POEMS

paper 1-85224-492-5 Poems ($59.95; paper $25.95; Oct. 1; 448 pp.; 1-85224-491-7; paper 1-85224-492-5) is an omnibus gathering from one of Great Britain’s most highly acclaimed contemporary poets. Still largely unfamiliar to American readers, Prynne has authored more than 20 volumes in England over the past 30 years. This is his first collected edition since 1982, and it includes works from almost every one of his published volumes. A stylist in the high modernist tradition, Prynne’s lapidary phraseology and interior rhetoric (—there is / no end to the peace claimed by the sick / body and no relief for the mere lack of / fever by which now I lean from the step / and touch at the bare twigs with my wrist—) will not be to everyone’s taste today, but his voice is strong enough to carry into later—and, one hopes, healthier—ages to find the audience he deserves.