the time to which he belonged, in verse. This is the ultimate criterion, and not whether a given piece of poetry conforms to this form or that, treats this subject matter or that, or adopts this set of values or that. I also agree with G. K. Chesterton that,

All that is nobly beautiful or true,

Is very simple, simple as a song.

Like silver lettering on a sky blue,

The disordered complex thing is often wrong.

May it be said to the credit of Mohan Singh that he has considerably succeeded in being modern without being "disordered and complex" in his present poems.

4

In his previous poems Mohan Singh has been mainly occupied with self-expression, but the present poems are maturer and more in keeping with the tempos of the times, in so far as they are increasingly more pre-occupied with the social consciousness, and although the result may sometimes appear to lack in poetic grace, it has decidedly gained in vitality. His poems, Nikka Rab, Sat Sang, Ishq ne kitna kamina kar ditta, are good illustrations of Mohan Singh's modernity and reflexive depth and class conscious poetry. L, for one, however, still believe that Mohan Singh is at his best when he is gathering wild flowers from the undulating plains of Pothohar to grace the snake- black tresses of the tall brown maidens in whose veins still pulsates the blood of their artistic ancestors of the Gandhara Valley, the flowers