winning memoirAnd when did you last see your father?andAs If, his account of the Jamie Bulger trial--is marked by the appearance of thisSelected Poems, a book which recapitulates work from earlier volumes and adds some new pieces.The themes and concerns of the prose works can now be seen to revisit themes from the earlier poems: on the one hand, the sense of the past, family and the particularities of local culture; on the other, an attempt to chart the failures and betrayals of our larger society in its impact on people's lives. Morrison's pessimism shows up in the grain of the poetry, observations of public spaces contrasted and juxtaposed with private moments which, as in "On Sizewell Beach", seem to emphasize an unbridgeable separation of the two--anxiety and powerlessness inflecting the closely observed and detailed glimpses of individual existence. Section III of the book explores misogyny and male culture which centres on the extended "The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper" with the short metrical quatrains of the form, the Yorkshire dialect of its telling and the nervous distancing of the narrative point of view--a collective "mea culpa" on behalf of men is tentatively proffered as a counter to the mythicising pull ofthe ballad structure. Later poems show Morrison exploring the relationships between men and women in a more intimate way--the feeling of atomisation, of differences that will never be resolved is still pervasive--but on domestic terrain the poetry feels more fluent, assured and evenly sympathetic. Among the final poems, "The Inquisitor" is perhaps the most interesting: a long poem exploring British political secrecy which opts for an ambitious semi-narrative approach, evoking John Le Carre's thrillers as a witty, ironic frame for political rumination, and thereby allowing Morrison to move beyond the pervasive pessimism of the earlier work. These last poems in fact show that Morrison has a surprising range to his verse that is still to be fully explored. --Burhan Tufail
about the man who invented printing from metal type and thereby revolutionised the culture of the book in Christian Europe. His published output has been nothing if not varied: among his works are several volumes of poetry, the acclaimed memoirAnd When Did You Last See Your Father?andAs If, a study of the Bulger case.Born 600 years ago, Gutenberg here is portrayed as an old man looking back on the personal failures and scant professional successes of a life driven by the dream of a radical and democratising invention: the printing press. "What I fear is that death will rub out what I have done, till not a trace of me is left upon the earth." The irony of this early admission is obvious, for print is exactly what remains of him, but the deeper force of the book is marked by the need to "justify"--to himself, to posterity, to God. Morrison's Gutenberg is, in some ways, a recognisable modern figure: his difficult relationships with his parents, his problematic liaisons with women, the sacrifice of amorous happiness to ambition, the struggles with financial hardship, the scandalous aura imputed to homosociality. These are very much the concerns of modern biography, here recast into historical fictional narrative. Larger social and cultural forces are dutifully sketched by Morrison, but ultimately his interest is in the man who dreams of being a "volume in eternity" who will be "assembled in [God's] library". Fame was ever the spur, it seems. --Burhan Tufail
considerable: in prose that combined lucidity and beauty with uncompromising honesty, Morrison granted the reader an insight into a family drama quite unlike anything we had encountered before--a virtual classic of literature about the family. In that book, Morrison's mother was presented as a shadowy, usually silent figure; inThings My Mother Never Told Me, we are given her story, and it's every bit as fascinating as anything in the earlier book. As before, the central themes of the new book concern secrets, and the slow unfolding of an (often painful) truth. Morrison's mother kept many things from him--not least the fact that she never told him that before becoming Kim Morrison, she had previously been Agnes O'Shea, daughter of sizeable Irish family. Morrison tells us he was only vaguely aware of his Irish relations--but that was only one of the many revelations awaiting him.As he set out to find the facts behind this deceptively quiet Kerry girl who had worked as a doctor in Forties Dublin (and subsequently in British hospitals during the war), he discovered that she had totally reinvented her personality. But the seemingly conventional housewife and mother she had elected to become was only part of the story. We are told of an all-consuming love affair during the war; we are given a strong and vivid portrait of everyday life in the hospitals and RAF training camps of the period (where Morrison's father told the pilots of the dangers of venereal disease); and (most of all) we are taken into the world of a remarkable woman; Kim Morrison is an unsung heroine of a time increasingly distant from our own world.Whatever our own relationships with our parents, it's impossible to avoid identifying with Morrison's candid and carefully structured memoir; the graceful prose involves us ever more in a narrative that has all the grip of a superior piece of fiction.--Barry Forshaw
Advantages: Makes you think Disadvantages: Not the nicest subject matters ever
...’s for that matter. The language the narrator speaks, a mixture of made up words, Russian, English and more common slang, will either be the making or breaking of you. Although there are editions of the book available with a "Nadsat" (What Burgess called his "teen-speak") dictionary. Mine does not (although it does have a preface by BlakeMorrison, which is very interesting) and that is the way Burgess intended it. Yes, at the first shaky peek the challenge seems impossible, but although it does require some brain use, most of the words can be easily translated by looking at the rest of the sentence. Most of the 200 odd Nadsat words that Burgess uses are wordplay, or at least word association, nor were words picked by random. For example, the Nadsat word for work is “Rabbit”. The Russian word for slave is Rab and the word also contains echoes...
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Advantages: Incredible engravings and touching poetry Disadvantages: None whatsoever.
...No words can do justice to Blake and his poetry. His apparently simple compositions, that comprise Songs of Innocence and Experience, contain so much spiritual meaning. There are very few books that can touch you quite as much.
Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794) juxtapose the innocent, pastoral world of childhood against an adult world of corruption and repression.
Many of the poems fall into pairs, so that the same situation or problem is seen through the eyes of innocence first and then experience. The collection as a whole explores the value and limitations of two different perspectives on the world. The relationship being indicated either by a common title such as "Holy Thursday," "The Chimney Sweeper," and "Nurse's Song," or by contrasting titles such as "Infant Joy" and "Infant Sorrow."
There are 18 poems...
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Advantages: It's Blake, He's wonderful! Fantastic Poems, Insightful, Prophetic, Meaningful, Cheap! Disadvantages: It takes a while to read them all, but well worth it!
...I was shocked a few days ago when browsing the poetry I discovered there was no William Blake! This site is insane, I thought to myself… but upon several minutes of deep breathing and reflection I realised, ok, no big deal, I'll just make sure I damn well get it added! And I have to give a round of applause to Ciao for adding 3 categories under William Blake and the day after I suggested it too!
My first opinion was very general, and now they've added a category for his complete works.. I just can't let it stay empty and your poor poor Ciao children not have lots of detailed information! What kind of Blake obssessive would I be then?
So, here's my opinion on the "must reads" from Blake's complete works. There are hundreds and hundreds of titles in all, so obviously, I'm only going to pick the really spectacular ones.
Auguries...
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Advantages: Goes with his Poetry, Beautiful, Original, Unique, Awe-Inspiring, Revelating.. need I go on? Disadvantages: Expensive to buy, Hard to get hold of
...I hear the confused "Huh?" as the newbie Blake fan sees "Illuminated Works" because William Blake was a famous poet wasn't he? Well.. yes, a famous poet he is, but his first ambition in life was to be an artist. In many respects, his poetry was written to match his paintings, which are awe inspiring in themselves.
I'm not a big art fan or critic, I really flounder when I try to analyse art, but because I love William Blake so much I feel obligated to admire his artistic work, at the same time wondering how he managed to do so much, and be so little credited for it.
William Blake was one of the greatest engravers in english history.
That's a fact, stated right there, you can go and look it up if you don't believe me. Who knows about it? Not many people - he is underappreciated! At this point if your confused and thinking "What's she...
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