Self Love

Shepherd W. G.

Attempted love and sexual identity form the recurring themes of W. G. Shepherd's third collection of poems. As in his previous books, "Sun, Oak, Almond, I" (1970) and "Evidences" (1980), he writes searchingly in a variety of styles, lyric, narrative and reflective. His poems, wrote Christopher Hope reviewing Evidences, "are a rare blend: thoroughly disciplined yet unrelentingly experimental". W. G. Shepherd writes compellingly, whether exploring ideas of emotional loss through the broken discourse of the "Serenade" poems, portraying the frustrations of the immature and egocentric character in the verse biography "Guy", or translating an erotic poem by Ovid.

About the Author

W. G. (Bill) Shepherd (1935-2012) was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge. His National Service was in the Royal Artillery. He worked for many years in industry before becoming a therapeutic counsellor. His "Horace: The Complete Odes and Epodes and "Propertius: The Poems" were published as Penguin Classics in the 1980s. Three collections of his poetry appeared with Anvil, and a selection of the Roman poet Statius, shared with Anthony Howell. His last collection of poems was "Mother's Milk" (Menard Press, 2006).

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