Description
Alas the day is my first book of poetry and is available to buy as a digital download now. The book contains the poems Alas the day and London town.
The book is in PDF format and will need a PDF program to read it.
**Literary Critique: “Alas the Day” by Ben Robinson**
“Alas the Day” is a collection steeped in moral inquiry, global consciousness, and deep humanistic reflection. Ben Robinson crafts his poems with impassioned sincerity, exploring the interstices of personal emotion and collective experience. The work opens with a notable dedication to Queen Elizabeth II and the Armed Forces, immediately framing the book as an offering of gratitude and memory—a theme that permeates many of its verses.
**Themes and Motifs**
At its core, “Alas the Day” is a lament for the erosion of compassion in a world plagued by violence, discrimination, and environmental catastrophe. Poems such as “Peace and Love” and the titular “Alas the Day” blend sweeping social commentary with intimate grief. Robinson draws attention to a broad spectrum of injustices: war, terrorism, racism, animal cruelty, environmental degradation. These are not just evoked as topics, but viscerally engaged with, and often infused with a longing for healing and moral redemption.
**Style and Structure**
Robinson’s poems are mostly free verse, marked by a deliberate informality that privileges clarity and earnestness over abstraction. This accessibility works to the book’s advantage, especially given its weighty subject matter. The cadence is often conversational, almost reminiscent of spoken word, with emotional immediacy as a primary driver. Repetition is a frequent tool—used not only for emphasis but as a rhythmic undercurrent that propels many of the longer pieces.
**Tone and Voice**
The tone oscillates between elegiac and exhortatory. Robinson writes as both mourner and prophet: lamenting past and present ills while urging readers toward introspection and transformation. There is moral fervor in the voice—often drawing upon religious or ethical appeals, yet never sounding preachy. Rather, it comes across as a deeply personal reckoning with the state of humanity.
**Imagery and Poetic Devices**
Many poems favor a documentary realism—listing events or atrocities in an almost journalistic manner—such as in “Peace and Love,” which catalogs global traumas with devastating precision. Yet Robinson also makes room for lyricism and metaphor, especially in nature-based poems like “Aurora Borealis” or “Carry Me Over the River,” which juxtapose beauty with existential weight.
**Standout Poems**
– **“Alas the Day”**: An effective overture to the collection’s ethos—human suffering met with a plea for compassion.
– **“Peace and Love”**: A panoramic rendering of contemporary global crises, held together by a refrain of hope.
– **“Did the Mountain”**: A philosophical inquiry masked as a dialogue with nature; subtle and probing.
– **“Forever in Our Hearts” and “Unique”**: Touching meditations on remembrance and individuality.
**Conclusion**
“Alas the Day” is an urgent and heartfelt work that confronts global despair with a persistent moral clarity. Ben Robinson writes with conviction and empathy, bearing witness to suffering while never losing sight of the possibility for love, peace, and renewal. Though at times diffuse, the collection remains a powerful document of conscience and compassion.
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