Description
Book SynopsisThe poems in Tara Bergin's debut collection combine sensuous, supple lyricism with the unsettling familiarity of folklore, fairytale and dream. They are inhabited by characters who seem at first widely different from one another, yet share nervous energy, a troubled state of mind: 'I am unwell, little crow, / I am unwell and far from home / where longing lives in my house'. In This is Yarrow Bergin gathers language from a wide range of sources and places to create a music and vision entirely her own.
Trade Review'The voicing and line technique is bold, edgy, risking or withholding violent.' --Adam Piette, professor, University of Sheffield '[...] Bergin succeeds in creating a clear voice and a dramatic situation. This is Yarrow is primarily a book of monologues, establishing voices whose skewed attitudes invite an engaged critical response from the reader. The monologues are sometimes reminiscent of Paul Durcan and at other times Sylvia Plath and they can be very cutting and funny at the expense of their speakers [...]' -- John McAuliffe, Irish Times
Table of ContentsLooking at Lucy's Painting of the Thames at Low Tide Without Lucy Present Acting School Water is Difficult All Fools' Day: An Academic Farewell Questions You Could Show a Horse Himalayan Balsam for a Soldier Dancing Sonnets for Tracey i. Permission to Fire ii. Handbook iii. X Prostitutism iv. Tambour Cafe, Marienstr. 16 Composition for the Left Hand Christmas Window, Armistice Day Sonnet for Catherine Who Never Turned Up Military School White Crow The Undertaker's Tale of the Notebook Measuring 1 x 2 cm Rapeseed Red Flag The Passion Flower The Sick Child, at the Time of the Diamond Jubilee Restriction Bridal Song The Confession Glinka The Pressed Iris Pilinszky at the Tenshi no Tobira Swiss Station Room St Patrick's Day Address, 1920 Photograph of Therese of Lisieux Holding Lilies Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon Studying the Fresco of St Nikolai of Myra At the Garage from The Ballad of Tom Gun Training Camp, Whit Monday My Personal Injuries Claim Garrison Supermarket At the Lakes with Roberta Portrait of the Artist's Wife as a Younger Woman Stag-Boy If Painting Isn't Over Queen of the Rodeo Candidate Feverfew This is Yarrow Notes Acknowledgements
