A generous and warm ecofeminist vision of the labours of motherhood
A generous and warm ecofeminist vision of the labours of motherhood
The Song of Arachnid
Webs are small and spacious as simplicity,
See-through as a summer’s day, old-fashioned as
A slip of butter-muslin, girlhood’s own, or
A journey through a visionary landscape, exceptionally bright in icy weather, conjures a surreal semi-mythical world
It was within the orange tree in our front yard that the first spider appeared, sparking my poet’s imagination.
Two sonnets absorb with calm clarity a boy’s anguish at his mother’s loss
A collective dash for shelter in the city takes on a spiritual, near-religious power
Words of stern moral advice to a besotted young man are delivered with a brisk and even sunny touch
Writing towards the end of the first world war, the poet, novelist, journalist and suffragist Benson here dreams of a secure peace
