Lost in the Greenwood

Ellen Roberts Young has woven threads from history, myth, and mystery into a seductive collection of poems as rich and colorful as the tapestries they explore.

Susan Bagby, Writer and Editor

In Lost in the Greenwood, Ellen Roberts Young gives us a panoply of ekphrastic poems, derived from 16th century French tapestries, each depicting the unicorn. In these searching poems, Young interrogates gender and class as well as religious symbolism in their cultural milieu. She invites us into the work through imagination, sometimes skillfully using formal structures, sometimes enticing us with free verse. Her voice poems are especially poignant, taking us inside the lives of historic figures. Her treatment of depicted animals is dynamic, as well as the portrayed mirrors, recently invented when the tapestries were woven.

Carol Barrett, Ph.D.

Author, Calling in the Bones and Pansies