An established classic, A.K. Ramanujan's Collected Poems represents the Complex Distillation of a lifetime of unusually rich sensitivity, intellectual rigour, and feeling. Best known for his pioneering translations of Ancient Tamil Poetry into English, Ramanujan made it apparent to modern poets and scholars that there was a Wealth of poetry yet to be discovered in several Indic traditions. Contents: Preface/Krittika Ramanujan Introduction/Vinay Dharwadker Book I : THE STRIDERS (1966) : 1. The Striders 2. Snakes 3. The Opposable Thumb 4. Breaded Fish 5. On a Delhi Sundial 6. A Leaky Tap after a Sister's Wedding 7. Two Styles in Love 8. Still Life 9. This Pair 10. On the Very Possible Jaundice of an Unborn Daughter 11. Still Another for Mother Lines to a Granny 12. A Rather Foolish Sentiment 13. Looking for a Cousin on a Swing 14. I Could Have Rested 15. On Memory 16. Instead of a Farewell 17. Self-Portrait 18. The Rickshaw-Wallah 19. Which Reminds Me 20. Sometimes 21. Chess Under Trees 22. No Man Is an Island 23. Anxiety 24. KMnO4 in Grandfather's Shaving Glass 25. Christmas 26. Conventions of Despair 27. A Certain Democrat 28. Towards Simplicity 29. A River 30. A Hindu to His Body 31. Excerpts from a Father's Wisdom 32. Epitaph on a Street Dog 33. Images 34. Still Another View of Grace 35. An Image for Politics 36. Case History 37. One Reads 38. Lac into Seal 39. The Fall 40. A Poem on Particulars Book II : Relations (1971) : 1. It does not Follow, but When in the Street 2. Man and Woman in Camera and Out 3. A Wobbly Top 4. Of Mothers, among other things 5. The Hindoo : he doesn't hurt a fly or a spider either 6. Time and Time Again 7. Love Poem for a Wife, 1 8. Routine Day Sonnet 9. Army Ants 10. One, Two, Maybe Three, Arguments against Suicide 11. One More After Reading Homer 12. Some Indian Uses of History on a Rainy Day 13. A Lapse of Memory 14. Eyes, Ears, Noses, and a Thing about Touch 15. The Hindoo : he reads his Gita and is calm at all events 16. Poona Train Window 17. Time to Stop 18. Love Poem for a Wife, 2 19. Entries for a Catalogue of Fears 20. The Hindoo : the only risk 21. Real Estate 22. Any Cow's Horn Can Do It 23. When It Happens, 24. Small-Scale Reflections on a Great House 25. Smalltown, South India 26. Some Relations 27. Take Care 28. The Last of the Princes 29. Old Indian Belief 30. History, 31. Compensations 32. Obituary 33. Prayers to Lord Murugan Book III : SECOND SIGHT (1986) : 1. Elements of Composition 2. Ecology 3. No Amnesiac King 4. In the Zoo 5. Questions 6. Fear 7. Astronomer 8. Death and the Good Citizen 9. The Watchers 10. Snakes and Ladders 11. Pleasure 12. A Poor Man's Riches 1 13. On the Death of a Poem 14. A Poor Man's Riches 2 15. A Minor Sacrifice 16. Alien 17. Saturdays 18. Zoo Gardens Revisited 19. Son to Father to Son 20. Drafts 21. At Forty, 22. He too was a Light Sleeper Once 23. Highway Stripper 24. Middle Age 25. Extended Family 26. The Difference 27. Dancers in a Hospital 28. Moulting 29. Some People 30. Connect! 31. Looking and Finding 32. Love Poem for a Wife and Her Trees 33. Looking for the Centre 34. Chicago Zen 35. Waterfalls in a Bank 36. Second Sight Book IV : THE BLACK HEN (1995) : 1. The Black Hen 2. Foundlings in the Yukon 3. Dream in an Old Language 4. Shadows 5. At Zero, 6. Salamanders 7. Traces 8. Fire 9. Birthdays 10. Fog 11. One More on a Deathless Theme 12. August 13. Three Dreams 14. It 15. Not Knowing 16. On Not Learning from Animals 17. Blind Spots 18. Love 1 : what she said 19. Sonnet 20. Mythologies 1 21. Love 2 : what he said, groping 22. Turning Around 23. Love 3 : what he said, remembering 24. Mythologies 2 25. Love 4: what he said, to his daughter 26. Mythologies 3 27. Love 5 28. Contraries 29. Engagement 30. The Day Went Dark 31. Love 6: winter 32. That Tree 33. Pain: trying to find a metaphor 34. Fizzle 35. A Devotee's Complaint 36. In March 37. A Meditation 38. Difficulty 39. Poetry and Our City 40. No Fifth Man 41. Bulls 42. Bosnia 43. A Report 44. As Eichmann Said, My Brother Said 45. The Guru 46. A Ruler 47. Poverty 48. Butcher's Tao 49. A Copper Vat 50. Museum 51. Images 52. If Eyes Can See 53. Elegy 54. Lines 55. To a Friend Far Away 56. Some Monarchs and a Wish 57. From Where? 58. Death in Search of a Comfortable Metaphor 59. Pain 60. Fear No Fall A Note on the Black Hen and After/Molly Daniels-Ramanujan