Swithering
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- The Strange Land Murder.
- Etymologies.
- Evaluation of Continuing Education in the Health Professions (Evaluation in Education and Human Services)!
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- The Donas Remember.
- Swithering;
- swither - Wiktionary.
Swithering by Robin Robertson. To "swither" means to suffer indecision or doubt, but there is no faltering in these poems; any uncertainty is not in the lines or the sounds or the images, but only in the themes of flux and change and transformation that thread their way through this powerful third collection. Robin Robertson has written a book of remarkable cohesion and range that calls on his knowledge To "swither" means to suffer indecision or doubt, but there is no faltering in these poems; any uncertainty is not in the lines or the sounds or the images, but only in the themes of flux and change and transformation that thread their way through this powerful third collection.
Robin Robertson has written a book of remarkable cohesion and range that calls on his knowledge of folklore and myth to fuse the old ways with the new. From raw, exposed poems about the end of childhood to erotically charged lyrics about the end of desire, from a brilliant retelling of the metamorphosis and death of Actaeon to the final freeing of the waters in "Holding Proteus," these are close examinations of nature--of the bright epiphanies of passion and loss.
swithering
At times sombre, at times exultant, Robertson's poems are always firmly rooted in the world we see, the life we experience: Paperback , pages. Published April 3rd by Mariner Books first published January 25th To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Swithering , please sign up.
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Definition of swither - be uncertain as to which course of action to choose. Define swithering. swithering synonyms, swithering pronunciation, swithering translation, English dictionary definition of swithering. vb to hesitate; vacillate;.
Aug 20, Cornelius Browne rated it really liked it. In his day job Robin Robertson edits fiction including that of such luminaries as J. Kennedy and John Banville, to whom he here dedicates a wonderful poem that takes its inspiration from Diane Arbus and it shows in the genuine narrative thrust of the longer pieces. Swithering is a book worth reading for the two Actaeon poems alone, though there's much more to savour, including some incredibly tender meditations on fatherhood, one set on In his day job Robin Robertson edits fiction including that of such luminaries as J.
Swithering is a book worth reading for the two Actaeon poems alone, though there's much more to savour, including some incredibly tender meditations on fatherhood, one set on Rossnowlagh beach in Co Donegal, not a million miles from where I myself live. Jan 16, DilanAc rated it really liked it. They are mostly about country life in Ireland, Scotland, a world that I don't know at all, and yet the poems are so atmospheric and strong that I feel as if I am actually missing these places, rather than just imagining them or wondering what they are like.
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He names birds and movements of the sea that I just don't know about. I really liked "Actaeon: I hope that makes some people read this book. It is really worthwhile.
Mike Puma rated it really liked it Aug 24, I hope that makes some people read this book. Identify the word pairs with a common ancestor. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page.
Swithering is a Scots word with two related meanings: Robin Robertson's collection reflects both these meanings throughout. His poems are subtle evocations of human uncertainty and ambiguous nature.
Swithering
The title of the book, Swithering, is a Scots word meaning to be uncertain, wavering, but also to be indeterminate and unpredictable. Shifting and protean, the poems continually rehearse endings, departures. Robertson's writing is at its best when it can hold these varied impulses in balance.
- swither | Definition of swither in English by Oxford Dictionaries?
- What Actaeon saw.
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- Swithering by Robin Robertson.
Sometimes the evocation of a sense of loss, of isolation, can veer towards the self-indulgent, especially in some of the love poems, for instance "New York Spring": But in pieces such as "The Park Drunk" and "Leavings" all this is held wonderfully together. The latter conjures the kind of complex and contradictory interweaving of impulses that Edward Thomas was so brilliant at achieving. It is Christmas Day and Robertson has gone for a walk through the snow with his daughter.
He then sets out again by himself: In many of the poems a figure heads out into the landscape alone. This is both an impulse to cut free and a hankering after oblivion - "No one will find me here", he says in "The Lake at Dusk". At the end of "Between the Harvest and the Hunter's Moon" the speaker, hiding in an elm-wood, slips a bullet into the breech of his gun and waits "in this dark". The Early Years" these escapes are described as deaths: It seems at times that it is only through the description of food "Still Life with Cardoon and Carrots", "Asparagus" and through translation that he can find a kind of optimism.
In his excellent adaptation of Montale's poem "L'anguilla" "The Eel" Robertson relishes the phrase "that all begins where all appears to end". The poet imagines he is walking north through Europe from Vallombrosa and that Spring is walking with him:. He is once more alone in a landscape but this time his footsteps are towards not oblivion but his daughter: But the overall mood of Swithering is bleak, wrestling with a sense of despair and loss, a failure to connect with things, a cycle of departure and danger: The final poem, "Holding Proteus", powerfully captures the book's central predicament.
It adopts the voice of Menelaus from Book IV of the Odyssey in order to articulate a beleaguered prayer for the benign and the stable: