| Bibliographical Information |
| Selected Poems |
| Author: Christine Evans View more titles by 'Christine Evans'
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| ISBN: 9781854113344 (1854113348) |
Publication Date April 2004
Publisher: Seren, Bridgend |
| Format: Paperback, 214 x 137 mm, 144 pages |
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A collection of sensitive and passionate poems comprising 47 diverse poems inspired by the harsh and beautiful landscape of North Wales and selected from the poet's four previous volumes.
Casgliad o gerddi teimladwy ac angerddol yn cynnwys 47 cerdd amrywiol wedi eu hysbrydoli gan dirwedd garw a hardd gogledd Cymru, ac wedi cael eu dethol o bedair cyfrol flaenorol y bardd.
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Christine Evans is one of the finest English-language poets in Wales. That is not merely my point of view but a widely held opinion among her readers.
Born in Yorkshire but with Welsh paternal roots she moved to Llŷn in the nineteen-sixties. There she worked as a teacher but now she and her husband are involved with farming and fishing at both Aberdaron and Ynys Enlli (Bardsey).
Selected Poems contains a selection of the poems which have already appeared in three collections, Looking Inland, Cemetary Phases and Island of Dark Horses. As these will very soon be out of print, this generous and attractively produced volume is very welcome.
The book also contains the long poem ‘Falling Back’ which appeared in the form of a thin volume in the nineteen- eighties. Selected Poems is worth buying for this poem alone. It tells of the numb sorrow of the widow of a shepherd following his death and her eventual move towards acceptance and a new beginning:
But she had learned her ground
Soon would step out surely though there were no stars.
It is a measure of Christine Evans's achievement that she transcends the purely regional, or even national, and touches on universal concerns. While she often writes of landscape and seascape in what is one of the most beautiful parts of Wales, her concerns are frequently with environmental and even political issues. She has a poem about Chernobyl called 'Small Rain, for instance:
. . . not one of us had realized
the world could go on glistening poisoned.
The poems from Island of Dark Horses draw on themes entirely inspired by Bardsey. She articulates with great fluency ‘what oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed', to quote Pope.
Selected Poems is among the finest collections Seren have produced within the last few years.
Dewi Roberts
It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgement should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.
Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatad Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.
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Further Information: Selected Poems
Selected Poems by Christine Evans is a panorama of work by one of Wales' most distinctive poetic voices. The volume contains poems from four collections: Looking Inland (1983), Falling Back (1986), Cometary Phases (1989) and Island of Dark Horses (1995). Foremost in Christine Evans' work is a sense of place. While she is native to Yorkshire, her lyric is born of the Llyn peninsula in north Wales where she lives. A record in verse of life on the island of Bardsey (Welsh 'Enlli'), Island of Dark Horses epitomises the sense of belonging which pervades her work. The book describes the experience of resettling the island and culminates in a monumental seven hundred line celebration of 'an island at the extremity of a green peninsula' where 'all night the lighthouse prints its sixteen squares on the whitewashed wall', and '...the welcoming cross stands high, beckons to the waiting pilgrims across two miles of enigmatic ocean'. The descriptions of daily life on the island are interspersed with historical passages which evoke Enlli's religious past: '...to the lowbrowed shelters on the hill came other men of faith and power - Tanwg, Maelrhys, Hywyn, Cadfan - and it was turned to Insula Sanctorum'. But perhaps Enlli is a place oblivious to man's preoccupations where 'the long waves sing as they run home to find smooth grey nests they have scooped in the land' and '...in a burrow no longer than a boy's arm the shearwater waits for night...' In Christine Evans' Selected Poems, language and place combine to celebrate the 'hum of bees in late-flowering heather', 'chapel bell and foghorn', and 'women carrying milk, carrying water, carrying wood and children born and unborn'.
Cyfnewidfa Lên Cymru/Wales Literature Exchange
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