Review of Shadows

[Ntchindie Mkandawire]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Shadows" by William Stephen Edwards.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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SHADOWS BY WILLIAM STEPHEN EDWARDS:A review

Shadows is a collection of poetry written by William Stephen Edwards with a range of themes, from love, to heartbreak to feelings of nostalgia to a now frail and old individual who was once jovial and strong.
Williams writing style captures a balance between emotion, imagery and shows his mastery of words, his poems are beautifully written and quite easy to read. I delved right into the book. He managed to make me feel what he was writing. I saw myself in some of the poems, for example his “damaged goods” poem, is so me. The way he writes about a butterfly's broken wings and how it was beautiful anyway.
“She got away but bore scars”, I quote from his Damaged goods poem, easily hit home for me. I love how much I could relate to most of his poetry literally and metaphorically.
His use of metaphor and symbolism adds depth to his themes in the book, love, pain, growing up, resilience and the beauty found in simple things.
Another piece from his book that enticed me was his “words are not arms”. It's as deep as the title suggests and just as beautiful. He skillfully, artfully, explores the limitations of words in expressing deep emotions and connections compared to physical touch but still appreciates that they still reach hearts. “But I know they reach you when my hands can not”, he writes. It is a very emotional piece, that makes you feel exactly how the speaker feels. Their deep yearning for touch but it's as though they can not reach out to their loved one physically, only through words. But who knows you could understand and extract different other themes from this same piece! And that's such a beautiful thing ; that the writer writes in a style that allows you to personalise the poems, personalise the adventure.

There are more pieces that are beautifully written, that will capture your heart than not. I personally loved almost every piece even though some were a bit hard to read because of the style. I did not notice any kinds of grammatical errors or anything like that. So I rate the book a 3/ 4 And a must read. If you love poetry this should be on your TBR pile!! And even if you don't have a knack for poetry, you'd still love this book, I'm sure about it.

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Shadows
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