Collected Poems (1990)

This volume gathers together the finest of Ruth Pitter’s poems, which in Kathleen Raine’s judgement ‘will survive as long as the English language, with whose expressiveness in image and idea she has kept faith, remains’. In the introduction Elizabeth Jennings – who was herself among the most distinguished of contemporary poets – pays tribute to Pitter’s ‘acute sensibility and deep integrity’ and refers to her precision in observing Nature, her skill with verse forms and the frequency with which she achieves a ‘beautifully communicated vision’.

The first woman to be awarded the Queen's gold medal for poetry. "A mistress of form" -- Choice. Ruth Pitter (1897-1992) was one of the best-loved poets of her generation, widely admired for the variety, elegance, and technical brilliance of her poetry, and for its generous touches of humor. Praised by Yeats and C. S. Lewis, she was also highly respected and read by a younger generation of writers, among them Thom Gunn and Elizabeth Jennings. When Ruth Pitter died in 1992, The Times wrote that she was "one of the truest and most dedicated poets of her time".