Nocturnal Hours By Ruqayya Shaheed Khan- Book Review
Nocturnal Hours a poetry book by Ruqayya Shaheed Khan stands out because of the beautiful illustrations, the imagery used, and absolutely stunning cover. This book is majorly divided into three parts: troubled waters, broken compass, and the North Pole.
The first part of troubled waters draws a slim boundary between healing and pain. The basic theme of the poem deals with Humanities intentions and mistakes and there is a touch of emotion in every poem.
The book opens with a beautiful poem named home. The author heavily draws inspiration from the lines of the palm, and this reflects in more than one poem. Out of the section of the first part, I love the poem mirror the most as the central theme of this poem is a girl searching for beauty in cosmetics and not in herself.
In the second part of the book, the broken compass draws inspiration from nature. The book works in a variety of forms like haiku to protest poems. There is a powerful sense of justice towards women in some parts of the book, which I absolutely loved reading. The language used in this book is quite simple and can be enjoyed by a light reader. This part of the book has rhyme schemes. Out of this part, blasphemy is my favorite which follows the scheme of AABB. This book is captivating and is not very intellectually challenging so it can be picked by everyone. Apart from that a few themes that are repetitive I loved reading this book and completed in one sitting.
In the third part of the book, the north pole is my favorite. This mainly deals with finding yourself. Opens with the wild spirit, I love how the author has used imagery to compare stars with human beings.
This could actually be a very light read and a coffee table book which could be enjoyed on a rainy day.
The poems in this book move with ease as they can be related to the point of global grief.
The poems vary in style and form (some are four lines poetry) but the nature of the poems expressing emotions is consistent. I definitely recommend this book if you are a light reader or first-time reader and want to explore poetry.
