The title of Vicki Feaver's remarkable new collection derives from Blake's illustration of a child standing with one foot on a ladder to the moon, crying 'I want! I want!' In the title poem it represents her childhood ambition to be a poet; in another, she rejects pressure towards achievement and longs to return to the sensual world of the earth.
This startlingly honest book follows the ladder of a life for seventy-five years, in poems that show how much is connected. Unlocking the voice of a silenced, powerless girl, Feaver writes about an apparently stable childhood which, to her, was painfully insecure: tormented with parental expectations and sibling jealousy, torn between mother and grandmother. The eleven-year-old who wanted to become a poet becomes the woman 'buried under ice with words burning inside', who becomes the old woman still 'searching for words' - fearful now of memory loss and a failing body.
I Want! I Want! is the work of a poet looking for a pattern in her life before it's too late. Urgent, accessible and deeply moving, this is poetry of witness and survival: a vivid testament to the triumph of a poet's spirit.
Write a Review
I Want! I Want! 9781787331815 Paperback
There are no reviews for this product yet - be the first
- Authors:
- Feaver, Vicki
- Year Published:
- 2019
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Format:
- Paperback
- ISBN:
- 9781787331815
- Number of Pages:
- 112
- Publication Date:
- 21/11/2019
- Publisher:
- Vintage Publishing
- Place of Publication:
- London
- SKU:
- 9781787331815