From A Tour of London PUBLISHER: Carcanet Poetry
WHAT I THOUGHT EDITION: Kobo
RELEASE DATE: 1 October 2015
PAGES: 160
SOURCE: Digital Library
In her foreword to All the Poems (2003) Muriel Spark wrote, 'Although most of my life has been devoted to fiction, I have always thought of myself as a poet. I do not write "poetic" prose, but feel that my outlook on life and my perceptions of events are those of a poet.' Including previously uncollected work, this new edition demonstrates her ear for the rightness of a line and her eye for the telling detail, her command of poetic forms and her ability to rise to the different challenges of freer verse. Spark's poems are witty, idiosyncratic and haunting, transforming the familiar into glittering moments of strangeness, revealing the dark - and light - music beneath the mundane.
1: DAYBREAK COMPOSTION
Anyone in this top floor flat
This morning, might look out upon
An oblong canvas of Kensington
Almost ready for looking at....
I'm not a huge fan of Muriel Spark. I absolutely adore The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie but wasn't impressed by another couple of her novels. I wasn't aware she was a poet as well so decided to give this a whirl. I enjoyed some of the poems in this collection very much. Spark knows how to write poetry. I liked the imagery used and the language. I enjoyed the mixture of light and dark subject matter. Some of the poems including the excellent The Dark Music of the Rue de Cherche-Midi and Going up to Sotheby's could be read again and again and never lose any impact. I enjoyed many other poems including What? The Creative Writing Class, That Bad Cold, The Grave that Time Dug, My Kingdom for a Horse and Hats. Overall, this was a very good collection of poetry. I may give Spark's novels another chance.