The Woolgatherer
The Woolgatherer gives us the richest kind of autobiography: tentative, questioning, multi-layered and shot through with vivid memories.
Price
£8.99
Author(s)
Cecil Gray
ISBN number
9780948833762
Pages
124
Price
£8.99
Classification
Poetry
Country setting
Trinidad and Tobago
Publication date
03 Jan 1994

There is a refreshing astringency of vision, a cathartic toughness in the way Gray's poetry confronts the remembered humiliations of childhood poverty, adult disappointments and mature regret. But though there is a shunning of all false consolations, there is room for wry and stoic humour which prevents any tendency to bleakness in these poems. There is also celebration of moments of joy and those persons such as the Misses Norman and Miss Maingot who offered the liberating gift of education and access to books.

Above all, Gray's poetry consistently delights both mind and the senses with its inventiveness and rigour in the working out of metaphor, the taut energy of its rhythmic patterns and sometimes rhyme.

Variations

Cecil Gray

Cecil Gray was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad in modest circumstances in 1923. Reading and schooling provided him with a route towards security, a gift he has repaid by his lifelong commitment to education. He obtained a teacher’s certificate and an external degree from London University.
View full profile