Young Knowledge - The Poems of Robin Hyde

Auckland University Press, 2003.

Young Knowledge presents for the first time a full chronological record of the poems of Robin Hyde, a New Zealand writer active in the 1930s whose full achievement is only now being recognised. Editor Michele Leggott has chosen 300 poems, divided into five sections, to arrive at a better understanding of the 15 years of massive production which shaped the poet and which may be her major literary work. The book shows Robin Hyde's growth as a poet, her response to the painful events of her life and to the political and social world around her. The poems are remarkable both for their acute observation of the physical and emotional world and for their powerful prophetic and visionary elements. Robin Hyde (1906-39), the pen name of Iris Wilkinson, was the author of five novels and four collections of poems. She wrote prolifically and with energy and courage. Her life, however, was tragic, with unhappy relationships, the birth of two illegitimate children, ill health, mental instability, constant financial stress and eventual suicide.