In Parts of Us, Thomas Shapcott demonstrates why he remains one of the country's leading poets. Poetic styles in the volume range from sonnet sequences to long lyrical meditations, from dramatic monologues to more confessional works. The poems are often amusing or evocative portrayals of everyday things, but they also offer probing political rancour and melancholy deliberation. This memorable collection contains a sense of love faded, or love that has itself deteriorated, and that aspect of the work is brave and powerful. Parts of Us is imbued with verve, curiosity and elegant inquiry.
