{"product_id":"collected-poems-susan-noble-9781910301098","title":"Collected Poems: Comprising: The Dream of Stairs - A Poem Cycle; Inside the Stretch of My Heart; and Before and After the Darkness","description":"\u003cb\u003eCollected Poems\u003c\/b\u003e by Susan Noble incorporates three collections of poems: \u003ci\u003eThe Dream of Stairs: A Poem Cycle\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eInside the Stretch of My Heart\u003c\/i\u003e; and \u003ci\u003eBefore and After the Darkness\u003c\/i\u003e. To mark the fortieth anniversary of her death, this comprehensive volume is being published in hardback, paperback and Kindle, making all her poems publicly available for the first time.\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Dream of Stairs\u003c\/i\u003e was privately printed as a posthumous memorial volume in 1975, a year after Susan's untimely death in 1974 at the age of 31. Having announced with typically light-hearted self-depreciation that 'The muse has struck me!', Susan wrote the poems in batches of half a dozen or more from 1965 onwards in what she described as manic bursts of creativity. But these poems are anything but light-hearted, and even a first reading will reveal clearly that levity is not on the menu in a universe 'Where there are no jokes \/ And people do not pretend.' \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSusan's output in the last ten years of her life was prolific, but when it came to compiling the poems, after a good deal of deliberation, a clear thematic structure and underlying development seemed to dictate the final order of that original poignant collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are a number of changes to the first edition: a slight reordering of the poems, minor amendments to the structure of the poem cycle, a revised, enhanced layout, and indexes of titles and first lines. More significantly, the original selection has been augmented by many additional poems, which clearly fit within the cycle thematically and structurally.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Many of the poems in \u003ci\u003eInside the Stretch of My Heart\u003c\/i\u003e were triggered by the quotidian experience of living and working in central London in the late 1960s and early 1970s, yet beneath the fragile surface of her acute observations of domestic and office life in the city, intensely spiritual insights are being played out, sometimes delicately, sometimes shockingly, but always movingly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe poems in the third collection in this volume, \u003ci\u003eBefore and After the Darkness\u003c\/i\u003e, were written in the early 1970s, like those in \u003ci\u003eInside the Stretch of My Heart\u003c\/i\u003e, and include a number of poems written in 1973 and 1974 in the months before Susan's death.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo further companion volumes are also being published: \u003ci\u003eA Flock of Blackbirds\u003c\/i\u003e (selected novellas and short stories); and her novel, \u003ci\u003eDrifting Between Empty Tramlines\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Profits from the sales of all six volumes are being donated to three charities: Mind, the Samaritans and Sane.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Facsimiles of the original typescripts and manuscripts are available online at: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewww.aesopbooks.com\/susannoble\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Susan Noble\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1910301094\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781910301098\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Aesop Poets: An Imprint of Aesop Publications\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/21\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 538\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.49lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 1.20d\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Susan Noble","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48440110547199,"sku":"9781910301098","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_20adbbab-1c75-4091-a8a3-3a29865c6b1e.jpg?v=1777180373","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/collected-poems-susan-noble-9781910301098","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}