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Unsent: New & Selected Poems 1980-2012
Adventurous, searching, interested in the luminous instant of reality that dwells in the perpetual now of the poem, this selection - drawn from ten collections published over three decades plus new work - shows both Penelope Shuttle's consistency of voice and her energized openness to language and to life. The new poems of Unsent are communications to and with her husband Peter Redgrove, remembering their shared past with love, wit, paradox, exasperation, and a lightness of heart towards aging and sorrow.
- GenresPoetry
270 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2012
21 people want to read
About the author
Penelope Shuttle
67 books11 followersPenelope Shuttle (b. 1947) has made her home in Cornwall since 1970 and the county's mercurial weather and rich history are continuing sources of inspiration. So too is the personal and artistic union Shuttle shared with her husband, the poet Peter Redgrove, until his untimely death in 2003. The fruitful nature of their relationship is celebrated in her poetry and in the work they accomplished together, most notably in the ground-breaking feminist studies on menstruation, The Wise Wound, and its sequel, Alchemy for Women. Recognition came quickly for Shuttle with an Eric Gregory Award in 1974 that acknowledged her poetry's visionary power. This quality is something she shares with the poets she read in translation, voices such as Rilke, Ahkmatova, and Lorca, whose early influence was far more profound than the pervading realism of the English poets of the period. Shuttle has also written five acclaimed novels as well as seven poetry collections, her Selected Poems (OUP, 1998) being a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
Shuttle's poems are full of elemental imagery: water, earth and, in particular, lightening, as in her description of her marriage in 'The Weather House' with its "trembling galvanic rooms". Whilst her subject matter can be everyday - motherhood, depression, bereavement - she refuses to be bound by anecdote, drawing instead on myth and dream to transform reality: in her work "the ordinary seen as heavenly" ('Thief') becomes the norm. In keeping with her role as witness, Shuttle's language sometimes has a ceremonial quality about it, a setting aside of words from their everyday currency which is like the difference between a coin used to buy bread and a coin thrown into a well as an offering "Splashing down//for reverence, not luck" ('The Well at Mylor'). However, when dealing with the intimacies of family life, such as the shift of a daughter into womanhood ('Outgrown') or the process of grief, as in the moving sequence for her husband, 'Missing You', Shuttle can be painfully direct.
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/pen...
Shuttle's poems are full of elemental imagery: water, earth and, in particular, lightening, as in her description of her marriage in 'The Weather House' with its "trembling galvanic rooms". Whilst her subject matter can be everyday - motherhood, depression, bereavement - she refuses to be bound by anecdote, drawing instead on myth and dream to transform reality: in her work "the ordinary seen as heavenly" ('Thief') becomes the norm. In keeping with her role as witness, Shuttle's language sometimes has a ceremonial quality about it, a setting aside of words from their everyday currency which is like the difference between a coin used to buy bread and a coin thrown into a well as an offering "Splashing down//for reverence, not luck" ('The Well at Mylor'). However, when dealing with the intimacies of family life, such as the shift of a daughter into womanhood ('Outgrown') or the process of grief, as in the moving sequence for her husband, 'Missing You', Shuttle can be painfully direct.
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/pen...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 14, 2013
Lyrical reading, sharp and surprising images and connecting the mythic with the present, Shuttle's poetry is masterful and a great pleasure for the lovers of poetry.
February 25, 2019
„What is it with poets and their hearts?
They leave them in the oddest places.” (Quotation from “Hearts”, page 241)
Content:
This is a new collection of poems from nine of her published books, published between 1981 and 2010 and a new collection, “Unsent” from 2012.
Themes and language:
The poet has written poems about everything, everyday situations and feelings; nothing seems too simple, flowers, rain and roses, art, nature, Cornwall’s impressive landscape, dreams and magic, children, especially about herself as a mother and her daughter Zoe. We find poems about love and poems written about her love for her husband Peter Redgrove who had died in 2003 and how she still is missing him.
Penelope Shuttle has words for everything and embraced by her feelings between the words, her language paints beautiful pictures full of wisdom, wit, happiness and sadness.
The first poem by Penelope Shuttle, I had read, was “Outgrown” written for her daughter Zoe and it is still one of my favorite ones
“….. because just as I work out how to be a mother
she stops being a child.” (Page 107)
Just a few words to describe everything about motherhood.
Conclusion:
Unsent is a collection of poems, not of classical rhymes, but of a beautiful poetic language,
with its own intonation and rhythm, sensitive, stunning and deeply impressing. They are experiences of life, to share with our own experiences.
“Was genau ist los mit Dichtern und ihren Herzen?
sie lassen sie an den merkwürdigsten Plätzen zurück“
(eigene Übersetzung des englischen Originals, Seite 241)
Inhalt:
Diese neue Gedichtsammlung umfasst eine Auswahl aus den neun von der Lyrikerin in den Jahren 1981 bis 2010 veröffentlichten Gedichtbänden und wird durch eine neue Sammlung von Gedichten „Unsent“ aus dem Jahr 2012 ergänzt.
Themen und Sprache:
Diese Lyrikerin fasst alles in Gedichte, Alltagssituationen und Gefühle, nichts ist ihr zu einfach, Blumen, Regen und Rosen, Kunst, Natur, die beeindruckende Landschaft Cornwalls, Träume und Magie, Kinder und hier besonders ihre Rolle als Mutter und ihre Tochter Zoe. Wir finden Gedichte über die Liebe und über ihre Liebe zu ihrem Mann Peter Redgrove, der 2003 verstorben ist und den sie immer noch vermisst.
Penelope Shuttle findet für alles Worte. Eingebettet in ihre Gefühle malt ihre Sprache einprägsame Bilder voll Weisheit, Humor, Glück und Traurigkeit.
Das erste Gedicht von dieser Lyrikerin, das ich gelesen hatte, war „Outgrown“, geschrieben für ihre Tochter Zoe und es ist noch immer eines meiner Lieblingsgedichte:
„ … gerade als ich endlich gelernt habe, Mutter zu sein,
hört sie auf, Kind zu sein“ (eigene Übersetzung, Seite 107)
So wenige Worte und doch sagen sie alles über das Muttersein aus.
Fazit:
Unsent ist eine Sammlung von Gedichten, die nichts mit klassischen Reimen und Versformen zu tun haben. Sie sind in einer wunderbar poetischen Sprache geschrieben, in ihrer eigenen Sprachmelodie, sensibel, atemberaubend und tief beeindruckend. Es sind Lebenserfahrungen, die mit unseren eigenen Erfahrungen geteilt werden.
Die Gedichte dieser englische Lyrikerin sind nie in die deutsche Sprache übersetzt worden, ich denke, sie würden dann auch Teile dieser besonderen Kraft und Magie verlieren. Es lohnt sich jedoch, das englische Original zu lesen, denn diese Lyrik nimmt uns Leser mit auf eine sehr emotionale Reise.
They leave them in the oddest places.” (Quotation from “Hearts”, page 241)
Content:
This is a new collection of poems from nine of her published books, published between 1981 and 2010 and a new collection, “Unsent” from 2012.
Themes and language:
The poet has written poems about everything, everyday situations and feelings; nothing seems too simple, flowers, rain and roses, art, nature, Cornwall’s impressive landscape, dreams and magic, children, especially about herself as a mother and her daughter Zoe. We find poems about love and poems written about her love for her husband Peter Redgrove who had died in 2003 and how she still is missing him.
Penelope Shuttle has words for everything and embraced by her feelings between the words, her language paints beautiful pictures full of wisdom, wit, happiness and sadness.
The first poem by Penelope Shuttle, I had read, was “Outgrown” written for her daughter Zoe and it is still one of my favorite ones
“….. because just as I work out how to be a mother
she stops being a child.” (Page 107)
Just a few words to describe everything about motherhood.
Conclusion:
Unsent is a collection of poems, not of classical rhymes, but of a beautiful poetic language,
with its own intonation and rhythm, sensitive, stunning and deeply impressing. They are experiences of life, to share with our own experiences.
“Was genau ist los mit Dichtern und ihren Herzen?
sie lassen sie an den merkwürdigsten Plätzen zurück“
(eigene Übersetzung des englischen Originals, Seite 241)
Inhalt:
Diese neue Gedichtsammlung umfasst eine Auswahl aus den neun von der Lyrikerin in den Jahren 1981 bis 2010 veröffentlichten Gedichtbänden und wird durch eine neue Sammlung von Gedichten „Unsent“ aus dem Jahr 2012 ergänzt.
Themen und Sprache:
Diese Lyrikerin fasst alles in Gedichte, Alltagssituationen und Gefühle, nichts ist ihr zu einfach, Blumen, Regen und Rosen, Kunst, Natur, die beeindruckende Landschaft Cornwalls, Träume und Magie, Kinder und hier besonders ihre Rolle als Mutter und ihre Tochter Zoe. Wir finden Gedichte über die Liebe und über ihre Liebe zu ihrem Mann Peter Redgrove, der 2003 verstorben ist und den sie immer noch vermisst.
Penelope Shuttle findet für alles Worte. Eingebettet in ihre Gefühle malt ihre Sprache einprägsame Bilder voll Weisheit, Humor, Glück und Traurigkeit.
Das erste Gedicht von dieser Lyrikerin, das ich gelesen hatte, war „Outgrown“, geschrieben für ihre Tochter Zoe und es ist noch immer eines meiner Lieblingsgedichte:
„ … gerade als ich endlich gelernt habe, Mutter zu sein,
hört sie auf, Kind zu sein“ (eigene Übersetzung, Seite 107)
So wenige Worte und doch sagen sie alles über das Muttersein aus.
Fazit:
Unsent ist eine Sammlung von Gedichten, die nichts mit klassischen Reimen und Versformen zu tun haben. Sie sind in einer wunderbar poetischen Sprache geschrieben, in ihrer eigenen Sprachmelodie, sensibel, atemberaubend und tief beeindruckend. Es sind Lebenserfahrungen, die mit unseren eigenen Erfahrungen geteilt werden.
Die Gedichte dieser englische Lyrikerin sind nie in die deutsche Sprache übersetzt worden, ich denke, sie würden dann auch Teile dieser besonderen Kraft und Magie verlieren. Es lohnt sich jedoch, das englische Original zu lesen, denn diese Lyrik nimmt uns Leser mit auf eine sehr emotionale Reise.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews