Like the novella in fiction, the long poem is an oft-neglected form. Too long for publication in most literary journals and anthologies, too short to merit a book-length publication, the long poem occupies a lonely space in our literature. Yet, M. Travis Lane is a master of the form, and it’s here that her considerable poetic skills reach their apex.

Lane’s poetry is modernist, dense, and highly allusive, drawing adeptly on classical and biblical sources and imbued with a feminist and ecocritical perspective. Her musical lines, vivid metaphors, and phenomenological acumen reach their highest expression in the long poetic form. There are few that match her brilliance.

This exquisite volume brings together, for the first time, the complete collection of Lane’s long poems. Together, they offer an astounding journey through five decades of imaginative space and time.

“With a multiplicity of voices, these poems offer a generously imagined theatre of the human. M. Travis Lane’s The Witch of the Inner Wood is more than a rich, wide-ranging collection. Here is one of Canada’s finest poets at work, revealing the power of her lyrical voice. A treasure of a book.”
“Canadian poetry has always had secret masters; poets who, without fanfare, deepened their style and vision — and extended the presiding genius of our tradition. M. Travis Lane is one of these figures. She has become, for our attitudinizing era, an especially powerful example of how emotional complexity and psychological depth aren’t a matter of ‘spontaneous overflow’ but are built from lucid stanzas, uncompromising compression, and effective metaphors. These qualities can be seen in the astonishing long poems selected for The Witch of the Inner Wood, a book that will cement Lane’s status as one of our most significant poets.”
“‘You either go or you get sent.’ If you’ve never thought of poetry as page-turner, wait till you delve into M. Travis Lane’s masterful long poems, collected together here for the first time. Hypnotist, conductor, and hobgoblin, she liberates life from its usual haze, so we may consider it in the changing light — so we must. Almost any single line by Lane seals the case for the necessity of the lyric. This welcome volume reshapes the narrative around the Canadian long poem, placing one of our finest poets at the centre of the rise of this widely beloved form, now an essential component of our literature.”
“M. Travis Lane keeps the Aristotelian tradition in poetry: to move from lyric poetry to longer verse forms. Thus she has always done — with meet cadence, with right diction, with sweet wisdom. But the Collected Long Poems gather at long last her consistent achievement, her persistent excellence, her insistent, epic impulse. Lane accepts our collective debt to classical poets, the undead — deathless — bards of antiquity. The wording is precise, the imagery compelling, the verses supple. If you have not read Lane before, prepare to travel: like T.S. Eliot, she wants you to have a transporting experience in your imagination. If you have read Lane before, prepare for fresh astonishment. She is Homeric breadth and Sapphic brevity in this suite of superb poems.”
“Lane’s imagination, precision, and control of sound and image are as astonishing as the rich diversity of her subjects. This is a book to luxuriate in.”
– poets.ca