Poetry Review: Daughter of the Sun

Content warning: discussions of loss & bereavement

In Daughter of the Sun, Rachel Spence charts a course through the shifting terrain of grief, motherhood, estrangement, and myth with a lyricism that feels both elemental and exact. This is a collection where every poem pulses with emotional clarity, yet never loses the quiet steadiness of craft. Spence, with the sure hand of a seasoned poet, captures moments that might otherwise dissolve into memory — a baby’s cry, the scent of jasmine in Venetian air, a mother’s slow fading — and fixes them in language as tender as it is precise.

Spence has given us a collection that speaks to what it means to live through loss, to care deeply, and to imagine — fiercely — another way to be

Split into two distinct but resonant halves, the collection opens with a sonnet sequence that explores Spence’s mother’s final days — a narrative of reconnection, care, and mourning. These poems are intimate without being confessional, elegiac without sentimentality. The formal constraint of the sonnet provides a delicate container for unruly emotions, lending shape to the chaos of loss. As Ella Frears aptly notes, “each poem has a wild beating heart and a steady hand.” Indeed, Spence’s ability to hold opposing truths — love and resentment, presence and absence — makes the first half of the collection quietly devastating.

The second part shifts gears entirely, offering a radical reimagining of Medea — not as the murderous figure of classical myth; but as a visionary, a child-free scientist whose autonomy is her triumph. This bold act of myth-making reframes not only Medea, but womanhood itself. In Spence’s telling, the freedom to reject conventional roles is not a tragedy but a liberation.

Nature weaves itself through both halves of the book: the saltmarshes of Shropshire, the clamour of a Greek summer, the jasmine-thick air of Venice. These landscapes do not merely set the scene but become active participants in the emotional and philosophical explorations of the work. The natural world becomes both balm and mirror — reflecting the violence and beauty of human experience.

every poem pulses with emotional clarity, yet never loses the quiet steadiness of craft

Emma Dai’an Wright’s cover design is a fitting threshold to this radiant collection — one that invites the reader into a space of reflection, redefinition, and radical tenderness. Daughter of the Sun is overall a triumph: gorgeously wrought, emotionally resonant, and intellectually fearless. Spence has given us a collection that speaks to what it means to live through loss, to care deeply, and to imagine — fiercely — another way to be.

Daughter of the Sun was published by The Emma Press in February 2025. Buy your copy here.