Search

In her long poem Solitude (1938) Vita Sackville-West explores the contrast between Nature and books and between Nature and the Christian God as she questions the purpose of life and suffering. While writing in solitude about solitude, the writer is connected to a vast community of other writers and readers. In this paper I show how Sackville-West uses classical allusions as a bridge between pagan Nature and Christian English literary history. From contemporary documents, especially her letters to Virginia Woolf, we can also see how Sackville-West kept an awkward balance in her own life between shyness and desire for connection with others which is reflected in her project of writing new verse in essentially traditional forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]