Books do have something
enduring about them, that
makes, some of them –
larger than life!
This amazing truth
suddenly dawned upon me
as I accidentally discovered
from my own personal library,
a very…very old copy
of P.B. Shelley’s poems,
purchased in 1939, i.e., about 75 years ago,
by none other than my father,
as a P.G. student of English Literature.
It still bore his name and date in neat letters.
I gazed at the vintage volume for a while,
trying to find out its title etc..
With the outer cover missing,
pages yellow, termite punched, virtually brittle,
betraying ripe old age; the binding
had literally collapsed setting the leaves loose,
to be handled with utmost care,
I somehow managed to free
the inner title page stuck between
other leaves owing to moisture.
How, I pondered,
as I held ‘Shelley’s Poems’ in my hand,
some books are fortunate enough
to outlive their creators – the authors,
and some others are still more blessed
to stay with their readers…even
their successors, year after year,
decade after decade,
enjoying the ripe old age…
being there…larger than life.
So, what say? Don’t books have something
enduring about them, that
makes, some of them –
larger than life!
*******
Ashok Misra
Advertisements Share this:
