Isabella G Mead’s poetry collection, The Infant Vine exists as an exploration of the extreme emotions prompted by motherhood. Mead’s visceral language refuses to shy away from how the portrayed moments feel. Sure, they become fantastical – a mother becomes a sea dragon, an alligator, the moon crashing into the Earth – but they speak metaphorically about the protectiveness and dread of motherhood. These are her lived realities and the earnestness bleeds its heart out onto each page.
The poems often engage with, or are inspired by, art – ranging from Barbara Hepworth to Madeline Donahue and Jule Polkinghorne. Mead embraces these references, her poems appearing underneath various visual artworks in the collection.
Through The Infant Vine, she explores the line between human and animal and, as its title suggests, the book remains plainly rooted in nature and the natural world. In ‘The Mask’ she writes ‘Breathe in the cloth / dyed a floral print. Taste its weave: Pink peonies where a mouth would be…’
The collection refuses to ignore the weight of self-isolating during a period of newborn motherhood and it is this strength that cements it as a raw collection of poetry. When the rest of the world so desperately wants to forget the pandemic, Mead simply recollects it.
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Stylistically, the formatting of poems varies, an obvious purposeful choice; however, while the poetry itself remains legible, at times the format is daunting.
Despite this, The Infant Vine is a strong debut collection and worthy of the high praise it has already received.
The Infant Vine, Isabella G Mead
Publisher: UWA Publishing
ISBN: 9781760802868
Format: paperback
Price: $24.99
Publication Date: July 2024
