In the Flight of Stars

Virginia Gillham is Associate Librarian of the Public Service Library at
the University of Guelph.

Roberts was born in 1906, and so has lived almost the entire 20th
century, and her poetry reflects the many facets of a woman’s life in
that period. She deals with the details of domesticity, the random
reflections of a thinking person on a myriad of unrelated subjects, and
philosophical contemplation of the realities of life (birth, aging, and
death).

According to the “Notes on the Author,” “Roberts is one of
Canada’s most anthologized female poets.” This book is her seventh
collection, and it pulls together 44 poems written in later life, many
of which look back all the way to childhood. Her observations are
insightful, moving, and evocative of empathy. This book is, altogether,
not to be missed.