Beyond the palisade

by James K. Baxter

James K Baxter's first book, Beyond the Palisade, was originally published in 1944, when he was 18, immediately attracting critical acclaim. These early poems display a variety of poetic forms and feature the sharp, bold imagery so indicative of his later works. They introduce the recurring themes of regret and loneliness, which were to become the hallmark of Baxter's later work.

90 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1999

About the author

James Keir Baxter was a poet, and is a celebrated figure in New Zealand society.

In his critical study Lives of the Poets, Michael Schmidt defines Baxter's 'Jacobean consonantal rhetoric'.Schmidt has claimed that Baxter was 'one of the most precocious poets of the century' whose neglect outside of New Zealand is baffling. His writing was affected by his alcoholism. His work drew upon Dylan Thomas and Yeats; then on MacNeice and Lowell. Michael Schmidt identifies 'an amalgam of Hopkins, Thomas and native atavisms' in Baxter's 'Prelude N.Z.