A landscape of illusory peace is depicted just before the guns of battle reach it in the first world war
A landscape of illusory peace is depicted just before the guns of battle reach it in the first world war
Leaves
A frail and tenuous mist on baffled and intricate branches;
Little gilt leaves are still, for quietness holds every bough;
Pools in the muddy road slumber, reflecting indifferent stars;
A single missing word in the 1902 poem sparks a deeper look at rhythm, dialect and longing
Writing towards the end of the first world war, the poet, novelist, journalist and suffragist Benson here dreams of a secure peace
The moon becomes the witty image of an isolated and contemptuously neglected elderly relation
From an almost whimsical beginning, these verses on wishing to overcome mortality grow lyrical and deeply moving
Two sonnets absorb with calm clarity a boy’s anguish at his mother’s loss
A journey through a visionary landscape, exceptionally bright in icy weather, conjures a surreal semi-mythical world
