📖 Ten Poems from Somerset from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
August 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet 

 

The old name for Somerset is Summerlands – a word that seems to contain the pastoral and slightly nostalgic atmosphere of this lovely area of Britain. These poems celebrate the intimacy of hidden valleys and tumbling rivers, and there’s a woodland walk which makes Samuel Taylor Coleridge long for the company of his beloved Sara.

The county is also a place of glorious towns and cities; Bath appears with its “gold-toned islands” and there’s also:

“The little old Somerset town you talk of,
that honey-gold, ever-sunlit,
late 1940s spot nestling in the green
scarplands of your memory…”

from ‘Roots’ by Robert Walton

What emerges here is the very particular character of Somerset – reflected in its treasury of local words, as well as in its deeper history when parts of the county lay under the sea.

 Carrie Etter is an American poet who has lived in the West Country since 2005.

Poems by David Briggs, Rachael Clyne, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Carries Etter, Gerald Grffin, Alyson Hallet, Pey Oh, Ruth Sharman, Robert Walton and Claire Williamson.

📖 My Review..

I’ve visited Somerset several times and on each visit I’ve been aware of the sense of history which surrounds the landscape and of forces, sometimes, ancient, which still linger in the highways and byways of this rather special county. This fascinating anthology explores the hidden places, bringing the county and its people alive in the imagination.

“ In narrow, Georgian alleys, still

you can meet

pale-gowned,-painted ladies,

who come down from

the grand sweeps of crescents”

From  The Tall Terraces of Bath by Pey Oh

Somerset’s rural landscape is beautifully described :

“ A country road ribboning the foothill

of a limestone escarpment- to the south.

low-slung December sun silhouetting 

hedgerows of willow and dogwood”

From Landscape with a Knackered Barn by David Briggs

I didn’t know that the old name for Somerset was Summerlands but that makes sense as there is something intrinsically special about its people, its landscape and its dialect. Beautifully put together, with a delightful cover so reminiscent of Bath, each of the ten poems are reflective of time and place and are the perfect gift instead of a card for anyone who loves the area or for all those people who call this delightful county home.

About the Publisher 

Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing sumptuously produced poetry pamphlets that serve as a wonderful alternative to a greetings card, with matching envelopes and bookmarks left blank for your message. Their subjects include Mountains, Clouds, Walking, Birds, Wine and Happiness. Candlestick Press pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries and garden centres nationwide and available to order online.

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