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The Collected Poems
Widely celebrated as the author of the worldwide bestselling novels A SUITABLE BOY and AN EQUAL MUSIC, Vikram Seth is also a highly acclaimed poet with a substantial body of work. Here, for the first time in one volume, readers can appreciate the beauty and scope of his poetic vision. Including MAPPINGS, THE HUMBLE ADMINISTRATOR'S GARDEN, ALL YOU WHO SLEEP TONIGHT, THREE CHINESE POETS, BEASTLY TALES FROM HERE AND THERE, ARION AND THE DOLPHIN, THE RIVERED EARTH and SUMMER REQUIEM, this collection displays the richness of Vikram Seth's imagination and the brilliant diversity of his craft.
- GenresPoetryIndian Literature
428 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
8 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Vikram Seth
60 books1,704 followersVikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.
During the course of his doctorate studies at Stanford, he did his field work in China and translated Hindi and Chinese poetry into English. He returned to Delhi via Xinjiang and Tibet which led to a travel narrative From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983) which won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.
The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse (1986) was his first novel describing the experiences of a group of friends who live in California. A Suitable Boy (1993), an epic of Indian life set in the 1950s, got him the WH Smith Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize.
His poetry includes The Humble Administrator's Garden (1985) and All You Who Sleep Tonight (1990). His Beastly Tales from Here and There (1992) is children's book consisting of ten stories in verse about animals.
In 2005, he published Two Lives, a family memoir written at the suggestion of his mother, which focuses on the lives of his great-uncle (Shanti Behari Seth) and German-Jewish great aunt (Henny Caro) who met in Berlin in the early 1930s while Shanti was a student there and with whom Seth stayed extensively on going to England at age 17 for school. As with From Heaven Lake, Two Lives contains much autobiography.
An unusually forthcoming writer whose published material is replete with un- or thinly-disguised details as to the personal lives of himself and his intimates related in a highly engaging narrative voice, Seth has said that he is somewhat perplexed that his readers often in consequence presume to an unwelcome degree of personal familiarity with him.
During the course of his doctorate studies at Stanford, he did his field work in China and translated Hindi and Chinese poetry into English. He returned to Delhi via Xinjiang and Tibet which led to a travel narrative From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983) which won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.
The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse (1986) was his first novel describing the experiences of a group of friends who live in California. A Suitable Boy (1993), an epic of Indian life set in the 1950s, got him the WH Smith Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize.
His poetry includes The Humble Administrator's Garden (1985) and All You Who Sleep Tonight (1990). His Beastly Tales from Here and There (1992) is children's book consisting of ten stories in verse about animals.
In 2005, he published Two Lives, a family memoir written at the suggestion of his mother, which focuses on the lives of his great-uncle (Shanti Behari Seth) and German-Jewish great aunt (Henny Caro) who met in Berlin in the early 1930s while Shanti was a student there and with whom Seth stayed extensively on going to England at age 17 for school. As with From Heaven Lake, Two Lives contains much autobiography.
An unusually forthcoming writer whose published material is replete with un- or thinly-disguised details as to the personal lives of himself and his intimates related in a highly engaging narrative voice, Seth has said that he is somewhat perplexed that his readers often in consequence presume to an unwelcome degree of personal familiarity with him.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 1, 2020
Vikram Seth was phenomenal (when he was, supposedly) as a poet and a novelist at the times when he was chosen for the awards he won. However, reading this collection (fortunately) of the poems he wrote gives an otherwise impression. His poems are mostly personal and very simple in nature (that cannot be a problem for many). I would also say that his poems will please the readers who have begun reading poems in English or read occasionally just a child walks the most when it's new standing on one's own feet! On a serious scale, the poetry of Vikram Seth lacks the zeal that poetry should generally display. The poet lacks intellectual counterpart to his gushing imagination and thus, it fails to strike impactfully upon the minds of the serious readers. You can read a review here: The Collected Poems by Vikram Seth
November 29, 2018
One poet whose poetry works like a solace for me.
January 10, 2020
I was truly moved by the opening eighty pages but matters appeared to cool and slump after that. The translations from the Chinese were interesting but appeared at odds with the verse opening the collection. I suppose such is the bane of the collected approach: everything is tossed into the hopper.
I am planning on reading several works by Seth this year.
I am planning on reading several works by Seth this year.
June 23, 2012
I often come back to Seth's poetry -the way one cuddles into a robe worn threadbare, but also like one opens a gate in a high wall, and finds oneself in a splendorous garden. People tend to use the word 'accessible' with reference to poetry as a substitute for 'dumb', but in this case, accessible equals the comfort in shared humanity- we've all experienced the emotions that Seth talks about- it's just that we need him to put it in words that make us hold our breath and our hearts skip a beat.
August 23, 2012
Seth's Collected Poems is comfort food for me - this is the book I turn to on a rainy evening, after a bad day at work or when I just can't decide what to read! Usually I open the book at a random page, and its eerie how I always manage to stumble upon something that reflects my current state of mind. Though there are many beloved poems in this one, my favourite remains Seth's translation of Faiz (Last night your faded memory came to me...)
April 13, 2016
A collection of short and sweet poems with impactful messages to be drawn.
Promise, Interpretation, From California, Time Zones... Few that I take away with me.
Promise, Interpretation, From California, Time Zones... Few that I take away with me.
September 20, 2024
I’ve been with Seth’s works ever since I was in School. Seth was one of our teenage heroes. And when I found out his poems, much later to the period when I had perused through most of the modern Indian greats, I found something different.
আর একজন পেশাদার পাঠক হওয়ার সুবাদে এ'ও অজানা নেই যে একটি পাঠের সঙ্গে সখ্য যতটা নিবিড় হয় , সেই text সম্পর্কে নির্মোহ হওয়ার যন্ত্রনা ততোধিক। আমি তাই শুভদীপ পাল নামক এক স্কলারের অভিমত শেয়ার করছি এই পোস্টে।
শুভদীপের সঙ্গে আমার পরিচয় নেই। তাঁকে চিনেছি তাঁর লেখার মাধ্যমেই। তাঁর চাইতে এই বই সম্পর্কে মূল্যায়ন আমি করতে পারতুম না।
শুভ লিখছেন:
“What strikes the reader at first glance with the oeuvre of Vikram Seth's poetry is its unconventional nature. Seth is alienated from the rest of his creed (forerunners or contemporaries in the field of Indian Poetry in English) in his uniqueness --- both in terms of creative idea and critical implementation of the same.
The uniqueness is intensified by the fact of his belated arrival on the creative scene when Indian Poetry in English had already formed a niche of its own. Seth's poetic concerns are neither typically pan-Indian nor are they merely concerned with the critique or censure of traditional Indian cultural mores. In that sense, his poems differ from Arun Kolatkar's homely prototypes in Jejuri (1976) viz. 'Chaitanya' or 'A Low Woman' Jayanta Mahapatra's familiarly localized selections in A Rain of Rites (1976) viz. 'Dawn at Puri", "Indian Summer Poem' or 'Hunger' or Manohar Shetty's domicile samples in Borrowed Time (1988) viz. 'Floorshow', 'Mumbai'.
It is most obviously noticeable that in the field of Indian Poetry in English, Seth is perhaps the most pan-international poet that accounts for the fact that he is profoundly affiliated to his roots as well as to the numerous routes that he had navigated.
In his Introduction to ‘The Collected Poems’, he writes that the poet/writer him/herself does not unavoidably subscribe to or relish the categorization imposed on him/her, it is not something that the writer necessarily subscribes to or enjoys.
Eventually, Seth subscribes to the inner compulsion of the artist, a compulsion that is justification enough for him to write what he had decided upon to write, irrespective of form of generic categorization to take visions as they come and be personally grateful for those that survive.
Seth's adherence to these wons has created a poetic yield that is (cooperatively) prolific and (independently) moving…”
কপিরাইটের কড়াক্কড় বাঁধন এড়ানোর তাগিদে কিছু শব্দের অদলবদল ঘটালাম।
আশাকরি শুভর মূল লেখনীর সারবত্তার ন্যূনতম রকমফের হবে না তার ফলে।
যাঁরা বিক্রম শেঠকে কবি হিসেবে পড়েননি , তাঁদের প্রতি অনুরোধ করবো পড়তে। আধুনিক, বলিষ্ঠ, পরিশীলিত ভারতীয় মননের পরিচয় পাবেন।
এটুকুই বলার।
আর একজন পেশাদার পাঠক হওয়ার সুবাদে এ'ও অজানা নেই যে একটি পাঠের সঙ্গে সখ্য যতটা নিবিড় হয় , সেই text সম্পর্কে নির্মোহ হওয়ার যন্ত্রনা ততোধিক। আমি তাই শুভদীপ পাল নামক এক স্কলারের অভিমত শেয়ার করছি এই পোস্টে।
শুভদীপের সঙ্গে আমার পরিচয় নেই। তাঁকে চিনেছি তাঁর লেখার মাধ্যমেই। তাঁর চাইতে এই বই সম্পর্কে মূল্যায়ন আমি করতে পারতুম না।
শুভ লিখছেন:
“What strikes the reader at first glance with the oeuvre of Vikram Seth's poetry is its unconventional nature. Seth is alienated from the rest of his creed (forerunners or contemporaries in the field of Indian Poetry in English) in his uniqueness --- both in terms of creative idea and critical implementation of the same.
The uniqueness is intensified by the fact of his belated arrival on the creative scene when Indian Poetry in English had already formed a niche of its own. Seth's poetic concerns are neither typically pan-Indian nor are they merely concerned with the critique or censure of traditional Indian cultural mores. In that sense, his poems differ from Arun Kolatkar's homely prototypes in Jejuri (1976) viz. 'Chaitanya' or 'A Low Woman' Jayanta Mahapatra's familiarly localized selections in A Rain of Rites (1976) viz. 'Dawn at Puri", "Indian Summer Poem' or 'Hunger' or Manohar Shetty's domicile samples in Borrowed Time (1988) viz. 'Floorshow', 'Mumbai'.
It is most obviously noticeable that in the field of Indian Poetry in English, Seth is perhaps the most pan-international poet that accounts for the fact that he is profoundly affiliated to his roots as well as to the numerous routes that he had navigated.
In his Introduction to ‘The Collected Poems’, he writes that the poet/writer him/herself does not unavoidably subscribe to or relish the categorization imposed on him/her, it is not something that the writer necessarily subscribes to or enjoys.
Eventually, Seth subscribes to the inner compulsion of the artist, a compulsion that is justification enough for him to write what he had decided upon to write, irrespective of form of generic categorization to take visions as they come and be personally grateful for those that survive.
Seth's adherence to these wons has created a poetic yield that is (cooperatively) prolific and (independently) moving…”
কপিরাইটের কড়াক্কড় বাঁধন এড়ানোর তাগিদে কিছু শব্দের অদলবদল ঘটালাম।
আশাকরি শুভর মূল লেখনীর সারবত্তার ন্যূনতম রকমফের হবে না তার ফলে।
যাঁরা বিক্রম শেঠকে কবি হিসেবে পড়েননি , তাঁদের প্রতি অনুরোধ করবো পড়তে। আধুনিক, বলিষ্ঠ, পরিশীলিত ভারতীয় মননের পরিচয় পাবেন।
এটুকুই বলার।
October 4, 2020
Purchase Collected Poems here for just $15!
A collection spanning 14 years full of Vikram Seth's poems that are seemingly simplistic but very accessible. For anyone wanting to get into poetry or interested in Seth's works.
Elisa, Book Grocer
A collection spanning 14 years full of Vikram Seth's poems that are seemingly simplistic but very accessible. For anyone wanting to get into poetry or interested in Seth's works.
Elisa, Book Grocer
February 14, 2022
I own this both in hardback and on Kindle. Seth is one of the most fluently lyric currently working.
I own this sizeable collection in both hardback and Kindle editions. Seth is one of the most fluently lyric currently working.
I own this sizeable collection in both hardback and Kindle editions. Seth is one of the most fluently lyric currently working.
February 28, 2017
This is the kind of book that's not just a one time read, but something to cherish forever and keep going back to time and again. The book displays the author's endearing range. Beastly tales from here and there transports you to the world of tales you have grown up with. The translation of the works of three prominent Chinese poets is so beautiful, it feels you are in that era and place. The libretto, Arion and the Dolphin is such a beautiful rendition of the story. An outstanding collection for any poetry lover.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews