Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Independent on Sunday
'The passage of time tempers Farley's brashness with a strain of
melancholy, lending his poetry a likeable vulnerability'
melancholy, lending his poetry a likeable vulnerability'
Times Literary Supplement
'poems that are rich in thought and memorable in expression'
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Paul Farley's third published collection of poetry demonstrates a remarkable range - he can be funny, poignant, whimsical and profound, all the while being an acutely observant craftsman. Tackling everything from shooting birds as a youngster with an air-rifle to recording their sounds as an adult birdwatcher, and both the power and deceptiveness of memory, he's most at home (it seems to me) excavating the depths of the present moment, the gaps between the seconds (`The Lapse' and `Filler') and the dense, allusive texture of the natural world (`The Big Hum' with its `great space, stitched by wrens and plumbed by larks', and `Whitebeam').
And although some poems over-work a conceit and are perhaps a bit too fanciful (`The Scarecrow Wears a Wire') or are - for me - too elusive ('Pantoum of the Emergency'), Farley has a clear gift for conjuring up depths and layers, as well as evoking a wry sadness, whether at the passing of childhood, the death of a friend or the transitory nature of life itself. Perhaps most remarkable is the way he captures an emotional trope - the loss of innocence (`The Westbourne at Sloane Square'), the persistence of regret (`Paperboy and Air-Rifle'), the sense of nature terribly awry during the foot and mouth disease catastrophe (`A Shepherd's Guide to Wool and Earmarks') in just a line, line-and-a-half or half-line twist right at the end of a poem. It's a rare poet who can turn the mood of a poem on a sixpence like that, and it makes the collection as a whole an intense and satisfying one.
And although some poems over-work a conceit and are perhaps a bit too fanciful (`The Scarecrow Wears a Wire') or are - for me - too elusive ('Pantoum of the Emergency'), Farley has a clear gift for conjuring up depths and layers, as well as evoking a wry sadness, whether at the passing of childhood, the death of a friend or the transitory nature of life itself. Perhaps most remarkable is the way he captures an emotional trope - the loss of innocence (`The Westbourne at Sloane Square'), the persistence of regret (`Paperboy and Air-Rifle'), the sense of nature terribly awry during the foot and mouth disease catastrophe (`A Shepherd's Guide to Wool and Earmarks') in just a line, line-and-a-half or half-line twist right at the end of a poem. It's a rare poet who can turn the mood of a poem on a sixpence like that, and it makes the collection as a whole an intense and satisfying one.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
