The Work of a Winter (2ND)

Boyle's luminous poems are intimate portraits of confined and unsung lives, furnishedwith a sensuous exactness. The outcast Hermione, mourning her lost children, is cheered by the ""blushing crimson tips"" appearing in her winter garden. Birds are significant reminders of life, color, and wry defiance in these self-assured poems of hard-won sustenance.