Attended a poetry reading organized by Toto Funds The Arts in collaboration with the British Council at a Crossword store last Friday. Ruth Padel, a British poet, great-great-grand daughter of Charles Darwin read from her book Darwin: A Life in Poems. Padel is in India on the British Council Darwin Now research grant to complete her next novel Where the Serpent Lives. The event started of with a poem she'd written two years back, verses on global warming, a Now-and-Then view on climate (with mentions of India - Sunderbans, Shiv no longer holding Ganga in his hairlock, etc)
It set the stage for poems from Darwin: A Life in Poems (published last year for the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth) What's special about this biography is that it is written in verses, a sequence of poems merging Darwin's own words taken from his autobiography, letters and notebooks, 160 pages in all!
The poems revealed the personal side of Darwin ... his childhood interest in collecting as a form of expression to escape his mother's death when he was eight, his thoughts on marriage (the famous 'pros and cons of marriage' made it's way into the book as an aptly named 'The Balance Sheet'), his beautiful relationship with Emma, the divide between them regarding belief in God (an important aspect in times of Victorian Christianity when it was believed that if either in a couple was not a believer, they would not be together in the afterlife)
Presented in Darwin's voice, the poems portray an intimate, everyday side to the famous naturalist. Take for instance his reaction on first seeing a tropical land (voyage aboard the Beagle to South America)
I hadn't heard of Padel before I went to the reading, knew nothing about her except the Darwin connection. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature AND the Zoological Society of London. Her dedication to conservation efforts is inspiring, awe-inspiring. Am mesmerized by the way she writes about science with the knowledge that only comes with much research and yet the writing is so very lyrical. Definitely want to read the biography on Darwin, 52 ways of looking at a poem, her novel on tiger conservation Tigers in Red Weather, and more! Watch this space.
Padel also read from her next novel Where the Serpent Lives which is about King Cobra conservation and is based in India. A discussion with Bangalore-based novelist Anjum Hasan followed the novel reading, to be wrapped up by an interaction with the audience.
You can read a collection from Darwin: A Life in Poems here.
It set the stage for poems from Darwin: A Life in Poems (published last year for the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth) What's special about this biography is that it is written in verses, a sequence of poems merging Darwin's own words taken from his autobiography, letters and notebooks, 160 pages in all!
The poems revealed the personal side of Darwin ... his childhood interest in collecting as a form of expression to escape his mother's death when he was eight, his thoughts on marriage (the famous 'pros and cons of marriage' made it's way into the book as an aptly named 'The Balance Sheet'), his beautiful relationship with Emma, the divide between them regarding belief in God (an important aspect in times of Victorian Christianity when it was believed that if either in a couple was not a believer, they would not be together in the afterlife)
Presented in Darwin's voice, the poems portray an intimate, everyday side to the famous naturalist. Take for instance his reaction on first seeing a tropical land (voyage aboard the Beagle to South America)
He’s standing in Elysium. Palm feathers, a greenDarwin's famous 'to marry or not to' was a laugh riot at the reading ('The Balance Sheet'). Emma's letter to Darwin when she was pregnant, voicing her fears and Darwin's 'reply' left to be found after his death, the poem in the voice of the carpenter who made a plain wooden coffin for Darwin just the way he'd wanted it and then some .. all beautiful.
dream of fountain against blue sky. Banana fronds,
slack rubber rivulets, a canopy of waterproof tearstain
over his head. Pods and racemes of tamarind.
Follicle, pinnacle; whorl, bole and thorn. ...
Vegetation he’s never seen, and every step a new surprise.
’New insects, fluttering about still newer flowers. It has been
for me a glorious day, like giving to a blind man eyes.’
(Read the full poem Like Giving to a Blind Man Eyes)
I hadn't heard of Padel before I went to the reading, knew nothing about her except the Darwin connection. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature AND the Zoological Society of London. Her dedication to conservation efforts is inspiring, awe-inspiring. Am mesmerized by the way she writes about science with the knowledge that only comes with much research and yet the writing is so very lyrical. Definitely want to read the biography on Darwin, 52 ways of looking at a poem, her novel on tiger conservation Tigers in Red Weather, and more! Watch this space.
Padel also read from her next novel Where the Serpent Lives which is about King Cobra conservation and is based in India. A discussion with Bangalore-based novelist Anjum Hasan followed the novel reading, to be wrapped up by an interaction with the audience.
You can read a collection from Darwin: A Life in Poems here.
3 comments:
Good one Poo!!God, you are a serious reader :-)
- Praneeth
Nice! I'll keep checking out your blog for book reviews before I begin one. Do Keep sending blog updates. By the way, welcome to blogspot :)
Praneeth, Archu :) thanku
Archu, hope you'll find the reviews helpful!
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