Elizabeth Jennings was an English poet who won the Arts Council of Great Britain Prize for the best first book of poems for Poems in 1953. She was incredibly prolific and returned time and time again to themes of love, death, and religion. She is remembered today as a “traditionalist” known for her use of structure, meter, and rhyme. Read more about Elizabeth Jennings.
‘A Way of Looking’ by Elizabeth Jennings explores the peculiar but often unnoticed ways our perception is guided by more than what is objectively observed.
It is the association after all
We seek, we would retrace our thoughts to find
The thought of which this landscape is the image,
Then pay the thought and not the landscape homage.
‘Admonition’ by Elizabeth Jennings describes how one should maintain control over their own life rather than designate their responsibilities to others.
‘Answers’ by Elizabeth Jennings describes how one speaker compartmentalizes the big questions and answers in life in the back of her mind.
Elizabeth Jennings herself considered ‘Fountain’ as one of her favorite poems. This piece is about the controlled energy of a fountain.
After the heaped piles and the corn sheaves waiting
To be collected, gathered into barns,
After all fruits have burst their skins, the sating
Season cools and turns,
‘My Grandmother’ by Elizabeth Jennings is a thoughtful poem about one person’s relationship with her grandmother and her grandmother’s passion—collecting antiques.
Elizabeth Jennings’ ‘Poem in Winter’ discusses the beauty and perfection of the snow. It sends a message to the adults who are afraid of snow falling.
‘Rembrandt’s Late Self-Portraits’ is an in-depth look at the way in which a painted self-portrait can reveal elements of their own soul.
‘Sequence in a Hospital’ by Elizabeth Jennings speaks on the hopes, fears, and routines that develop during a long stay at a hospital.
‘Song at the Beginning of Autumn’ by Elizabeth Jennings tells of the power of sensorial memories in relation to the coming of autumn.
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