Haunted Islands Part I by J. Redwood Anderson (1923)

This slender volume is a little worrying. Anderson's last collection was a trifle mixed in the effect stakes, and this one continues and amplifies the diminution. Many pieces here are what might be called quietly effective. There is a strong sense, comparable to his earlier work, of his muse going through a quiescence. They are often evening-set nature pieces, softly contemplative, but lifted with his trademark strength of eye. A tendency to repeat himself is becoming more obvious, where often a first verse will also be a last, as though that was to his mind 'a song', but the effect is frankly a little flat. One poem particularly stands out from this crowd - An Old Man. Much tougher and more harsh initially, bristling with pig similes (!), and then rising to poignancy in a stare out to sea and a thought of lives lost, it satisfies in a way many of the others can't. Similarly, the longer The Island of the Stones uses drier, stoic language to build a picture of a St Kilda-like isle of barren windsweptness and stone-walled rocky fields and paths. This too has a greater power and somehow a deeper voice. Although this is overall a slightly disappointing volume, there are compensations. I'm pulling at the bit, though: roll on the renaissance in his craft.