Although death, and its rituals, harmonises the poetry in Craig Raine's first-rate new collection, love and its pain traces a line of melody - love, like snow, "this transfiguration/ we never quite get over".
Fine elegies bookend How Snow Falls: first for the poet's mother, dying in a blizzard of diamond-sharp memories; and last for a lover, lost to Aids in 1995, restored to startling erotic life.
Erudition and allusiveness underpin hair-raising candour, comedy and a bracing economy.
This poetry hits you like a Siberian blast out of ice-blue skies.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies