The Unexplored Ocean

by Catherine Fisher

Overview

Fisher's startling talent brings to life myths and history from several cultures. With an archaeologist's care, she sifts her imagery from the past and examines it in minute detail. The title sequence at the heart of the book is ten poems about Captain Cook's voyages of exploration in the south Pacific. They are written in the persona of one of Cook's officers. The reader vividly shares the travails and wonders of the terrifyingly cold Antarctic and the exotically strange South Seas islands.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781854111067
Publisher:	Seren
Publication date:	12/01/1995
Pages:	72
Product dimensions:	3.75(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.30(d)

Editorial Reviews

Taking its inspiration from Welsh history and mythology, as well from the journals of a man who sailed with Captain James Cook, this second volume by a young Welsh poet and author of children's books conveys a reverence for the physical world. The earth is omnipresent. Landscape is often developed, almost created, by those who people it: "Their ocean is blue, so blue, deeper than/ the gown you wore at Rookham." Depicting rugged, lonely countryside and austere Antarctic seas with an equally profound respect, Fisher threads the changing seasons through disparate centuries, using nature's circularity as a unifying force. The volume climaxes in two powerful sequences: "The Unexplored Ocean," which treats Cook's voyages, and the even more striking "Scenes from a Book of Hours," five Christmas verses that pit the poet's need to express against the impossibility of full expression. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The second volume by the Welsh poet, published by Seren, the book imprint of Poetry Wales Press Ltd., and distributed in the US by Dufour Editions. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews