The Natural World

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This contains many nature poems and some love poems, and also poems about other things. And a mystery poem.

The mystery, The Restoration of Frost, is slightly unsatisfying as a mystery, but is a nice poem. It has several really good lines, and some pretty funny ones. “Time never brought wisdom, only made me old.” is one that stands out.

The nature and love poems both vary in quality- the best of them I would give 4.25 stars, and the worst 2 stars- but those are rare.

Some of these poems made me shed a tear, and some impressed me with technical skill.

An Autumn Dell gives a beautiful picture of nature, and has a lovely line- calling frogs ‘as mournful as remembrance'. Coming Home and New Spring are both love poems which evoked great emotion in me- such a beautiful thing to say that past memories ‘will hold a wistful mind at ransom'. Old Charts is a wistful, hopeful, lovely thing. And there are many more almost as good.

But there are some weaknesses too. Some few poems just seem to say nothing, but more are kneecapped by weak endings. The Ancient River has a last line that comes out of left field, almost spoiling the poem. Music in Winter gets weaker and weaker as it goes. Many others also suffer from weaker endings.

There are some words which appear in multiple poems, which is a bit of a jarring experience if you're not used to them beforehand. Scudding, quotidian, and gloaming come to mind.

On the whole I think this is a pretty good and skilfully written book.

3.5 stars.