An Island of His Own

Mervyn Taylor “is strenuously after what all honestly skilled craftsmen seek: tone, accent without affectation.The sense of search, of the avoidance of flash, mutes his meters to an admirable degree, and tone, which he found remarkably early, keeps him separate and unique. These are many words for what is perhaps the most difficult aspect of good verse: honesty. Mervyn Taylor is an honest poet, and that is high and sufficient praise indeed.”-Derek Walcott