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hannahleelovestoread 's review for:
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
In his poetry collection Reflections on Mountaineering, Alan V. Goldman reveals both a respectful love of nature and an experimental writing style. All of the poems in this collection are written in free verse, and those that follow a rhyme scheme are disorganized and inconsistent by design. Using the casual second person, Goldman alternately addresses his audience and any given mountain. He employs breathtaking assonance and alliteration with phrases like “evanescent embrace” and “summit shimmers” in the poem “Being and Nothingness.” My favorite poem in the collection, however, is “What Is a Mountain’s Meaning for Mankind?” In that captivating piece, Goldman quotes three mountain men of history: William Blake, who composed literature about the natural world; John Muir, a naturalist whose work inspired the creation of the National Park System and the Sierra Club; and George Mallory, a mountaineer who disappeared while climbing Mount Everest. This is a fine read, and I recommend it to nature lovers and poetry fans alike.