Naomi Mitchison (1897-1999) wrote, during her long life, in more or less every genre one could name: fiction, essays, drama, children's books, and poetry. Much of her writing has been brought back into print, but no sustained effort has so far been made to collect and consider her poetry. This volume is a first step towards that.

Only two poetry collections were published during Mitchison's lifetime: The Laburnum Branch in 1926 and The Cleansing of the Knife in 1978. Many more poems are to be found in her volumes of short stories, since it was her custom to intersperse stories with poems, which sometimes expand on the themes of the stories and often have a bearing on her experiences and emotions at the time.