Complete works of poets often expose uneven quality, especially if printed in chronological order so that the earliest and least polished poems are reComplete works of poets often expose uneven quality, especially if printed in chronological order so that the earliest and least polished poems are read first. Keats does suffer from this, though perhaps less than some of the other romantic poets. But there are many treasures to read, as well as the well known works....more
Anyone who is interested in twentieth century poetry should look out for this book. It's not just another compilation of poems.
The introduction says: Anyone who is interested in twentieth century poetry should look out for this book. It's not just another compilation of poems.
The introduction says: "We have not been content merely to accept the accidents of chronology and to rank the poets according to their birthday". So many poetry anthologies do just that, which gives a sort of specious idea of chronology, as a late blooming long lived poet might appear to be earlier than a short lived poet, reversing the actual relation between them. Instead, the chronological aspect is provided using four sections corresponding to publication dates: 1900-1914, 1914-1918, 1918-1930, and 1930-1942. (There is a companion volume continuing the coverage later into the century.) Clearly, a lot of thought has gone into the arrangement of the anthology.
Within each section, the poems are organised thematically, with a different theme being given every few pages. Ignoring the weird heading "Mansoul", this works quite well, and brings together related works by near contemporaries. This also means that some poets appear in several sections: Yates, for instance, is represented in all four of them.
The poets and poems are mostly well known, but the compilers do manage to include some poets I had not read before. All of them have one thing in common: they are worth reading.
Finally, it's oddly quirky that the book's subject is described in it as "the sculpture which will later be known as The Twentieth Century."...more
I've recently read the old translations we have around the house of the The Illiad: The Story of Achilles and Odyssey. I was considerably critical of I've recently read the old translations we have around the house of the The Illiad: The Story of Achilles and Odyssey. I was considerably critical of the translation of the Iliad, and it was pleasing that the Odyssey was considerably better (I've read many translations, retellings, and adaptations of these works before). In some ways, this is the nature of the Odyssey: it's a far more varied and fun story than the Iliad, which can easily come over as though a lengthy newspaper sports report detailing the lengthy battles at the walls of Troy.
The Butcher and Lang translation is old enough that the English is old fashioned: thees and thous, and so on. But in other ways, it comes to life as a story, without the need of the extensive footnotes employed by W.H.D. Rouse: a more gripping tale in a more immediate telling.
I'm rather dubious about the assertion in the introduction about the Odyssey being the origin of a large number of stories of shipwreck and lengthy voyages full of marvels (such as Sinbad the Sailor): it seems to me that sailing was a technical innovation which would have come fairly easily to any culture by a sea shore, and sailing implies shipwrecks, so it's pretty likely that stories of any sailing culture could have similar stories to the Odyssey independently....more
This translation of the Iliad, by W.H.D. Rouse in 1938, shows its age along with some dubious choices. It is a prose translation from another age, wheThis translation of the Iliad, by W.H.D. Rouse in 1938, shows its age along with some dubious choices. It is a prose translation from another age, when the Classics were the be all and end all of education. But Rouse's translation is very prosaic indeed, and conveys few hints of the glories of the poem which have made it last through the ages, but still requires many explanatory footnotes (most of which would be better put in the text even though they are not in the Greek - for instance, describing passing food and drink "moving round rightways" in the translation is glossed in the footnote as "as the sun goes, as the clock goes, through the buttonhole: keeping the company on the right hand side" - why not just say "clockwise"? There is no claim that the translation is literal, so surely it would be helpful to the reader to make the translation here understandable without a footnote at the small cost of using a word which would have meant nothing to the ancient Greeks? The epithets given to the heroes and gods are mostly translated literally, which clearly improves comprehension, but "Zeus Cloudgatherer" and "Flashlightning" (also Zeus) just appear clumsy.
The main disappointment I felt from the older collection was the datedness and creepiness of Adrian Henri's contributions, and thankfully I felt this collection of his work was a lot more enjoyable. Although the three poets have close to equal numbers of poems, Adrian Henri's here are longer, so that his contribution takes up about half the book, and I still don't feel they are quite good enough to deserve the extra space. (There's a lot of missing punctuation and capital letters from standard English, and that's something I tend to feel is a irritating affectation.)
As before, Roger McGough's poems are most fun, some eliciting a laugh, but there is also a vein of introspection and questioning, especially in "I Don't Like the Poems", which is the first placed, and "Poem for a Dead Poet".
Brian Patten's poems start with "A Blade of Grass", which is one of the best poems about writing poetry in the English language. As before, hist poems generally are the most intellectual, but they remain accessible....more
This is one of the biggest selling books in modern English poetry, showing an anti-elitist attitude aimong to bring the art of the poet in the age of This is one of the biggest selling books in modern English poetry, showing an anti-elitist attitude aimong to bring the art of the poet in the age of the Beatles: everyday subjects, no inaccessible "poetic" language. Three poets are represented: Adrian Henri, Roger McGough, and Brian Patten. Of the three, Adrian Henri is by far the most dated, and indeed often rather distasteful, especially his obsession with "beautiful schoolgirls". Roger McGough is probably the best known today; his poetry is the most accessible of the three, with some humour. Brian Patten is the most academic, with a habit of joining words together for no good reason which is an irritation when reading. He does provide a manifesto of what the three of them were trying to do: "When the professor of literature steps into the shadow of a lectern / and when the students are finally seated / and the whispers have died away / poetry puts on an overcoat / and sick of threadbare souls, / steps out into the streets weeping." The essence of this is that poetry should be for everyone, part of their everyday life, not something which is difficult, academic, and boring: laudable aims, but the currency of the work at the time of original publication is such that some of the writing of each of the poets now seems old fashioned....more
Captain Gentleman is a fantastic, but pretty much totally forgotten novel from the 1940s (a novel needs to be to have no reads on Goodreads!). The ediCaptain Gentleman is a fantastic, but pretty much totally forgotten novel from the 1940s (a novel needs to be to have no reads on Goodreads!). The edition we have, which originally belonged to my father-in-law, was published during Second World War paper rationing, so has pages almost thin enough that you could read the page on the other side of the one you're actually reading.
It's a tale of Caribbean piracy, with added Shakespeare-style young woman dressing as a boy. In this story, the young woman, a tomboy who learns to be an excellent sword fighter from her father, becomes an honourable pirate after she accidentally kills a man. She fairly quickly becomes the captain of the ship the Elizabeth, and turns the crew of ruffians into a crew with honour....more
Sexist cover for this edition (which I bought a very long time ago without thinking about anything other than it being a book by a writer I enjoyed reSexist cover for this edition (which I bought a very long time ago without thinking about anything other than it being a book by a writer I enjoyed reading).
Glory Road is a fun read, blurring the distinction between science fiction and fantasy and having fun with the ideas of heroism (what is the point of a retired hero?) and the hero's journey. The idea that a civilised society would be nudist is quite a common theme in Heinlein's work, and the freedom it symbolises was clearly an attractive idea to someone who wanted to escape the stifling manners of fifties and sixties America (whether or not a nudist colony was truly a utopia). If this sounds like a confusing mashup, it could easily have been, but it is redeemed by the storytelling and the characterisation of the central character....more
Mostly, this covers similar ground to any other anthology of English language poetry. It covers over 400 years of poetry from the Tudors to Dylan ThomMostly, this covers similar ground to any other anthology of English language poetry. It covers over 400 years of poetry from the Tudors to Dylan Thomas, in almost 500 pages - so pretty much every well known poet who wrote in modern English should be represented.
But...there some distinctly sexist aspects to the selection and arrangement of the chosen verses. The first woman poet doesn't appear until almost two hundred pages in: this might be due partly to the higher barriers for women to become published poets, so could be excusable.
However, the weird thing about how the poems are organised is that male poets are designated with surname only, as though "Chapman" or "Sidney" would be enough to provoke recognition in the reader, but women poets are given full names, which has the effect of making their poetry seem almost alien. This is especially strange with "Rossetti" and "Christina Rossetti", which just looks weird. The layout leaves plenty of space for every poet to have their full name provided, and it would actually be helpful to the reader because they don't need to go to the list at the front of the book to remind themselves who a particular poet is....more
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