Turns and Movies: The Early Poetry of Conrad Aiken

Conrad Aiken was fascinated throughout his early work with the image of a tempestuous, romantic young man who tears himself away from his wife, his first love, and from a pastoral, peaceful life in a rural setting, to pursue what he hopes will be a richer, fuller, more rewarding life in a great city. In this book, Aiken explores this theme in full, especially in the final long poem, Dust in Starlight, which also forms Part III of his trilogy, Earth Triumphant.

However, that story is not the ...