Abstract

Douglas Livingstone. 2004. A Ruthless Fidelity: the Collected Poems of Douglas Livingstone. Hacksley, Malcolm and Don Maclennan (eds). Johannesburg and Cape Town: Ad Donker.

The publication of Douglas Livingstone's collected poems enables readers to see that his skill and control of his craft grew in strength and scope over the nearly forty years of his publishing career. Enriched by the inclusion of many hitherto unpublished poems, A Ruthless Fidelity reveals equally that certain features of principle and imagination remained unchanged in this poet's transformational fusion of imagination and science. This article argues that a sectarian search for (or holding on to) faith is one of the unifying motifs of the Livingstone oeuvre.

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