Collected Poems - Hardcover

Raine, Kathleen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1582431353 ISBN 13: 9781582431352

Publisher: Counterpoint, 2001

Synopsis

Since her first collection of poems published in 1943, Kathleen Raine has been writing a kind of mystical nature poetry all her own, a poetry immersed in the quiet air of solitude and imagination. Vita Sackville-West, writing in the Observer, spoke of her "curious purity": "Her poems are like drops of water, clear, self-contained, and sometimes iridescent with the elusive colors of mysticism". Collected Poems is the lifework of a visionary, a celebration of the miracles of nature and man's place among them. Now in her ninety-second year she has chosen this work from eleven published collections and from other uncollected and unpublished sources. The earliest poems were written in the mid-thirties, the latest in the late nineties.

About this title

About the Author

Kathleen Raine was the author of twelve books of poetry, four of autobiography, and much scholarly work, particularly on Blake and Yeats. She was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1992 and, in 2000, was made both a CBE and a Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Reviews

Born in 1908, this serious and energetic British poet made her name in the Forties with ambitiously mystical verse much indebted to Dylan Thomas, William Blake and to South Asian religion. Since then, she has become known as a critic of Blake and of Yeats, and as the editor of her own Temenos Press. Now 92 years old, Raine (not to be confused with the better-known Craig Raine) has continued to publish one or two substantial volumes each decade, tirelessly devoted to more or less pantheistic or ecstatic mystical doctrines. Raine's early work and her late work, too can sound like a Blake pastiche, or like literal translations from the Sanskrit: "The center of the mandala is possibility/ Of incarnation " Nevertheless, her range and her craft expanded over the years. The '60s saw her take an interest in free verse and in natural landscapes, especially those of Italy and Scotland. On a Deserted Shore (1973) comprises 130 short numbered lyrics like this one: "Since smoke rose from your pyre/ All clouds are dear; but how/ Among those vague bright forms/ Yours shall I know?" These poems and others of the '70s and '80s come close to the mysticism of Yeats. While this book's inclusivity makes for off-putting repetition and far too many moments of bathos, Raine's work remains a sustained and honorable effort, and will certainly appeal to readers who seek seriousness of purpose in using poetry as a means of spiritual enlightenment. (Feb.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Counterpoint
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1582431353
• ISBN 13: 9781582431352
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 388