My Goodreads review: Finding My Elegy

[ankh_hpl]

Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems by Ursula K. Le Guin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As the title suggests, this is an extremely mixed assortment of Le Guin poems -- all well-crafted, many formal or approaching formal, but few actual speculative poems. Readers expecting SF / fantasy poetry are likely to be disappointed, as most are nature-based or philosophical (or both!).

The collection is divided into two sections: Wild Fortune and Life Sciences. The former includes selected poems from several of Le Guin's previous collections (1960-2005). The latter presents new poems from 2006-2010. Many of these newer works deal with memory, time, and/or the experience of aging. The title poem is one of these, and (to my mind) exceptional, as is the collection's final poem, "The Conference."

I took some time getting through this book, renewing it twice from my library. It was well worth my effort, though the didactic tone of several poems in the earlier section gave me trouble. I also had to be in the mood for Le Guin's personal take on the world in order to experience the subtle pleasures of her poetry. Readers who appreciate understated formalism, the outdoors, or a spare, haiku-like vision are most likely to enjoy what's on offer here.



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