Editor: Kirpal Singh. "Interlogue: Studies in Singapore Literature. Volume 2: Poetry". +
++I felt turned off by the Introduction. (And stopped reading shortly after that). +
++I take issue with how the (un-identified) writer of the Introduction - whom I guess to be Mr. Kirpal Singh - focused on the "what should" instead of "what is". +A sentence like "we must set our standards as any genuinely independent nation must and it is by these standards that we should judge ourselves" seems to be more + appropriate for a book titled "Mr. Kirpal Singh's Opinions" instead of a book titled "Studies in Singapore Literature: Volume 2: Poetry". +
++A reader with an interest in delightful poetry may be better served by reading Jane Hirshfield's book, "Nine gates: Entering the mind of poetry". Ms. Hirshfield talks engagingly about the "what is" instead of "what should", as I fondly recall. +
++And a reader with a curiosity towards poetry from Singapore may be better served by + reading the selection at: + +https://www.lyrikline.org/en/authors?nav=1&country%5B%5D=SG + +
++Please let me conclude by saying this book seems to be crying out for a healthy dose of humour. May I quote from Eric Linklater's lovely 1929 work, "Poet's pub"? +The fictional character of Sir Philip Betts, a professor, remarks (on Page 33 of my copy, published by The Penguin Group): "I'm sick of scholarship and the graveyard +way we go to work explaining what Shakespeare meant in places where all he meant, probably, was a billiard-room joke." +
+- 24th May 2021. +
+Jee Leong Koh. "Equal to the Earth".