Halfway to silence: New poems

by May Sarton

When they do, the must be treasured as gifts from the White Goddess, "sister of the mirage and echo." To May Sarton, poetry was life's deepest creative passion. It reflected the preoccupations of her mind and emotions as she progressed through more than five decades of experiencing the natural world, love and friendship, and the crises of the times. But for a long while she felt the lyric mood was past. Then, abruptly, her life took a new turn, and a marvelously musical flow of short poems came from her pen. They are collected here, in this small volume.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1980

About the author

May Sarton was born on May 3, 1912, in Wondelgem, Belgium, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first volume of poetry, Encounters in April, was published in 1937 and her first novel, The Single Hound, in 1938. An accomplished memoirist, Sarton boldly came out as a lesbian in her 1965 book Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing. Her later memoir, Journal of a Solitude, was an account of her experiences as a female artist. Sarton died in York, Maine, on July 16, 1995.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a selection from three of Sarton’s late poetry collections, covering roughly ages 65 to 80. There are meditations on the evolution of the self, which often mirrors the changing of the seasons—

“Disarmed, too vulnerable, full of dread, / And once again as naked as the trees / Before the dark, precarious days ahead” (from “Late Autumn”)

“This open self must grow more harsh and strange / Before it meets the softness of the snow. / Withstand, endure, the worst is still to come.” (from “Autumn Sonnets”)

—and crippling encounters with grief, particularly the death of Sarton’s long-term partner, Judy, an event that bursts bluntly in with “Mourning to Do.” Sarton imagines she will be regenerated through solitude and poetry: “Time for a change, / Let silence in like a cat / Who has sat at my door” (from “New Year Resolve”) and “The phoenix will take flight / Over the seas of grief” (from “The Phoenix Again”).

In between these, though, are many less memorable poems: some fairly thin on meaning and others rather clichéd in their rhymes. One that made me cringe was “Who Knows Where the Joy Goes,” about her sorrow for dolphins caught in tuna nets. It’s easy to echo the sentiment, but the poem itself is didactic and overwrought.

[Madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I honestly cannot remember why I picked this one up.

Bookmarks:

Sark

Of Molluscs

“The gardener’s hand / Untangles grief, / Invents a land.”

“I thought of all the pain and how we met/ Late in our lives yet lavishly at ease, / Having assumed an end to old regret / In the eternal present of the trees— / I thought of all the pain and how we met. / There every night we drank deep of the wine / And of our love, still without history, / Yet the completion of some real design / Earned with much thought, muse of the mystery. / There every night we drank deep of the wine.”

“And there I learned that hell is the place / Where I cannot give (like a barren wife?)”

“No, only the rising tide and its slow progress / Opens the shell. ” … “You who have held yourselves closed hard / Against warm sun and wind, shelled up in fears / And hostile to a touch or tender word— / The ocean rises, salt as unshed tears.”

“Now I am old why mourn what had to go? / Despite the loss and so much fallen fruit, / The harvest is so rich it fills my bin. / What had to grow has been allowed to grow.”

“There is no poetry in lies, / But in crude honesty / There is hope for poetry”

[Marcy Rae Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

certainly didn't like it as much as 'journal of a solitude,' but perhaps i was looking much too much for comfort during these grief-filled times. there were a few little nuggets in a few forgettable poems.

this stanza reminds me of 'solitude:'
'I am not available
at the moment
except to myself.'

this too:
'it is not an illness
that keeps me from writing.
I am simply staying alive
as one does
at times by taking in,
at times by shutting out.'

[REI · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read! I read it while waiting for my train, a good read..

[Harrison Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy read, very relevant to those getting older. Pensive, sad and touching.

[Cadence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't love it at first but it has really grown on me with a few readings

[Josh Flowers]

A lot of good poetry in here with an interesting evolution between a mix of new love and naturalistic descriptions, to a broken heart and said nature being destroyed, to eventually finding some form of restoration. A lot of really good poems in this. I was surprised at how much in here resonated with me.

[anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

for when you're feeling old even though it isn't your age yet.

[Catherine]

poetry