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The Collected Poems of Katherine Mansfield
This edition is made up of 217 poems, ordered chronologically, so that the reader can follow Mansfield's development as a poet and her experiments with different forms as well as trace the themes such as love and death, the natural world and the seasons, childhood and friendship, music and song which preoccupied her throughout her writing life. The comprehensive annotations provide illuminating biographical information as well as explaining the rich contexts of the European poetic tradition, including fin de siecle decadence, within which her artistry is steeped.
The inclusion of a collection of newly-discovered poems, dating from 1909-10, highlights Mansfield's desire to be taken seriously as a poet from her earliest beginnings as a writer. The poems as a whole point to a poet who varied her craft as she perfected it, often witty and ironic yet always enchanted by the sound of words.
"
Has ISBN of 9781877578816 but this conflicts with another book.
The inclusion of a collection of newly-discovered poems, dating from 1909-10, highlights Mansfield's desire to be taken seriously as a poet from her earliest beginnings as a writer. The poems as a whole point to a poet who varied her craft as she perfected it, often witty and ironic yet always enchanted by the sound of words.
"
Has ISBN of 9781877578816 but this conflicts with another book.
- GenresPoetry
238 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2016
2 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Katherine Mansfield
985 books1,214 followersKathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp) was a prominent New Zealand modernist writer of short fiction who wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield.
Katherine Mansfield is widely considered one of the best short story writers of her period. A number of her works, including "Miss Brill", "Prelude", "The Garden Party", "The Doll's House", and later works such as "The Fly", are frequently collected in short story anthologies. Mansfield also proved ahead of her time in her adoration of Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov, and incorporated some of his themes and techniques into her writing.
Katherine Mansfield was part of a "new dawn" in English literature with T.S. Eliot, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. She was associated with the brilliant group of writers who made the London of the period the centre of the literary world.
Nevertheless, Mansfield was a New Zealand writer - she could not have written as she did had she not gone to live in England and France, but she could not have done her best work if she had not had firm roots in her native land. She used her memories in her writing from the beginning, people, the places, even the colloquial speech of the country form the fabric of much of her best work.
Mansfield's stories were the first of significance in English to be written without a conventional plot. Supplanting the strictly structured plots of her predecessors in the genre (Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells), Mansfield concentrated on one moment, a crisis or a turning point, rather than on a sequence of events. The plot is secondary to mood and characters. The stories are innovative in many other ways. They feature simple things - a doll's house or a charwoman. Her imagery, frequently from nature, flowers, wind and colours, set the scene with which readers can identify easily.
Themes too are universal: human isolation, the questioning of traditional roles of men and women in society, the conflict between love and disillusionment, idealism and reality, beauty and ugliness, joy and suffering, and the inevitability of these paradoxes. Oblique narration (influenced by Chekhov but certainly developed by Mansfield) includes the use of symbolism - the doll's house lamp, the fly, the pear tree - hinting at the hidden layers of meaning. Suggestion and implication replace direct detail.
Katherine Mansfield is widely considered one of the best short story writers of her period. A number of her works, including "Miss Brill", "Prelude", "The Garden Party", "The Doll's House", and later works such as "The Fly", are frequently collected in short story anthologies. Mansfield also proved ahead of her time in her adoration of Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov, and incorporated some of his themes and techniques into her writing.
Katherine Mansfield was part of a "new dawn" in English literature with T.S. Eliot, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. She was associated with the brilliant group of writers who made the London of the period the centre of the literary world.
Nevertheless, Mansfield was a New Zealand writer - she could not have written as she did had she not gone to live in England and France, but she could not have done her best work if she had not had firm roots in her native land. She used her memories in her writing from the beginning, people, the places, even the colloquial speech of the country form the fabric of much of her best work.
Mansfield's stories were the first of significance in English to be written without a conventional plot. Supplanting the strictly structured plots of her predecessors in the genre (Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells), Mansfield concentrated on one moment, a crisis or a turning point, rather than on a sequence of events. The plot is secondary to mood and characters. The stories are innovative in many other ways. They feature simple things - a doll's house or a charwoman. Her imagery, frequently from nature, flowers, wind and colours, set the scene with which readers can identify easily.
Themes too are universal: human isolation, the questioning of traditional roles of men and women in society, the conflict between love and disillusionment, idealism and reality, beauty and ugliness, joy and suffering, and the inevitability of these paradoxes. Oblique narration (influenced by Chekhov but certainly developed by Mansfield) includes the use of symbolism - the doll's house lamp, the fly, the pear tree - hinting at the hidden layers of meaning. Suggestion and implication replace direct detail.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 15, 2019
My wonderful son gave me a book gift card for Christmas (my husband managed to prevent Xave buying me a Lee Child book - I'm sure Child is a talented author, but that is not my genre at all!)
I had to think about it a bit. Books are expensive in New Zealand and I didn't want to waste Xave's money on a book that wasn't going to be a keeper. KM is not only my favourite New Zealand writer - she is also my favourite short story author, so I thought it would be really good to sample her known poems. Finally tracked this already-hard-to-get book down to Whitcoull's Centrepoint branch & I am very grateful to the staff member who couriered it to me.
I've also had to think about what rating to give this book. This book - well, look at the cover. Just stunning! Every aspect of the presentation of this book is superb - I found the notes at the back most helpful!
The poems are never less than interesting although I didn't really care for all of the early ones.
KM may have been happy for that offering to drown as well!
Also enjoy the poems with a New Zealand flavour. From XXVII (writing about the Tui's call)
Also some moving tributes to her brother Leslie who died in the Great War. (she wrote two versions of To L.H.B.)
Written a year after Leslie's death.
The last poem (from 1922) touched me so much. From The Wounded Bird
Katherine Mansfield died the 9th of January, 1923. She was only 34.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
I had to think about it a bit. Books are expensive in New Zealand and I didn't want to waste Xave's money on a book that wasn't going to be a keeper. KM is not only my favourite New Zealand writer - she is also my favourite short story author, so I thought it would be really good to sample her known poems. Finally tracked this already-hard-to-get book down to Whitcoull's Centrepoint branch & I am very grateful to the staff member who couriered it to me.
I've also had to think about what rating to give this book. This book - well, look at the cover. Just stunning! Every aspect of the presentation of this book is superb - I found the notes at the back most helpful!
The poems are never less than interesting although I didn't really care for all of the early ones.
'Why do you scream, oh, sea bird
And why do you fly to me?'
'I am the soul of your lover
Who lies drowned far out at sea.'
KM may have been happy for that offering to drown as well!
Also enjoy the poems with a New Zealand flavour. From XXVII (writing about the Tui's call)
Answer her call
They troop from the valleys and plains
From the stupid cities they never have fashioned
From the wharves where the strangers' ships find mooring.
From the green isles they pass in procession...
Also some moving tributes to her brother Leslie who died in the Great War. (she wrote two versions of To L.H.B.)
Last night for the first time since you were dead
I walked with you, my brother, in a dream...
Written a year after Leslie's death.
The last poem (from 1922) touched me so much. From The Wounded Bird
Oh, waters - do not cover me!
I would look long and long at those beautiful stars!
Oh my wings - lift me - lift me
I am not so dreadfully hurt...
Katherine Mansfield died the 9th of January, 1923. She was only 34.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
Displaying 1 of 1 review