[3] Helen Dunmore (1952–2017) published Inside the Wave, her final work, on 27 April 2017, just over a month before her death.

[4] The collection contains 48 poems, including 5 "Versions from Catullus", a Roman poet, and three poems that relate to Homer's Odyssey, the eponymous "Inside the Wave", describing Odysseus back home from his travels, "Odysseus to Elpenor" and "My Daughter as Penelope".

It was written 10 days before her death, and was added to the collection for the second impression of the book, published in June 2017.

It begins:[2] Death, hold out your arms for meEmbrace meGive me your motherly caressThrough all this sufferingYou have not forgotten me.The poet Moniza Alvi stated that she had found it easy to decide to give the Costa poetry award to Dunmore's book, saying that the poems "can connect us with each other, at a deeper level", offering sharp and uncomfortable truths which were however "life-affirming and beautiful".

[2] The award's judges, noting that the book examined "the borderline between the living and the dead" called the collection "an astonishing set of poems – a final, great achievement.