Book Review by Dom Kafleigh, Copy left web journal
A poet does not write poems just because he can, he writes them because he wants poetry to explode the myriads of his radiance in varied of forms ranging from common cultural and social subjects to the ideals of ideas and ideology, love, wisdom, experience, sufferance and philosophy. And when it comes to talking of younger poets, only a few may have much of such themes to carry in their so short and sublime verses like in ‘Diorama of Three Diaries’ by Sonnet Mondal, an internationally acclaimed young poet of India. I may not be too early to say that for a committed poet like Sonnet, India will always have a warm place for excellence, a room for pride and wider poetic stardom, a trending trail left by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore almost a century ago in the sub-continent. Read More
Review by Ambika Ananth, Muse India Journal
‘The poet is a part and at once apart from the world around him,’ it is said, and one finds such a quality in Mondal’s work. We find more of modern ethos than the classic romantic sensibility in his poems. He seems to live the experience intensely and then polish it to versify. His innermost self comes out to fuse with external reality, to create poetry. One finds a constant shaping of his thoughts, a perceptible growth in his creative urge.
His poetry supports the socio-philosophical dialectic with its concrete image play. As a poet, he is anchored in real world sometimes and floats freely in the imaginative firmament sometimes. The existential anxiety which creative persons sometimes feel is also palpable in a few poems. For example, ‘Hungry Beaks.’ Read More
Review by Patricia Prime, New Zealand in Writers, Editors & Critics Journal & Indian Ruminitions journal
The sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines (give or take a couple), usually rhymed, usually written in iambic pentameter; a song usurped by ideas.
A sonnet often presents an argument, perhaps a romantic plea in the guise of a legal brief. But it may also contain a description of a memorable scene, or a meditation, or a miniature story, or a portrait, or a list. The rhyme scheme and stanza breaks (if any) often determine the structure of the thoughts.
In English there are two principal kinds of sonnet: the Petrarchan and the Shakespearian. They are characterized by different rhyme schemes and different organizing principles. The Petrarchan sonnet has a two-part structure; the break between octave and sestet is called the volta (or turning point). In English this sonnet form is difficult because of the rhyming demands (four different a rhymes, four brhymes, and so on). The Shakespearian sonnet rhymes abab cdcd efef gg.Many contemporary poets have tried out various rhyme combinations, line length and stanza breaks in their sonnets. The poet is really free to devise any sort of arrangement that works for a particular sonnet.
In Sonnet Mondal’s collection Twenty One Lines: Fusion Sonnets of 21st Century, the poet introduces a new poetic form for the sonnet. The book presents 70 sonnets from Sonnet 1 to Sonnet 70 together with a section of previously written fourteen line sonnets. The book is beautifully published and includes paintings by Andrzej Filipowicz. Read More
Review by Dr. Shamenaz Shaikh at Sound of Poetry Review
Poetry is something which comes out from a writer’s mind, heart and sometimes even soul. This is true in the context of Sonnet Mondal, who is a rising star in the sky of Indian English Poetry. His Diorama of Three Diaries is a collection of poem based on many themes like- nature, spirituality, mysticism, problems relating to his country and world.
The very first poem, The Wait seems to reflect the agony of a person. May be Sonnet Mondal is depressed to see the present plight of his country and his state and he has tried to show the pathetic situation of the poor people but he is also hopeful that a new beginning will come. Read More
Review by Chitra Lele at I sahityaSurprisingly, even in this highly commercialized world where money dominates the landscape, poetry is still being written by committed poets such as Sonnet. In his latest book of poetry “Diorama Of Three Diaries”, the poet deals with a wide variety of themes: inner journey, love and loss, the yearning for recognition, wonders of nature, and more.
Using fresh, invigorating language, the poet has carved out each poem with resonant imagery. Right from “The Wait” to “Searching With Folded Hands”, they are all pearls of wisdom culled from the deep oceans of the poet’s honest and compassionate mind. Read More
Review by Dr. Shaleen Kumar Singh at AsiaWrites
In the last phase of 21st century, the experimental twenty one lines fusion sonnets of Sonnet Mondal are important not because they are experimental and trendsetter but because they forecast of a century that will not be entirely devoid of poetry or other creative pursuits and also fill us with a sapling hope that the Indian English poetry has few rising columns who will shine and leave eternal source of bliss to their followers. Sonnet is now a well-known and acknowledged poet around the world who has already authored two books of poetry and has been bestowed with several national and international awards and prizes. Read More
Review By Aju Mukhopadhyay in Stream Press, U.S.A. & Eri Jams Magazine, U.S.A.
With other poems, Sonnet Mondal has penned seventy 21 lines Sonnets in his latest book “21 lines Fusion Sonnets of 21st Century” published by Sparrow. The sonnets have sharpness with satire and irony of life expressed with sufficient pathos and insight into the modern society. It may be expected that such sonnets derive from the other areas of his observation and creation which are aberrations from the path of peace or which deters one to get pure peace in heart and mind. It may be guessed that such practical observations engaged him to the path of peace. Read More
Book Review by Dr. Sandra Fowler,U.S.A.
In the beginning of this book, he reveals the source of his inspiration. It does not reside in India’s glorious past.
It draws its creative strength from the harmony between temples, mosques and churches, the joining thread between several cultures and the unending scope to experiment with islands,hills,rivers and seas. Mondal may be an Indian poet to the depths o his soul, but his poetic voice is truly universal. Read More
Book Review by Juhi Chowdhury, India
Penumbra of Indian Verses by Dr Sonnet Mondal, internationally acclaimed young Indian English poet, honoured several times and the pioneer of ‘21 lines of fusion sonnet’ is such a delicious dish for the literature-hungry minds, where readers will find every ingredient in appropriate quantity and pure essence flooding with the verses surpassing all punctuations. His ink flows like never dammed water wetting every corner by bemusing emotions, powerful desires, alluring imageries, vistas of present society, spark of science in the midst.Read More
Book Review by Marc Carver
This book is one of the best poetry books that I have ever read. If you don’t buy another poetry book this year buy this one. There are flashes here of some of the lost masters of the past. Without doubt one of the best pieces of work I have read. Read More
Review by Koketso Mokgobi Marishane at Indian Book Reviews
Dr Sonnet Mondal in his latest book, 21 lines Fusion Sonnets of 21st Century, has introduced a new genre of 21 Lines Fusion Sonnets. The sonnets have strong sharpness with satire, irony to life using metaphorical puns to assert allusions which could at a larger point be mistaken for idioms but proverbs. Though nature has always been naturally right, Sonnet’s sonnets offer sufficient pathos with an in-depth insight into the modern day society that we’ve for so long cast out. Although it may be argued that Sonnet’s sonnets should carry areas of his observation, creation and participation, which are seemingly peculiars from the path of philanthropically peaceful habits, or which admonishes such practices from reaching the ultimate desire of the mind, body and soul, still, it’d be arguably rational to entertain these observations engaged him within the peace and camaraderie charges. Read More
Review by Dr. Sandra Fowler at Houston Literary Review
Sonnet Mondal's work increases in excellence. He is a young man, but true poetry is ageless. His seventy sonnets in the book "21 lines Fusion Sonnets Of 21st Century" are fresh, original, and innovative. They prove him to be a pioneer of some note, breaking new ground in the world of literature. His style is inimitable, his command of the English language superior, his poetic gift unmistakable. I can envision this new type of sonnet appearing in poetry text books and being emulated by those who have a zeal for creative adventure. The poet tells us that he was inspired by Gerard Manley Hopkins who might have had kind words to say in defense of his inventiveness. Read More
Other Reviews:
Ex President of India and Bharat Ratna Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam appreciates "A Poetic Peep Into The Post Modern World" by Sonnet Mondal mentioning "The Portrait Of The Deer" as the best poem in the book via his official letter to Sonnet Mondal.
"I appreciate your thinking of me.I wish you all the best in your endeavours."
Drew Faust,
President, Harvard.
Governor of West Bengal Shri Gopal Krishna Gandhi appreciates "A Poetic Peep Into The Post Modern World" by Sonnet Mondal via his official letter to Sonnet Mondal.
The name “Sonnet Mondal” is synonymous with poetry and can easily be included in the same sentence with the Eastern poets Omar Khayam and Kahlil Gibrean and the Western poets T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Leonard Cohen, Michael Drayton, Edmund Spenser, Elizabeth Barrett Browining, and of course the sonnet master himself, William Shakespeare.
Candice James, New West Minster Poet Laureate, Canada
“His sonnets are beautiful, inspiring, thought-provoking and innovative. In short, they are tempting and worth reading.”
Dr. Stephen Gil, (Poet Laureate-Ansted University, Canada).
“Sonnet Mondal’s poems are replete with wisdom beyond 20 something shoulders, well-written and what is more they rhyme, unlike modern day poets who write prose poetry sans semblance.”
Dr. Leo Rebello, (Nobel prize Nominee and World Peace Envoy, India.)
Fusion sonnets" by renowned young Indian poet Sonnet Mondal are a unique poetic form that is characterised by impressiveness because of the prosodic variations, euphony and rich imagery. Writing these poems, Mondal primarily focused on the aesthetic dimension of poetic expression, and it clearly shows his creative maturity.
Jovica Tasevski - Eternijan,(Editor-Stremez)
I went to one of your sites and read some of your poems. I share in your thoughts and goals. I found a healing connection in your quotes and I'd like to post one in particular on my website. I will also link you to my music website.
Nora McCarthy,
(Famous singer, lyricist, composer, poet and educator of U.S.A).
“Sonnet has a fresh imagery choice of words and phrases. His poems are charged with the traditional attitude towards life and things. Some of his poems which are patriotic in nature are reminiscent of another young poet-Derozio, who was the pathfinder of Indian English poetry. Once anyone reads Sonnet’s poems, one cannot forget them if one would and one will not forget them if one could.”
Prof. Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhppadhyaya
I am Happy to know that you would be awarded "Poet Laureate".Congratulations.
Taslima Nasrin
"Sonnet's story of experiments with the sonnet is very impressive. His poems also display a wide range of thematic variation with lot of playing around with ideas and images"'
Dr. Sachin Ketkar
"Dear Sonnet,
We are proud of you. You are the ambassador of BESU to the world of literature.
Best wishes"
Dr.Ajoy K Ray,(Vice Chancellor-Bengal Engineering and Science University.)
"I appreciate him for his passion and sustained interest in the subject while conveying my warm greetings for his achievements."
Bhaskar Sen,
CMD, United Bank of India.
Dear Kobi Mondal,
"I like your poems: Love - Its silence Silences, When I meet you, The last Journey and Yesterday Once More.You're extremely talented. I am proud that I know a poet who will rise above everything and outshine all other poets.I wish you become the second Kabi Guru of the world and make us and India proud."
With warmest wishes,
Maitreyee Sarcar [Mrs](Secretary/Director,Surdhwani, U.K.)
"The Sonnets of talented young poet Sonnet Mondal are outstanding in description and visual images.They take the art of Sonnet to a different profound level.I am impressed with the lines full of ideas, intellectual stimulation and rhythm."
Ariadne Sawyer,
(Co-Founder of World Poetry Reading Series, World Poetry International and World Poetry Cafe Radio Show, Canada.)
Dear Sir/ Mr. Sonnet Mondal,
A cursory glace at your publications has found to be highly impressive, interesting, inspiring, appealing and above all thought provoking.
We thank you profoundly for your gracious gratitude in Humanitarian service.
Dr. K Thiagarajan,
Secretary General,
United Writers' Association.
“I have gone through many of the poems of Sonnet Mondal with a meditative mind and critical approach. I have been almost amazed at some of the poems penned down by the young genius. They have a unique scintillating glow of poetic exuberance.”
Dinesh Nair M.D,
Dept of English, Sri Chaitanya College,
Vijayawada-10, South India.
"Sonnet Mondal is a poet whose poems emanate powerful image, a creative individuality who cannot limit himself to one theme of his poetic creation: he is curios, troubled by a Faustian thirst for discoveries and knowledge, and therefore switches from one theme to another, made restless by the urge to find expression for all the affinities of his gifted personality, for his diversely rich attitude towards world.
For this great explorer and discoverer of new horizons in creative expression, poetry like artistic form is the most sublime emanation of the imagination, the most pure form of its crystallization.
Through visualization of the poems, poet from labyrinth of the conscious and the unconscious a Cleary shaped objectified vision. Evoking one after another themes are undoubtedly, chosen from a deep affinity, from a profound feeling of kinship among them, Mondal produced a personal list of values, builds his own poetry world. But what attracts Mondal towards all of them is not only the creation of visions that radically transform the world, but moreover, the uncompromising struggle of poet for the for the right to self-expression, the passion incorporated in his art, the way the mingle art and life without asking for the price that must be paid for it, the stamina of his effort to gasp as much as possible from amorphous space around him and give it sense by painting it and thus placing against the threatening chaos which flattens and annihilates everything.
The limitations of our minds and sensorial equipment partly stem from the brevity of our physical lives. The rules, duties and regulations construct their dark bastions, their gallows. The mind becomes a prison with tall fences, a prison of paths trodden by others, of defeats and the past. These poet’s dream becomes an escape on the restless paths of imagination. The identity of poet becomes a wound, infected and tedious. Later, as time goes on, the ravaged body wear the sings of defeat. Memory becomes a dark place where of the race are stored, the weeping and the cries of the world.
But for the poet, nature becomes the subject of admiration. He is speechless in front of that creator that has tied everything in that particular way, by the Connection, the interrelation is what amazes he so deeply.
How is it possible that this multitude of living and non-living matter be joined in such perfect manner?
The question that arouse in he was-is it possible that this pattern, the simple principle of connection be applied outside nature. Is it possible that man, if he follows the same ways, can build same harmony in everyday communication, in community and in interpersonal relations?
Is it possible that society, which has separated men from nature, can be brought in the state of natural harmony?
Is it possible to harmonize those contradictions in the social reality and to build up interpersonal relationship upon this contradictions?
If nature can work so, why wouldn’t?
But what is it in relationship that can harmonize contradicted ties?
What can bring reconciliation?
Exactly as a result of the awareness of that contradicted connection, his poems have been written out of contradictions. They equilibrate on the tin line between the creation and destruction. The ultimate form is a dialogue between the beginning and the end. Is it possible to create something without destroying? In the nature moments of life and death are necessary condition of existing, one has die so that a new one could be born. Upon this supposedly paradox connection of contradictions, lays the whole world order.
Mondal’s poems are imbued with contradictions out of which they have been created and through which they live. The tall and short, the smooth and rough, the vertical and horizontal- those are the contradictions of the same existence. One pole cannot exist without the other, the short creates the tall, the vertical rests upon horizontal, the rough melts into the smooth, the upside contradicts the downward, one part tends to reach the sky, the other clings to the earth. The connection of contradictions composes the unity oh those poems. They are romantic and cruel at the same time, and urban and natural, and still and playful, and talkative and silent. They seem to be incompatible. But this tendency exactly makes up their dynamics; they bear the tension and dialogue which makes alive everything that surrounds us.
The Curse of Atlantis & other poems by Sonnet Mondal it’s the new jewel in world poetry treasure, for this reason I recommend this poetry collection for every person who feed his own soul with poetry nectar."
Book Review by Ljubomir Mihajlovski
Ambasador of Poetas del Mundo for Macedonia
A poet does not write poems just because he can, he writes them because he wants poetry to explode the myriads of his radiance in varied of forms ranging from common cultural and social subjects to the ideals of ideas and ideology, love, wisdom, experience, sufferance and philosophy. And when it comes to talking of younger poets, only a few may have much of such themes to carry in their so short and sublime verses like in ‘Diorama of Three Diaries’ by Sonnet Mondal, an internationally acclaimed young poet of India. I may not be too early to say that for a committed poet like Sonnet, India will always have a warm place for excellence, a room for pride and wider poetic stardom, a trending trail left by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore almost a century ago in the sub-continent. Read More
Review by Ambika Ananth, Muse India Journal
‘The poet is a part and at once apart from the world around him,’ it is said, and one finds such a quality in Mondal’s work. We find more of modern ethos than the classic romantic sensibility in his poems. He seems to live the experience intensely and then polish it to versify. His innermost self comes out to fuse with external reality, to create poetry. One finds a constant shaping of his thoughts, a perceptible growth in his creative urge.
His poetry supports the socio-philosophical dialectic with its concrete image play. As a poet, he is anchored in real world sometimes and floats freely in the imaginative firmament sometimes. The existential anxiety which creative persons sometimes feel is also palpable in a few poems. For example, ‘Hungry Beaks.’ Read More
Review by Patricia Prime, New Zealand in Writers, Editors & Critics Journal & Indian Ruminitions journal
The sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines (give or take a couple), usually rhymed, usually written in iambic pentameter; a song usurped by ideas.
A sonnet often presents an argument, perhaps a romantic plea in the guise of a legal brief. But it may also contain a description of a memorable scene, or a meditation, or a miniature story, or a portrait, or a list. The rhyme scheme and stanza breaks (if any) often determine the structure of the thoughts.
In English there are two principal kinds of sonnet: the Petrarchan and the Shakespearian. They are characterized by different rhyme schemes and different organizing principles. The Petrarchan sonnet has a two-part structure; the break between octave and sestet is called the volta (or turning point). In English this sonnet form is difficult because of the rhyming demands (four different a rhymes, four brhymes, and so on). The Shakespearian sonnet rhymes abab cdcd efef gg.Many contemporary poets have tried out various rhyme combinations, line length and stanza breaks in their sonnets. The poet is really free to devise any sort of arrangement that works for a particular sonnet.
In Sonnet Mondal’s collection Twenty One Lines: Fusion Sonnets of 21st Century, the poet introduces a new poetic form for the sonnet. The book presents 70 sonnets from Sonnet 1 to Sonnet 70 together with a section of previously written fourteen line sonnets. The book is beautifully published and includes paintings by Andrzej Filipowicz. Read More
Review by Dr. Shamenaz Shaikh at Sound of Poetry Review
Poetry is something which comes out from a writer’s mind, heart and sometimes even soul. This is true in the context of Sonnet Mondal, who is a rising star in the sky of Indian English Poetry. His Diorama of Three Diaries is a collection of poem based on many themes like- nature, spirituality, mysticism, problems relating to his country and world.
The very first poem, The Wait seems to reflect the agony of a person. May be Sonnet Mondal is depressed to see the present plight of his country and his state and he has tried to show the pathetic situation of the poor people but he is also hopeful that a new beginning will come. Read More
Review by Chitra Lele at I sahityaSurprisingly, even in this highly commercialized world where money dominates the landscape, poetry is still being written by committed poets such as Sonnet. In his latest book of poetry “Diorama Of Three Diaries”, the poet deals with a wide variety of themes: inner journey, love and loss, the yearning for recognition, wonders of nature, and more.
Using fresh, invigorating language, the poet has carved out each poem with resonant imagery. Right from “The Wait” to “Searching With Folded Hands”, they are all pearls of wisdom culled from the deep oceans of the poet’s honest and compassionate mind. Read More
Review by Dr. Shaleen Kumar Singh at AsiaWrites
In the last phase of 21st century, the experimental twenty one lines fusion sonnets of Sonnet Mondal are important not because they are experimental and trendsetter but because they forecast of a century that will not be entirely devoid of poetry or other creative pursuits and also fill us with a sapling hope that the Indian English poetry has few rising columns who will shine and leave eternal source of bliss to their followers. Sonnet is now a well-known and acknowledged poet around the world who has already authored two books of poetry and has been bestowed with several national and international awards and prizes. Read More
Review By Aju Mukhopadhyay in Stream Press, U.S.A. & Eri Jams Magazine, U.S.A.
With other poems, Sonnet Mondal has penned seventy 21 lines Sonnets in his latest book “21 lines Fusion Sonnets of 21st Century” published by Sparrow. The sonnets have sharpness with satire and irony of life expressed with sufficient pathos and insight into the modern society. It may be expected that such sonnets derive from the other areas of his observation and creation which are aberrations from the path of peace or which deters one to get pure peace in heart and mind. It may be guessed that such practical observations engaged him to the path of peace. Read More
Book Review by Dr. Sandra Fowler,U.S.A.
In the beginning of this book, he reveals the source of his inspiration. It does not reside in India’s glorious past.
It draws its creative strength from the harmony between temples, mosques and churches, the joining thread between several cultures and the unending scope to experiment with islands,hills,rivers and seas. Mondal may be an Indian poet to the depths o his soul, but his poetic voice is truly universal. Read More
Book Review by Juhi Chowdhury, India
Penumbra of Indian Verses by Dr Sonnet Mondal, internationally acclaimed young Indian English poet, honoured several times and the pioneer of ‘21 lines of fusion sonnet’ is such a delicious dish for the literature-hungry minds, where readers will find every ingredient in appropriate quantity and pure essence flooding with the verses surpassing all punctuations. His ink flows like never dammed water wetting every corner by bemusing emotions, powerful desires, alluring imageries, vistas of present society, spark of science in the midst.Read More
Book Review by Marc Carver
This book is one of the best poetry books that I have ever read. If you don’t buy another poetry book this year buy this one. There are flashes here of some of the lost masters of the past. Without doubt one of the best pieces of work I have read. Read More
Review by Koketso Mokgobi Marishane at Indian Book Reviews
Dr Sonnet Mondal in his latest book, 21 lines Fusion Sonnets of 21st Century, has introduced a new genre of 21 Lines Fusion Sonnets. The sonnets have strong sharpness with satire, irony to life using metaphorical puns to assert allusions which could at a larger point be mistaken for idioms but proverbs. Though nature has always been naturally right, Sonnet’s sonnets offer sufficient pathos with an in-depth insight into the modern day society that we’ve for so long cast out. Although it may be argued that Sonnet’s sonnets should carry areas of his observation, creation and participation, which are seemingly peculiars from the path of philanthropically peaceful habits, or which admonishes such practices from reaching the ultimate desire of the mind, body and soul, still, it’d be arguably rational to entertain these observations engaged him within the peace and camaraderie charges. Read More
Review by Dr. Sandra Fowler at Houston Literary Review
Sonnet Mondal's work increases in excellence. He is a young man, but true poetry is ageless. His seventy sonnets in the book "21 lines Fusion Sonnets Of 21st Century" are fresh, original, and innovative. They prove him to be a pioneer of some note, breaking new ground in the world of literature. His style is inimitable, his command of the English language superior, his poetic gift unmistakable. I can envision this new type of sonnet appearing in poetry text books and being emulated by those who have a zeal for creative adventure. The poet tells us that he was inspired by Gerard Manley Hopkins who might have had kind words to say in defense of his inventiveness. Read More
Other Reviews:
Ex President of India and Bharat Ratna Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam appreciates "A Poetic Peep Into The Post Modern World" by Sonnet Mondal mentioning "The Portrait Of The Deer" as the best poem in the book via his official letter to Sonnet Mondal.
"I appreciate your thinking of me.I wish you all the best in your endeavours."
Drew Faust,
President, Harvard.
Governor of West Bengal Shri Gopal Krishna Gandhi appreciates "A Poetic Peep Into The Post Modern World" by Sonnet Mondal via his official letter to Sonnet Mondal.
The name “Sonnet Mondal” is synonymous with poetry and can easily be included in the same sentence with the Eastern poets Omar Khayam and Kahlil Gibrean and the Western poets T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Leonard Cohen, Michael Drayton, Edmund Spenser, Elizabeth Barrett Browining, and of course the sonnet master himself, William Shakespeare.
Candice James, New West Minster Poet Laureate, Canada
“His sonnets are beautiful, inspiring, thought-provoking and innovative. In short, they are tempting and worth reading.”
Dr. Stephen Gil, (Poet Laureate-Ansted University, Canada).
“Sonnet Mondal’s poems are replete with wisdom beyond 20 something shoulders, well-written and what is more they rhyme, unlike modern day poets who write prose poetry sans semblance.”
Dr. Leo Rebello, (Nobel prize Nominee and World Peace Envoy, India.)
Fusion sonnets" by renowned young Indian poet Sonnet Mondal are a unique poetic form that is characterised by impressiveness because of the prosodic variations, euphony and rich imagery. Writing these poems, Mondal primarily focused on the aesthetic dimension of poetic expression, and it clearly shows his creative maturity.
Jovica Tasevski - Eternijan,(Editor-Stremez)
I went to one of your sites and read some of your poems. I share in your thoughts and goals. I found a healing connection in your quotes and I'd like to post one in particular on my website. I will also link you to my music website.
Nora McCarthy,
(Famous singer, lyricist, composer, poet and educator of U.S.A).
“Sonnet has a fresh imagery choice of words and phrases. His poems are charged with the traditional attitude towards life and things. Some of his poems which are patriotic in nature are reminiscent of another young poet-Derozio, who was the pathfinder of Indian English poetry. Once anyone reads Sonnet’s poems, one cannot forget them if one would and one will not forget them if one could.”
Prof. Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhppadhyaya
I am Happy to know that you would be awarded "Poet Laureate".Congratulations.
Taslima Nasrin
"Sonnet's story of experiments with the sonnet is very impressive. His poems also display a wide range of thematic variation with lot of playing around with ideas and images"'
Dr. Sachin Ketkar
"Dear Sonnet,
We are proud of you. You are the ambassador of BESU to the world of literature.
Best wishes"
Dr.Ajoy K Ray,(Vice Chancellor-Bengal Engineering and Science University.)
"I appreciate him for his passion and sustained interest in the subject while conveying my warm greetings for his achievements."
Bhaskar Sen,
CMD, United Bank of India.
Dear Kobi Mondal,
"I like your poems: Love - Its silence Silences, When I meet you, The last Journey and Yesterday Once More.You're extremely talented. I am proud that I know a poet who will rise above everything and outshine all other poets.I wish you become the second Kabi Guru of the world and make us and India proud."
With warmest wishes,
Maitreyee Sarcar [Mrs](Secretary/Director,Surdhwani, U.K.)
"The Sonnets of talented young poet Sonnet Mondal are outstanding in description and visual images.They take the art of Sonnet to a different profound level.I am impressed with the lines full of ideas, intellectual stimulation and rhythm."
Ariadne Sawyer,
(Co-Founder of World Poetry Reading Series, World Poetry International and World Poetry Cafe Radio Show, Canada.)
Dear Sir/ Mr. Sonnet Mondal,
A cursory glace at your publications has found to be highly impressive, interesting, inspiring, appealing and above all thought provoking.
We thank you profoundly for your gracious gratitude in Humanitarian service.
Dr. K Thiagarajan,
Secretary General,
United Writers' Association.
“I have gone through many of the poems of Sonnet Mondal with a meditative mind and critical approach. I have been almost amazed at some of the poems penned down by the young genius. They have a unique scintillating glow of poetic exuberance.”
Dinesh Nair M.D,
Dept of English, Sri Chaitanya College,
Vijayawada-10, South India.
"Sonnet Mondal is a poet whose poems emanate powerful image, a creative individuality who cannot limit himself to one theme of his poetic creation: he is curios, troubled by a Faustian thirst for discoveries and knowledge, and therefore switches from one theme to another, made restless by the urge to find expression for all the affinities of his gifted personality, for his diversely rich attitude towards world.
For this great explorer and discoverer of new horizons in creative expression, poetry like artistic form is the most sublime emanation of the imagination, the most pure form of its crystallization.
Through visualization of the poems, poet from labyrinth of the conscious and the unconscious a Cleary shaped objectified vision. Evoking one after another themes are undoubtedly, chosen from a deep affinity, from a profound feeling of kinship among them, Mondal produced a personal list of values, builds his own poetry world. But what attracts Mondal towards all of them is not only the creation of visions that radically transform the world, but moreover, the uncompromising struggle of poet for the for the right to self-expression, the passion incorporated in his art, the way the mingle art and life without asking for the price that must be paid for it, the stamina of his effort to gasp as much as possible from amorphous space around him and give it sense by painting it and thus placing against the threatening chaos which flattens and annihilates everything.
The limitations of our minds and sensorial equipment partly stem from the brevity of our physical lives. The rules, duties and regulations construct their dark bastions, their gallows. The mind becomes a prison with tall fences, a prison of paths trodden by others, of defeats and the past. These poet’s dream becomes an escape on the restless paths of imagination. The identity of poet becomes a wound, infected and tedious. Later, as time goes on, the ravaged body wear the sings of defeat. Memory becomes a dark place where of the race are stored, the weeping and the cries of the world.
But for the poet, nature becomes the subject of admiration. He is speechless in front of that creator that has tied everything in that particular way, by the Connection, the interrelation is what amazes he so deeply.
How is it possible that this multitude of living and non-living matter be joined in such perfect manner?
The question that arouse in he was-is it possible that this pattern, the simple principle of connection be applied outside nature. Is it possible that man, if he follows the same ways, can build same harmony in everyday communication, in community and in interpersonal relations?
Is it possible that society, which has separated men from nature, can be brought in the state of natural harmony?
Is it possible to harmonize those contradictions in the social reality and to build up interpersonal relationship upon this contradictions?
If nature can work so, why wouldn’t?
But what is it in relationship that can harmonize contradicted ties?
What can bring reconciliation?
Exactly as a result of the awareness of that contradicted connection, his poems have been written out of contradictions. They equilibrate on the tin line between the creation and destruction. The ultimate form is a dialogue between the beginning and the end. Is it possible to create something without destroying? In the nature moments of life and death are necessary condition of existing, one has die so that a new one could be born. Upon this supposedly paradox connection of contradictions, lays the whole world order.
Mondal’s poems are imbued with contradictions out of which they have been created and through which they live. The tall and short, the smooth and rough, the vertical and horizontal- those are the contradictions of the same existence. One pole cannot exist without the other, the short creates the tall, the vertical rests upon horizontal, the rough melts into the smooth, the upside contradicts the downward, one part tends to reach the sky, the other clings to the earth. The connection of contradictions composes the unity oh those poems. They are romantic and cruel at the same time, and urban and natural, and still and playful, and talkative and silent. They seem to be incompatible. But this tendency exactly makes up their dynamics; they bear the tension and dialogue which makes alive everything that surrounds us.
The Curse of Atlantis & other poems by Sonnet Mondal it’s the new jewel in world poetry treasure, for this reason I recommend this poetry collection for every person who feed his own soul with poetry nectar."
Book Review by Ljubomir Mihajlovski
Ambasador of Poetas del Mundo for Macedonia
