Sandhya, or Songs of Twilight (1917) is a poetry collection by Dhan Gopal Mukerji. Published while Mukerji was a young student in California, Sandhya, or Songs of Twilight is the second collection of poems from the first Indian writer to gain a popular audience in the United States. Lyrical and romantic, Mukerji's poems capture his commitment to beauty while maintaining his sense of isolation and exile as a young man living far from home. In "Symbolism," the collection's opening poem, Mukerji is a poet in search of a song: "Tongueless the bell! / Lute without a song! / It is not night / It is God's dawn, / Silence its unending song." Desperate for the beauty and truth of the world outside "pain's window," he finds "Faith's candle lit," lighting "Eternity's scroll" for the soul to read at last. Lyrically gifted and profoundly mysterious, Mukerji presents his creative process as a struggle with human emotions. Later, he grounds his feeling in the country he left behind: "O, frail, faint call which I seek to echo! / O, breath of love laden with the aroma of my soul! / Why seek I ever without, O guest at my door?" In "After a Bengali Song," he provides a powerful image of isolation and longing from a heart that remains "without" for as long as his exile continues. Although he never returned to his native country, Mukerji left an inspiring legacy through his literary achievement and unwavering commitment to Indian independence.
Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.
With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.
"Tongueless the bell! / Lute without a song! / It is not night / It is God's dawn, / Silence its unending song." In "Symbolism," Mukerji opens with an image of the poet, who longs for a light to illuminate "the soul / Reading Eternity's scroll." Sandhya, or Songs of Twilight is a poetry collection by Dhan Gopal Mukerji.
