A POEM FOR CRY - FAVOURITE POEMS OF FAMOUS INDIANS

                                                     

A book of 86 poems, just amazing to read and enjoy the poetical rhythms and rhymes. A poem for CRY is an anthology of poems by varied poets across the globe and these are the favorites of famous Indians. Forward by Amartya sen adds more fragrances to this beautiful bouquet of poems.

This book is compiled and edited by AvantiMaluste and Sudeep Doshi. This was published in the year 2006.In the preface, these two shared about the motivating factor for this book I quote “The motivating antecedent for this book was LIFELINES, a bestseller during th e1980s. LIFELINES was the brainchild of a group of students from Wesley college in Dublin who,over several years,collected poems from global celebrities for the benefit of charities around the world.”

In 1979, Rippan Kapur, a young airline pursuer, along with six of his friends decided they had to do something for the countless disadvantaged children whose lives they could no longer ignore. Starting with a mere Rs.50, they laid the foundation for CRY (Child Rights and You), which has today become the largest movement for child rights in India. Buying his book or gifting it to someone, helps support CRY and its important work for the underprivileged children of India.

Poetry says Shelley, “in a general sense may be defined as the expression of the imagination”, it is says Hazlitt, the language of the imagination and the passions”, says Leigh Hunt,” the utterance of a passion for truth, beauty, and power, embodying and illustrating its conceptions by imagination and fancy, and modulating its language on the principle of variety and unity.

In Wordsworth’s phrase, it “is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge”, and “the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science.” According to Matthew Arnold, It “is simply the most delightful and perfect form of utterance that human words can reach.”

The collection of poems in this book fits well into all the above said definitions. The poems  of various poets on innumerous subjects, themes and messages is the soul of the book. To know the favourites of the famous personalities, many of to whom we are fans, creates a crazy like enthusiasm to get into the details and reasons of their likes.

Rudyard Kipling’s “IF “is a favourite poem for as many as five people. Actor Shah Rukh Khan’s favourite poem is Abraham Lincoln’s Letter to his son’s Teacher by Abraham Lincoln. “WE ARE SEVEN” by William Wordsworth is the favourite of Raman Magsaysay award winner and first Indian woman to join police service-Kiran Bedi. Like these there many, for the poetry lovers and surely it make a worth &good read.

I QUOTE – A word of practical advice on a matter of detail may be added.  ”The art of Printing”, as prof. Butcher has pointed out, “has done much to dull our literary perceptions. Words have a double virtue- that which resides in the sense and that which resides in the sound. We miss much of the charm if the eye is made to do duty also for the ear. The words bereft of their vocal force, are but half alive on the inward ear, comes as a faint echo.”

 The moral of this is clear. If poetry is “Musical Speech”, if it owes much of its beauty, its magic, its peculiar power of stirring the feelings and arousing the imagination, to its verbal felicity and its varied melodies of metre and rime, then its full significance as poetry can be appreciated only when it addresses us through the ear. The silent perusal of the printed page will leave one of its principal secrets unsurprised. As much as possible, therefore, we should make it a practice to read our poetry aloud.