Coastlines

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

Ormsby is a scholar’s poet, as his own wide vocabulary and quotations
will readily testify. His poems are all about “the loveliness of the
familiar,” be it recollections of childhood, reflections on his
travels, or descriptions of the sights and sounds of nature, wherein his
own keen perceptive eye matches that of the great naturalist Gilbert
White of Selborne. The poem “Mullein” (also the motif for the cover
design) is a fine example of his crafting. Ormsby’s prevailing mood is
pensive, meditative. A gentle melancholy pervades several poems,
particularly those backward-looking ones. His verse patterns include
some of the traditional kind (including a welcome echo of rhyme on
occasion); and his poems’ titles refreshingly predict their content.
In short, Ormsby (with the acknowledged help of his wife) has put
together a very readable collection, a bedside book one may pick up at
leisure and empathize with.