Book Review of Narcissistic Romanticism by Piyush Rohankar

“The days do see my sorrow multiply,

At times the sun does shine on my joy,

But for far too little I am staking so much,

The best of what I had has been lost to time,”

- An Exercise in Repetition 

Narcissistic Romanticism by Piyush Rohankar is a collection of 91 poems that explore the theme of love and life. We go through a range of poems about finding love, cherishing love, losing love, pining for love, philosophical poems about life. 

Poetry often has a lot of metaphors and hidden meaning and the more you read a poem, the more layers you unravel. That’s what happened with me while reading Narcissistic Romanticism. Some poems instantly became clear in what they were trying to convey while others had to be perused more than once and each perusal revealed a hidden aspect. 

Poetry usually remains at the periphery of my reading and I was not sure whether this book would prove to be a good read or not but to my delight, I found myself enjoying the poems quite a lot. The intensity of emotions in some of the poems gave me goosebumps. 

There were some poems that had a cynical tone but even so, I found them relatable because of how they captured the essence of what life is. One should keep a positive approach towards life but there are definitely days when one feels as melancholic as some of the poems in the book depict so effectively.

“From one pain to another,

I walked down a path,

I thought I knew so well and how?

Another lover leaving without a goodbye….

The faces they keep changing,

But the pain remains the same,

And now the years and years they follow,

They take shelter in my sorrow,”

- Polygamous Monogamy

Quite a few poems became my favourites because of their relatabilty. I feel that among this collection, we can find poems for everybody.  

Narcissistic Romanticism is the a wonderful combination of cynicism about life and passion towards love.

My Rating - 4 stars

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