The Hunt in the Forest
Poems

Taking its title from Uccello's famous painting of a band of men - on foot and on horseback - massing for the chase, this title includes poems of hunting and predation. It explores our most deep-rooted and primeval pursuits: romantic love, memory, selfhood, grief, the recollection of the dead.

Concerned with love and mourning, with what we discover and what remains hidden - with learning how to follow the trail through the forest and find the way home - above all, these poems are about the quest: knowing that whatever we bring back from the hunt, it is always hard-won and never fully our own. With this extraordinary collection of fleet and deftly beautiful poems, John Burnside confirms his place at the forefront of writing, as one of a handful of truly important British poets working today.