Devadattas Poems complements the sequence Between the Palace and the Bodhi Tree, published in Beveridges earlier collection Wolf Notes, which followed the travels of Siddhattha Gotama before he became the Buddha, and portrayed the world from his disciplined and ascetic point of view. These new poems are written from the viewpoint of Devadatta, Siddhatthas jealous and ambitious cousin, who attempted to murder him three times. They are marked by an extraordinary richness of language and detail, and a dedication to sensation, which is in contrast to Siddhatthas purity, and caused at least in part by Devadattas desire for Yasodahra, his cousins wife.
