One point on which there can be no disagreement is that both poets are masters of the lyric. Superficially though, their lives are mirrors of each other. I can’t say I agree completely, I find a chasm between that portion of Shiv’s work that I am conversant with and what I know of Keats. Shiv is often compared to Keats, and in his biography of Shiv O. His life was contextually parallel to his work in that he threw himself into the poetic discourse of his time (though the tone he adopted was very different from the one we find in his work). Some of his best work is about his poems themselves. Shiv’s poems are more “personal” than most other Indian work I’ve come across (perhaps reflexive is a better term). Shiv is original not simply for his metaphors (which are mind-blowing), but the twist he gives to the treatment of the poet in his work. I am a little more conversant with the Urdu and Hindi canon and I can port some of the themes over to Shiv’s work, but by no means all. I cannot pretend to provide criticism of any value since my exposure to Punjabi literature is very limited (I’m in the process of correcting that mistake).
I believe a volume containing his complete works was recently published. I’m still looking for as much information as I can fnd, especially current publishing information so people can order his books if they wish to. I searched for more information on him, asked my family and put together this page.
After listening to the disc a couple of times it hit me that this writing had a texture that drew me to it. It took me a while to grasp why three fourths of the songs in a disc titled “Jagjit and Chitra’s Greatest Punjabi Hits” were written by one author whom I’d never heard of. My introduction to Shiv was through the disc of his songs sung by Jagjit and Chitra Singh. In his short life he wrote poetry (and some prose) that could move a rock. Shiv Kumar is perhaps the most poignant Punjabi poet of this century.
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