Poems 1968-2004

Carol Rumens has always confronted the personal with the political in poems which are remarkable for their imaginative daring and their engagement with other lives. Often set against the background of Eastern Europe, Russia, or Northern Ireland, they are filled with a powerful sense of loss and exile. She draws on a wide variety of characters and voices to dramatize the realities of suffering and persecution, or to write direct, honest accounts of love, separation, death and displacement. This volume draws upon eleven poetry books as well as pamphlets and new or uncollected work.