This book is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Singapore's cultural tapestry. Through the lens of Edwin Thumboo's poetry, readers are taken on a journey that unravels the complexities of a multiracial nation grappling with its history, growth, and sense of self. Thumboo's fierce intellect and diverse influences shine through in his verses, making this collection a captivating exploration of identity, love, and purpose. Prepare to be enchanted by Thumboo's ability to seamlessly blend personal emotions with larger societal narratives, leaving readers with a profound appreciation for the power of poetry to shed light on the human experience. It's a book that will leave you questioning and reflecting long after you've turned the last page.

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‘Edwin Thumboo is a literary icon of Singapore. I regard him as our unofficial Poet Laureate’ - Professor Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore A riveting look at the fiercely original, intellectually brilliant mind of Singapore’s unofficial Poet-Laureate, Edwin Thumboo whose poetry is key to understanding the emotional hinterland of the city-state. Born of Tamil and Teochew parents, Edwin Thumboo embraced the Protestant faith late in his life. He has a self-confessed fetish for Yeats and Pound and yet completed his doctoral thesis on post-colonial African poetry. He taught himself the Ramayana and I-Ching but found traces of the Odysseus in the shadows of the Merlion. He is brusquely vocal about poetry with a purpose and yet appears a hopeless romantic in his poems about his wife. What happens when a mind which is such a melting pot of brilliant ideas and contrary emotions tries to unscramble the identity of a country like Singapore which is complex, multiracial, has known a fierce economic growth that has often elbowed aside everything else? The Votive Pen sets out to see Edwin Thumboo’s poetry—steadily and see it whole—without the intervening static of earlier critical writing and with an intense alertness to the text.

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