Crowning
Paperback
Publisher Price: $24.99
ISBN13: 9781481324557
Publisher: Baylor University Press
Published: Nov 30 2026
Pages: 150
Language: English
As the title suggests, Crowning, by British poet John Greening, represents the culmination of a life's work that includes more than twenty full collections. These new poems (following his 2023 Baylor Selected, The Interpretation of Owls, edited by Kevin J. Gardner) are sometimes free, sometimes formal, but always musical and take us into previously unexplored spiritual territory. Yet this is a collection full of wit and playfulness. The short title poem recalls the birth of a granddaughter while King Charles III's coronation was taking place. Another describes the experience ofx having a dental crown fitted. There is even a 'corona' of sonnets and a sequence of poems about circles. As well as some longer poems such as 'Empire', a candid examination of the British colonial legacy, Crowning includes several entire sequences: a series of epigrams on immortality, an Irish sonnet journal set near Yeats country, a group of acrostics about the paintings of Constable, and an arrangement of roses selected from the author's garden in Cambridgeshire. There is also a series of Christmas poems, notably one modelled on Milton's 'Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity' (there are several tributes to famous writers here, as well as translations of Goethe and Rilke) and a group of pieces on Italy and Ancient Rome. As has been the case since his 1982 debut collection, Westerners, John Greening returns to his beloved Egypt. But he delights in America too, and there are four poems written after a visit to Waco. Several poems to his daughters and a final sequence prompted by themes from friends show that, above all, this poet is concerned with the search for love and meaning in a fractured world.
Also from
Greening, John
Also in
General Poetry
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Pitavy, Francois
Alighieri, Dante
Paperback
Sounding the Seasons Enlarged Edition: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year
Guite, Malcolm
Paperback
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Lao Tzu
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Paperback
They Bloom Because of You: Poems on the Infinite Love, Growth, and Magic of Motherhood
Urlichs, Jessica
Paperback
This Is the Main Event: Discovering the Life You Long for in the Life You Have
Smith, Joshua Luke
Hardcover
Ariel: The Restored Edition: A Facsimile of Plath's Manuscript, Reinstating Her Original Selection and Arrangement
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback
