Product Description

Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year in 1985, these poems were written after the death of Douglas Dunn's first wife in March 1981.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #129432 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

From the Publisher
We are pleased to announce the publication of eleven more titles into the new typographic look. The specifications for the books are high -beautifully produced, they all have flaps and are sewn and printed in Italy. The latest batch represents some of the core titles of the backlist (Philip Larkin's Collected Poems, Ted Hughes's New Selected Poems, James Joyce's Poems and Shorter Writings) along with key, single volumes that should be part of any poetry lover's library (and whose reissue, in the form in which they were first published, will give a whole new generation the pleasure of coming to the books as original readers).

Customer Reviews

Transport of Grief
This is a heartbreaking book. In a series of 39 short, emotionally-charged poems, Douglas Dunn tells the story of the death of his young wife, Lesley, from cancer. A dog-eared cookery book, a dress bought a French market stall, a trip to a ruined castle; these are the modest devices the poet uses to evoke what he had, and what he has so agonisingly lost.

Everywhere are scattered illuminating sketches of the living, vanished Lesley. We learn about her in small, prismatic glances; a lively, artistic person who loved to travel, who was kind to people and animals, who took pride in her cooking. The simple happiness of her marriage to Dunn, distilled here on the printed page, heightens the sense of loss almost unbearably.

These poems are about the pain and the 'wrongness' of untimely death. Inevitably the tender memories are sometimes tinged with anger. But out of despair something beautiful has been created. It reminds us what good things life and love are, and why we should celebrate them while we can.