Desolate Winter In Geoffrey Cook's Lorne, Nova Scotia

“Lorne, Nova Scotia” is a poem about a couple who owns a run down logging mill. The husband has suffered some sort of accident and is hospitalized, and the wife lives alone on the vacant farm . Geoffrey Cook creates a somber mood as he describes how desolate winter in Nov Scotia can be. This is the first poem I’ve examined to contains some loose rhyme structure, which is evident in the lines “…hospital bed”, “sunken head” and a few others. This helped balance out the poem, and is particularly proficient when it is being read out loud. While I admire Cook’s vivid imagery and hushed, wistful voice , I felt that I did not quite fit into his directed audience. I found myself having to look up the meanings of “millstones”, “caul” and “bull-chain”.