News at Eleven: That [Fiona] Sampson was once a concert violinist

is apparent in this collection which embraces the carol, folksong, ballad and charm form in poems that never lose their contemplative nature or musical allegiances. In the excellent The Door, there are references to guitar playing, a polka, "sour familiar songs" and "the plural beat of the city", concluding with "Buried tunes/like grief, but walking". While in the lyrical poem Schubertiad , the "world slips from beat to beat/like a song".

from The Irish Times: Around the fountain, in the right room

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