Gold - Elaine Feinstein

In Gold Elaine Feinstein for the first time brings the narrative skills of her fiction directly into her poetry. The book opens with an ambitious monologue, spoken in the voice of Mozart's librettist, Leonardo da Ponte. An interloper in European culture, he impudently challenges the society that forces him to live on his wits. A similar estranged clarity runs through several of the longer poems: the familiar world discloses sinister latencies, new beauties. Gold also includes a section of her celebrated personal lyrics, what the Times Literary Supplement called her

'wiry, concentratedly truthful lyric of survival' in 'a completely singing

voice' (Michele Roberts).

She is an extremely fine poet. She has a sinewy, tenacious way of penetrating and exploring the core of her subject that seems to me unique. Her simple, clean language follows the track of the nerves. There is nothing hit or miss, nothing for effect, nothing false. Reading her poems one feels cleansed and sharpened.



Ted Hughes