TS Eliot wrote in his essay The Three Provincialities (1922): 'True literature has something which can be appreciated by intelligent foreigners who have a reading knowledge of the language, and also something which can only be understood by the particular people living in the same place as the author.' Eliot goes on to mention how writers should be able to disturb the provincialism of not only a particular time but also a particular place. Vikram Seth's poetry sets out to follow Eliot somewhat on this path. The new editions that have been brought out by Speaking Tiger are a collector's delight as they bring together nearly all of his books of poetry right from his first collection of poetry titled Mappings.