Great Regulars: Perhaps, too, [Geoffrey] Grigson means us

to recall Donne's line, "I sing of the progress of a deathless soul". But Keats floods Grigson's poem in a cerulean light, more appropriate because closer to the spirit of Parsons's own poem "Athene Promachos", about the bronze statue of Athena, which could be seen from as far away as the Attic peninsula by the returning sailor, who laughed to see "the gold and blue . . . Aegean spray in his eyes . . . And in his smiling mouth a song".

On Reading Again the Poetry of Clere Parsons

from The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: On Reading Again the Poetry of Clere Parsons

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