Douglas Barbour
Last Updated on June 7, 2022, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 184
Marilyn Bowering's One Who Became Lost is a strong second book from this young poet. Not all the poems work, but all make their presence felt. Bowering's poems are intensely emotional, and the dominating emotions are anger/(hatred) and love. Many of the poems have the violent juxtapositions of mood and movement associated with dreams, and, indeed, the dream is a central concept in this book. The other central concept is myth, as seen in both the poems from Greece and the poems from the Queen Charlotte Islands with their various allusions to Indian mythology. Although I began this collection with a certain small sense of boredom, Bowering slowly brought me further and further under the spell of her often terrifying visions. When rhythm and language unite as they do in the best of these poems, the result is a true testament to the turmoil of the human heart. One Who Became Lost represents a big step forward for this young and as yet unheralded poet.
Douglas Barbour, in a review of "One Who Became Lost," in The Dalhousie Review, Vol. 57, No. 2, Summer, 1977, p. 356.
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