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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 29, 2021
This little volume is a mystery. I bought it at a second-hand bookshop for $1. There is almost no digital record of it except for a single entry in Trove that lists only one copy in Australia at the State Library of NSW. Superficial internet searches yield nothing about the author, a Mrs. Lilian Morgan. There is an insert on the front page that states:
Thanks to this I was able to conclude that Lilian Morgan is an Australian author and that this collection of poetry was published ca.1940s.
The poems themselves initially appear to be primarily about Christianity. If they were filled with piety, I may not have read it through. But they actually paint a heart-rending struggle for faith from within the clutches of despair and depression. The speaker cannot always hold onto that faith and wonders at the misery they suffer. But there is also hope and joy, especially in the poems about the companionship of dogs and the passages on the magic of beings such as fairies. It is a beautiful collection and you can very much feel the emotion of the pieces. There is an elegance in its complete lack of presumption that gives the (at times) utter despair a particular poignance. The speaker's openness about the disproportionate pain and sadness they feel they suffer allows the reader to join—rather than dismiss—this melancholia. And I think there's something beautiful in that.
This is a sample of the first SALES AND PRESENTATION EDITION, published by The Freelance Writers’ Federation, 29 Bligh St., Sydney, for Mrs. L. Morgan.
Full details of publishing costs, etc., from Mr. W. Lynch.
Thanks to this I was able to conclude that Lilian Morgan is an Australian author and that this collection of poetry was published ca.1940s.
The poems themselves initially appear to be primarily about Christianity. If they were filled with piety, I may not have read it through. But they actually paint a heart-rending struggle for faith from within the clutches of despair and depression. The speaker cannot always hold onto that faith and wonders at the misery they suffer. But there is also hope and joy, especially in the poems about the companionship of dogs and the passages on the magic of beings such as fairies. It is a beautiful collection and you can very much feel the emotion of the pieces. There is an elegance in its complete lack of presumption that gives the (at times) utter despair a particular poignance. The speaker's openness about the disproportionate pain and sadness they feel they suffer allows the reader to join—rather than dismiss—this melancholia. And I think there's something beautiful in that.
I hate myself. I hate this world;
And I long now only to quit it,
But tell me, oh God, where my place is,
In the new world, or don’t I fit in it?
Displaying 1 of 1 review