Reflections in a Mirror: A Gathering of Poems

Edward L. Edmonds is a professor of education at the University of
Prince Edward Island.

The poems in this collection are “gathered” seriatim, in three
sections, each shrewdly headed by a quotation. In spectator fashion,
Rowdon uses the “netting of memory” of “other faces” to present
his own comment on life around him, its shoddiness, callousness,
indifference, ravages of time. Section 2 is particularly memorable for
its sequence of titles portraying the pathos of war. Echoic memories in
Section 3 are cleverly in time with the sequences of a classical
symphony. Rowdon’s staccato rhythms are close to those of everyday
speech, but he also likes to move into French occasionally to
encapsulate a thought. The most profoundly moving of the poems is a
Petrarchan sonnet, “Mourner at the Gate”—a welcome revival of the
form.