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Farewell My Lovely
Polly Clark’s haunting collection is about leaving one’s life and returning a stranger. In poems which are moving and often darkly comic, she explores the ways in which we try to hang on to what we were, and the ways in which we accept that everything we were certain of has gone forever. Farewell My Lovely is a book of transformation in many voices, from riffs on popular songs to a modern reworking of Magnificat or Mary’s Song. Polly Clark’s vivid and unswerving gaze is applied with the same intensity to a dream of childhood, the vulnerability of a new species of bird or the fragility of marriage, creating a powerful collection about the price of survival. The book ends with a final farewell to innocence in a series of poems drawn from the Falklands War.
- GenresPoetry
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 10, 2009
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 9, 2026
The collection had a few decent poems, especially at the beginning, but overall it felt a bit lightweight.
The very few rhyming poems displayed a lack of comfort and proficiency with the form, non-rhyming ones had imagery that didn't feel quite right, or that didn't add anything – which, importantly, detracts from the overall impression instead.
A few poems looked like they had the first line missing, until you realise that the title really is part of the poem, something that can work if it is done consistently, but if it clashes with the style otherwise established by the poem itself and the other pieces around it, it just like sloppy writing or poor editing – or both. Either way, it disrupts your immersion in the reading.
One of the stylistically blander collections I have read lately, but, unlike most of my other recent reads, I felt I could have skipped this one entirely without missing out on anything.
And, it's a shame, as I feel the writer has several nice turns of phrase, and many worthwhile things to say, except they didn't really come across anywhere near as well as they might have done.
I know this may sound harsh,
The very few rhyming poems displayed a lack of comfort and proficiency with the form, non-rhyming ones had imagery that didn't feel quite right, or that didn't add anything – which, importantly, detracts from the overall impression instead.
A few poems looked like they had the first line missing, until you realise that the title really is part of the poem, something that can work if it is done consistently, but if it clashes with the style otherwise established by the poem itself and the other pieces around it, it just like sloppy writing or poor editing – or both. Either way, it disrupts your immersion in the reading.
One of the stylistically blander collections I have read lately, but, unlike most of my other recent reads, I felt I could have skipped this one entirely without missing out on anything.
And, it's a shame, as I feel the writer has several nice turns of phrase, and many worthwhile things to say, except they didn't really come across anywhere near as well as they might have done.
I know this may sound harsh,
Displaying 1 of 1 review