Kahlil Gibran: The Nature of Love

Book excerpt: This illuminating study examines the renowned Lebanese author’s poetic depictions of love in its various forms and phases. Kahlil Gibran sees love as a burning fire, creating and destroying. Though it is at the center of life, it is for many a wellspring of strife and unsolved problems. Indeed, it seems that the more we write about it, the more mysterious it becomes. Yet there are those rare authors who can shine the light of truth on the subject—authors like Gibran. In this volume, Gibran scholar Andrew Dib Sherfan explores the various aspects of love according to the famous Lebanese poet and philosopher. Gibran’s writing is full of mystic symbolism and metaphors, many of which reveal profound insights into the nature of love between man and woman, parent and child, God and human, and individual and society.