The Wrecking Light

Book excerpt: Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Scottish poet’s fourth collection shimmers with “an oneiric charge and intensity” (Guardian, UK). The Wrecking Light is an intense, moving, bleakly lyrical, and at times shocking book. These poems are written with the authority of classical myth, yet sound utterly contemporary. The poet’s gaze—whether on the natural world or the details of his own life—is unflinching and clear, its utter seriousness leavened by a wry, dry, and disarming humor. Alongside fine translations from Neruda and Montale and dynamic retellings of stories from Ovid, the poems here pitch the power and wonder of nature against the frailty and failure of human beings. This is a book of considerable grandeur and sweep that confirms Robertson as one of the most arresting and powerful poets at work today.