Elizabeth Jennings | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 2 pages of analysis & critique of Elizabeth Jennings.

Elizabeth Jennings | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 2 pages of analysis & critique of Elizabeth Jennings.
This section contains 488 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Review by Alasdair Clayre

SOURCE: Review of The Mind Has Mountains, in Encounter, Vol. XXIX, No. 5, November, 1967, p. 76.

In the review below, Clayre argues that these experimental poems do not reflect Jennings's skill or her voice.

Miss Elizabeth Jennings, in The Mind has Mountains, takes the reader through an English mental hospital, after her attempted suicide. These poems keep close to a single consciousness, which we see re-establishing, in alien territory, the unassuming, observant kindness of its everyday life. The poems are compassionate. In certain lines we can hear Miss Jennings’ voice:

There should be peace for gentle ones, not pain 

But the versification in this volume is often limp, and produces shapeless effects which I do not think the author can want:

Because of all of this, it was a shock to find that you were really bad, depressed, withdrawn from me more than I knew. 

And her experiments in broken...

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This section contains 488 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Review by Alasdair Clayre
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Critical Review by Alasdair Clayre from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.