The last poems of Alice Meynell

This intimate collection gathers poems shaped by mortality, memory, faith, and the changing world. Its opening pieces consider the poet’s book as a living fold of thoughts, then move through a child’s silent knowledge of death, the blind force of the wind, and time’s strange reversals within family life. The voice is reflective yet sharply observant, finding significance in both private grief and the ordinary landscape.

Across the collection, fields, birds, winter trees, machinery, sleep, silence, and the sea become occasions for philosophical insight. Traditional images and religious language meet modern questions about industry, war, duty, nature, and the laws of verse, while poems addressed to figures from scripture, literature, and history widen the conversation. Thoughtful and richly musical, these works reward attentive listening, offering emotional depth without losing clarity or wit.