Back in early June I was applying my mind as to the chunky Collected Poems from my shelves I intended to give the end-to-end treatment next. Happily there are not that many tomes left to deal with. To be honest I was a wee bit reluctant to embark on the Farrar, Strauss and Giroux paperback Collected Poems of Robert Lowell given that the poetry, well, some of it, is pretty exacting and the very fact the book is well-annotated itself might result in painfully slow progress. But I overcame my reluctance and set off around 7 June.
Since then I've managed just six poems - the first few pages of Lord Weary's Castle. But here's the thing. I've enjoyed each one immensely and am relishing the fact I feel absolutely no compulsion to speed up. Today I read the classic The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket (imagine having something as brilliant as that in your first published collection!) and for its duration got completely lost in a location I've never come close to. In fact, I'm going to read it all over again before moving on as soon as I get the chance (which won't be for quite a while, I'm afraid.)
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