NEUBERGER, JULIA — The Things That Matter

Kyle Cathie Ltd. 1992. (ISBN: 9781856260787). Paperback, 20 cm. Paperback in very good condition. From Library Journal This collection is like a visit to an antiques store, where one encounters a neat stack of carefully crafted doilies and antimacassars created by patient fingers of a bygone era, most of them beautiful in their craft but irrelevant to today's households. Neuberger has gathered together spiritual poems by English and American women poets and arranged them chronologically, from Caroline Southey (born in 1786) to Sylvia Plath. The vast majority of poets represented here date from the 19th century and write in a style that will seem outmoded to contemporary readers of poetry. Nearly all the poems are conventionally rhymed; cliches and trite images abound. The reader must remember the era to which these poets belong and refrain from assuming that much of this book consists of "bad poetry." Many well-known poets are represented here, among them Browning, the Bronte sisters, Dickenson, Rossetti, H.D. Bishop, and Stevie Smith, and there are some wonderful descoveries: Alice Meynell, Adelaide Crapsey, and Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Used: Acceptable.