A Garland of Many Years

Because these poems do not idealize love and marriage, they may raise eyebrows as readers examine the various expressions through which British poet Donald Davie identifies the essence of true love.

The poems' strength lies in their honesty and intimacy and in the openness to the pain and self-understanding that both ardor and conflict can produce.

They reveal a marriage in which the partners know each other too well to be assuaged by a sentimental lyricism.