The Lost Spells

by Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 240
Rating:

Synopsis:

Since its publication in 2017, The Lost Words has enchanted readers with its poetry and illustrations of the natural world. Now, The Lost Spells, a book kindred in spirit and tone, continues to re-wild the lives of children and adults.

The Lost Spells evokes the wonder of everyday nature, conjuring up red foxes, birch trees, jackdaws, and more in poems and illustrations that flow between the pages and into readers' minds. Robert Macfarlane's spell-poems and Jackie Morris's watercolour illustrations are musical and magical: these are summoning spells, words of recollection, charms of protection. To read The Lost Spells is to see anew the natural world within our grasp and to be reminded of what happens when we allow it to slip away.

The Lost Spells is a lovely little volume containing poetry by Robert Macfarlane, illustrated by Jackie Morris. The illustrations are really the focal point for me, but Macfarlane’s poetry is lovely too: not all of the poems are to my taste, but I can see him playing with words and sounds, and that each poem really is meant to be read out loud and to have a certain rhythm, a spell-binding power. There’s a lot of enjoyment in that, even when I don’t totally agree about a particular rhyme or sound.

You can also see this in the project that grew up around Macfarlane’s words, the Spell Songs project. I became aware of it because I like Karine Polwart’s solo work and enjoyed her collaboration on the Darwin Song Project, and I think listening to the songs really adds something. Two of my favourites are “The Snow Hare” and “Selkie Boy“.

Rating: 4/5