A beautifully organized collection of a poet’s works in homage to nature
One of the primary themes of May Sarton’s work, especially in the first few decades of her career as a poet, memoirist, and novelist, is a veneration for and desire to understand nature. This yearning is collected in Cloud, Stone, Sun, Vine, which comprises more than two decades of Sarton’s impressive output.
The anthology marks a turning point in Sarton’s career as her meditations on being alone become more and more frequent, foreshadowing her famous memoir Journal of a Solitude. Featuring the classic sonnet collection “A Divorce of Lovers,” Cloud, Stone, Sun, Vine is not to be missed by any Sarton fan.
May Sarton (1912–1995) was born on May 3 in Wondelgem, Belgium, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first volume of poetry, Encounters in April, was published in 1937 and her first novel, The Single Hound, in 1938. Her novels A Shower of Summer Days, The Birth of a Grandfather, and Faithful Are the Wounds, as well as her poetry collection In Time Like Air, all received nominations for the National Book Award.