Hare That Hides Within

This collection from Parthian is in celebration (and support) of the restoration of St Melangell's shrine at Pennant. This has inspired many Welsh poets to treat the legend of the saint who sheltered a hunted hare and founded a sanctuary. Several play on the pagan, magical associations of the hare; others on the power of the maiden over the hunter. The sequence is edited by Anne Cluysenaar and Norman Schwenk who both contribute poems. There is also a perceptive foreword by Archbishop Rowan Williams. The Collection includes ‘Melangell Variations’ by Gwyneth Lewis which was separately commissioned and in which ‘Melangell is a door’ to some rather unexpected places. These sit a little uneasily with the others, but her original 'story' poem has a most beautiful final stanza. Hilary Llewellyn-Williams’s ‘The Innocent Hare’ is a successful blend of the real and magical. Ruth Bidgood's ‘Hare at Pennant’ is another, while her ‘Cwm Pennant’ goes beyond the saint's story to other legends and people of the valley - a tender and evocative group of poems. To me the most appealing work in the collection is ‘Visitatiori’ by Marian Glasscoe, whose own encounter with a speeding hare leads to a vividly imagined and lightly, humorous version of the story. This is an attractive collection showing a wide range of styles and responses to a traditional story. A few, it must be said, are there for their content more than their quality. However, it is a celebration both of a special place of enduring significance and a legend which keeps unfolding new aspects to the imagination.