Description

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and author of O Pioneers! (1913) comes this collection of poetry, published between 1892 and 1933. Willa Cather experiments in style and theme, with many of her poems drawing from her own experiences.

Willa Cather is known for her remarkable fiction, most notably her Great Plains trilogy and One of Ours (1922), a World War I novel for which she received the Pulitzer Prize in 1923. This collection of her poetry highlights Cather’s unrivalled attention to the small sensory details of everyday life. Utilising traditional Romantic language and often using abstract imagery, Cather’s poetry can be compared to the work of writers who championed the previous century. She explores different forms and styles, experimenting with sonnets, iambic pentameter, and ABAB rhyme schemes.

Despite never quite finding her own distinctive voice, Cather’s poetry includes many beautiful passages. The ‘father’ of American literature and author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Mark Twain, praised Cather for her poem ‘The Palatine’, which is featured in this volume.

This collection is divided into three sections:

– Uncollected poems from 1892 to 1900

– April Twilights (1903)

– April Twilights and Other Poems (Poems added in 1923 and 1933)

With its name taken from the famous line in Cather’s autobiographical poem ‘Macon Prairie’ (1923), Under Far Horizons – Selected Poetry of Willa Cather has been proudly published by specialist poetry imprint Ragged Hand. The volume features an introductory excerpt by H. L. Mencken and would make the perfect gift for collectors of Cather’s work and those who enjoyed her marvellous novel O Pioneers! (1913).