Answering Back: Living Poets Reply to the Poetry of the Past
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Review
`A collection bristling with ideas, at once witty, wry and sensuous...The juxtapositions consistently tease out fresh meanings'
--Observer
`An appealing idea for an anthology' --Herald
--Observer
`An appealing idea for an anthology' --Herald
Product Description
The nation’s best-loved poet on poets’ best-loved poems.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you read only one selection of poetry this year, make it this one. The idea - living poets choosing and responding to poems from the past - is simple enough. But it works really well, and the result is a fascinating diversity of responses. There's straightforward homage (Gillian Clarke's `Nettles', taking its inspiration from Edward Thomas' `Tall Nettles'). Sardonic riposte (Carol Rumens' warm and optimistic countering of Philip Larkin's misanthropic `This Be The Verse'). And moving elegy (Owen Sheers' `Elegy: To her Husband Going to Bed', in which John Donne's wife gives voice to her child-bearing fears, and past grief, in counterpoint to his confidence, as expressed in Donne's `Elegie: to his Mistress Going to Bed'). Throughout, the new sets off the old, shedding light on it from sometimes startling angles. Occasionally, the contrast with the new is unflattering: U.A. Fanthorpe's `A Word, Camerade' (a plea for agnosticism about the nature of animals' communion with God) exposes the narrow-minded, self-satisfied presumption of Walt Whitman's `The Beasts'. Editor Carol Ann Duffy's own contribution, `Kipling', is a brilliant exposé of the banality behind the bombast in Kipling's ghastly poem `If'. Pretty well all the `answers' in this collection work - and in such a variety of ways, at so many levels, that this little volume will absorb and delight even on the umpteenth reading.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
There are so many excellent reasons to adore this book; the spoof of Philip Larkin's most famous verse is worth the cover price by itself. then there's a riposte to Allan Ginsberg's "howl", a reply to Cavafy's "Ithaca" (in the style of Leonard Cohen, yet!)and, oh bliss oh joy, a Molesworth version of "A Shropshire Lad". It also works as a somewhat different anthology of poetry on its own merits, but the "answers" give the originals a whole different dimension. I'm buying this for people who like poetry, and more importantly, for some who don't!!
Format:Hardcover
Every student as well as teacher will consider 'Answering Back' as a brilliant and inspiring approach in terms of poetry. Its contrastive illustration of a conversation between two authors via poems is fascinating and highly relevant. However, it is an anthology and should be read and studied while using an analysis textbook which helps to explore the features of the poems. Thus, it will be a benefit for every reader.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Entertaining and stimulatingly diverse collection
The idea of getting well known contemporary poets to select a poem from the past , and write a response, is a great one; and thus we have a variety of different styles and types of... Read more
Published on 16 April 2010 by Ray Smith
refreshing and surprising
This collection of poems old and new is fascinating. Todays poets choose an established poem and then write in response. Read more
Published on 19 Mar 2009 by J. M. Dinnen
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