to compose them and several new forms have been employed—gnomic verse, sestina, palinode, kyrielle, monody, and rispetto, to name a few. Kashyap includes a brief description of each form to help acquaint readers with its intricacies. He also helps us understand the composition better with a short write-up about it.

It is fascinating to see the sheer amount of research that has gone into this collection. Kashyap is not only a gifted poet, but a thorough researcher as well. An appendix dealing with poetic formats, metric structure, and other aspects of poetry is included in the book.

This is how this collection of poems is different from the usual poetry anthologies. Not only does it include poems composed by the author, it also contains detailed information about the history of poetry and each poetic form employed along with a famous poem that exemplifies the form.

“Poison” and “Life” in gnomic verse are particularly interesting compositions that were thought-provoking. I could relate to “The digital city” very well since I have lived in the city for many years. I felt the pain in “A Friend is Forever” and the glory of a long-lost empire in “Tribute to a Golden Empire.”

My favourite composition is “The Leader,” a pithy poem about two-faced politicians. It is a “chastushka,” just four lines, but it conveys a wealth of meaning.

I hope you enjoy reading this book just as much as I have.