Contemporary Poetry: Poets and Poetry Since 1990 Ian Brinton Frontmatter More Information

Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-71248-4 - Contemporary Poetry: Poets and Poetry since 1990 Ian Brinton Frontmatter More information

Contexts in Literature

Contemporary Poetry: Poets and Poetry since 1990

Ian Brinton

Series editor: Adrian Barlow

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521712484

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First published 2009

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-521-71248-4 paperback

Editorial management: Gill Stacey

Cover illustration: Joy at death itself 5, 2002 Indian ink, gouache and crayon on paper 152 x 102cm Courtesy of the artist, Ian Friend, and Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane.

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Contents

Introduction 6

1 Approaching contemporary poetry 10 In the beginning: T.S. Eliot and Dante 10 The American reaction: William Carlos Williams and R.F. Langley 13 George Oppen 16 Ezra Pound and Charles Tomlinson 19 The Objectivists 20 Thomas Hardy, Douglas Dunn and Ted Hughes 22 Poetry wars and the British Poetry Revival 24 Closed / fixed form versus open form 26 Charles Olson, syllables and space 28 Poetry publishing 1: poetry and the Internet 31 Poetry publishing 2: Shearsman, Salt and print-on-demand 32 Poetry for the people 33 Poetry magazines 34 Conductors of Chaos 35 Poetry and politics 37 The radical power of poetry 40 Assignments 41

2 Approaching the texts 42 Mundane versus magic: comparisons to be made 42 Modern women poets 1: dramatic monologues 47 Modern women poets 2: fairytale and myth 49 War 52 Poetry in translation: Heaney and Hughes 58 Black poetry 61 Assignments 64

3 Texts and extracts 65 Vicki Feaver ‘Judith’ 65 ‘Yews’ 66

Carol Ann Duffy ‘Little Red-Cap’ 66 ‘Demeter’ 67 ‘If I Was Dead’ 68 Carol Rumens ‘From a Conversation During Divorce’ 69 Elizabeth Cook ‘Bowl’ 70 Seamus Heaney ‘The Crossing’ 70 ‘District and Circle’ 72 Andrew Crozier ‘Blank Misgivings’ 74 Barry MacSweeney ‘Pearl’s Utter Brilliance’ 75 ‘Pearl Alone’ 75 ‘I Looked Down on a Child Today’ 76 Anthony Wilson ‘Prac Crit’ 78 Charles Tomlinson ‘In a Cambridge Garden’ 79 Ted Hughes ‘Visit’ 81 R.F. Langley ‘Man Jack’ 83 David Caddy ‘The Atmosphere’ 85 Tony Harrison A Cold Coming 86 Robert Minhinnick ‘The Tooth’ 92 Roy Fisher ‘They Come Home’ 93 ‘Going’ 94 Charles Olson from ‘Projective Verse’ 95 Fred D’Aguiar ‘Home’ 96

Jackie Kay ‘Pride’ 97 Nigel Wheale ‘Curlew Glide’ 99 Lee Harwood ‘The old pier’ 100 ‘A grey sea a grey sky’ 100 J.H. Prynne from ‘Refuse Collection’ 100 Peter Riley ‘Introitus’ 101 Anthony Barnett ‘Stockholm, The Royal Library’ 103 ‘The Carp’ 103 John Welch ‘Analysis’ 104

4 Critical approaches 105 What does a poem mean? 105 Some important books of criticism 109 Assignments 111

5 How to write about contemporary poetry 112 Close reading 112 ‘Yews’: a brief analysis 112 A comparison with ‘Demeter’ 114 Exploring comparisons 114 Assignments 116

6 Resources 120 Books about poetry 120 Poetry anthologies 120 Poetry presses and websites 121 Glossary 124

Index 125 Acknowledgements 128