Constance: Poems

Depressing and beautiful, as it deals with her own and her husband's illnesses. Her husband recovered from major surgery:I brought him home, numbed up/for the trip. He dozed in the car,/woke, and looked with astonishment/at the hills, gold and quince/under October sun, a sight so/overwhelming that we began to cry/he first, and then I.You really need the whole poem before that, but it's incredibly generous of her to give us that moment, and such gifts are why you should read this collection.

Kenyan has long been one of favorite late 20th century poets. I never tire of her lucid and imaginative writing.

Constance contains some of Jane Kenyon's best work, including Having it Out with Melancholy, Peonies at Dusk, Pharaoh, and August Rain, after Haying. The poem Gettysburg, July 1, 1863 spoke to me in a way that a half dozen recently read civil war histories had never done. The poem Otherwise, probably now her best known poem, was originally published in this collection and became the title of her subsequent volume of poems, Otherwise, which was published posthumously. This decision to do this, taken together with her husband Donald Hall a few days before she died, is recounted in his exceptional memoir of their life together in The Best Day the Worst Day.