L is for Letters from Iceland

A few years ago I was given a book of poetry for my birthday and it quickly became one of my favourite books.

Letters from Iceland is a book comprised of letters in the form of poems, sent home from a journey through Iceland. It is a travel book, but not at all in the traditional sense.

“Now the winter nights begin

Lonely comfort walls me in;

So before the memory slip

I review our Iceland trip-

Not for me romantic nor

Idyll on a mythic shore

But a fancy turn, you know,

Sandwiched in a graver show.”

The book doesn’t present a particularly positive view of Iceland, however, it is so beautifully written, so clever and so witty, that it is very much worth reading. With a mixture of poems, notes and tourist information and tips, it is a perfect little book to read before a trip to Iceland, particularly because it is so much more fun and enlightening than your average guide book.

“No shields now

         Cross the knoll,

The hills are dull

         With leaden shale,

Whose arms could squeeze

         The breath from time

And the climb is long

         From cairn to cairn.

Houses are few

         But decorous

In a ruined land

         Of sphagnum moss;

Corrugated iron

         Farms inherit

The spirit and phase

         Of ancient sagas

Men have forgotten

         Anger and ambush,

To make ends meet

         Their only business:

The lover riding

         In the lonely dale

Hears the plover’s

         Single pipe

And feels perhaps

         But underfined

The drift of death

         In the sombre wind

Deflating the trim

         Balloon of lust

In a grey storm

         Of dust and grit.”

So beautiful! Do you have a favourite book of poetry?

(Please email me if you'd like the references from the book or for any more information. The pictures are my own, for a change. If you'd like to use any of them, feel free, but please link back to me :)

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