The Telling

by Laura (Riding) Jackson, Laura Riding

Laura (Riding) Jackson, renounced poetry in mid-life because it hampered the way to something 'further' in language. Divided into 62 numbered sections, this book stands central to her work. It articulates that language needs to be precise and unambiguous, and that human fulfilment should be attainable through truth-speaking.

Genres: Poetry

185 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Laura (Riding) Jackson was an American poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer.

1923-1926 as Laura Riding Gottschalk
1927-1939 as Laura Riding
1963-1991 as Laura (Riding) Jackson

She also published under the pseudonym Madeleine Vara.

Reviews

[Lee Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura Riding Jackson will never be easy. And I would not wish her to be.

The Telling is a treatise to be read yearly or better yet over and over--one numbered paragraph at a time--like a daily. The words allowed to sink into Self where they can be understood--where truth sees truth.

It is a shame of no small proportion that in this day and age when truth is under constant attack that a work such as this is out of print.

Find yourself a used copy; mine is from a library in Wales (do I mourn that that library no longer carries it, yes). And don't be surprised to find you get chills, laugh, nod knowingly while reading her words. But the real lesson, the real work, is to write, say, discover ones own telling.

[Jonathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I will try it again sometime. But after the first two readings, it comes across as a trite (not irrelevant) point that got overdressed in an age of bad philosophical jargon.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is crazy. She writes about the Subject, the one Subject that all of poetry is really trying to get at.

Pointing at the moon.