A Certain Marvellous Thing

Welsh poet Ward breaks new ground in this, his first collection since 1984. His themes are edgy, anxious, and urgent; his forms are varied, radical, sometimes playful. The poems combine the pastoral of his previous books with a newly adopted modernism; the new style is impressive and successful. Concern for the world our children will inherit is a major theme, as is concern for the environment. A technically fine poet, Ward effortlessly uses a wide variety of forms and invents intricate rhyme schemes to produce dazzling poems.