Who can say a person whose father was arrested for fraud and mother was a peddler , can write such great poems and short stories full of beauty and tranquility...may be his background made him suffer silently , but he took it positively and wrote great things ...
A TEAR AND A SMILE is a collection of many poems and short stories.
Many of his stories reflect on materialism and loathe it, he came from Lebanon to United States and their family lived in poverty, but possibly they were happy and content, but must have seen materialism around them which leads to unrest eventually which reflects in many of his stories.
Also in many stories, he seems to be waiting for death, but in a positive way, somehow somewhere he wanted to die , but never took it in a depressing way to get rid of life, but invites and suggests to ’death" to lay her in earth’s bosom very lovingly as if going to a sweet sleep, many people in this world are very passionate about whatever they do all their life and death seems to be another day’s sleep, actually its the spiritual streak in them which causes this thinking like other day I was listening to Ashok Chakradhar, the famed hindi poet, son-in-law of Kaka Hathrasi who himself was the greatest Hindi humour poet who said"A kavi sammelan(poets confluence)must be done when I die and nobody should shed any tears after my death".Also Harivansh Rai Bachchan, another acclaimed Hindi poet who did PHD in English from UK , but wrote in Hindi excellently, wrote about death in his famed "Madhushala" which deals with an alcoholic’s views about life says"Only who drink should be invited to my cremation and take my coffin on their shoulders and must be given a treat of alcohol after his cremation"...amazing...
Almost all of the poems of Kahlil Gibran are heavenly, I am amazed how a person can write so positively and beautifully about almost everything in life which is saddening from war to natural calamities...
How can I end my review without writing something I liked immensely in this book, as usual a short paragraph-
"He entered his palace saying, "Everything in life is good; even gold, for it teaches a lesson. Money is like a stringed instrument; he who does not know how to use it properly will hear only discordant music. Money is like love; it kills slowly and painfully the one who withholds it, and it enlivens the other who turns it upon his fellow man".
I think Kahlil Gibran was a very well read man and his writings calms and soothes anyone who reads it.
Thanks for reading my review.