To Scorch or Freeze

Here Davie, a writer attuned to both the changes of the modern world and a living literary tradition, turns to the lapsed poetic practice of translation and imitation of the Psalms of David. The result is a series of poems that speak powerfully of moral indignation and spiritual discovery within the complex of modernity. Few modern poets have managed to achieve Donald Davie's sense of human worth.--Times Higher Educational Supplement