Bhaskar Chakrabarti's poetry is synonymous with the romantic melancholia inherent to Calcutta. His trenchant poetic voice was one of the most significant to emerge in the 1960s and '70s--perhaps the most prolific period of modern Bengali poetry. Spanning the rise of militant leftism, the spread of crippling poverty across India, the war in Bangladesh, the influx of millions of refugees, the dark, dictatorial days of Indira Gandhi's reign, and the disillusionment of communist rule in Bengal, Chakrabarti's poems plumb the depths of urban angst, expressing the spirit of sadness and alienation in...