I'd like to entice you into buying this book - or any book - of Rosemary Dobson's poetry becuase her work is full of treasures. Perhaps the simplest way of doing this is to write out one of her poems. It's called "The Rider". It has a marvellous ambiguity. Is it about the experience of insomnia? Or is it about the uncharted territories of the subconscious? It could be about the fear of madness or some deeper nameless fear.

The Rider

Time in my ticking clock becomes A desperate traveller of the night. Heard hooves down highways of the mind Beating with midnight urgency. Past quiet pools pricked out with stars, Crusted with bright autumnal mire, He rides, with fire from flint and iron; Past leaning darkness fenced apart By hedges white with final dust He needs no sign, but wheels and turns Obedient to the wheeling sky, And rides to warn - but whom he warns I know now and I fear to know. Rosemary Dobson

This poem is somewhat similar to James Stephen's poem, "The Shell" which also trespasses into some murky inner world, an eerie, "sunless" place that makes us rush up gasping with longing for the refreshing "ordinariness" of everyday life.

The Shell

And then I pressed the shell Close to my ear And listened well.

And straightway, like a bell, Came low and clear The slow, sad murmur of far distant seas,

Whipped by an icy breeze Upon a shore

Wind-swept and desolate.

It was a sunless strand that never bore The footprint of a man Nor felt the weight

Since time began Of any human quality or stir, Save what the dreary winds and waves incur.

And in the hush of waters was the sound Of pebbles, rolling round: For ever rolling, with a hollow sound:

And bubbling sea-weeds, as the waters go, Swish to and fro Their long cold tentacles of slimy grey:

There was no day: Nor ever came a night Setting the stars alight

To wonder at the moon: Was twilight only, and the frightened croon, Smitten to whimpers, of the dreary wind

And waves that journeyed blind ... And then I loosed my ear - Oh, it was sweet To hear a cart go jolting down the street. James Stephens

If you love exploring in these forbidden territories and also if you enjoy looking at ancient paintings but in a different light, then Rosemary Dobson will delight and surprise you. Go for it.