Simon Armitage scrive con un arguto umorismo dello Yorkshire, unito a uno stile accessibile e realista di seria criticità. La sua poesia esplora spesso temi radicati nel paesaggio inglese, caratterizzata da una voce distintiva e accessibile. Attraverso il suo lavoro, approfondisce le comuni esperienze umane con un occhio attento ai dettagli e alla destrezza linguistica. La sua influenza è significativa, con le sue poesie che appaiono frequentemente nei curricula educativi.
Exploring the multifaceted nature of poetry, Simon Armitage presents a blend of personal insights and critical analysis, drawing from his experiences as Oxford's Professor of Poetry. He examines a diverse range of poets, including Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, with a playful yet thoughtful approach. Armitage tackles topics from Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize to the challenges of contemporary poetic life, culminating in his "Ninety-Five Theses" on poetry. This engaging work highlights the evolving definitions and significance of poetry in modern times.
Losing none of the exuberance which has become a hallmark of Simon Armitage's
poetry, these poems are more personal. The book is divided into three sections
- the Book of Matches which are sonnets, Becoming of Age and Reading the Bans,
a series of poems about Armitage's marriage.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DEREK WALCOTT PRIZE FOR POETRYIt is the current Poet
Laureate who has done the most to bring medieval poetry to contemporary
audiences . The disputed issues still resonate - concerning identity, cultural
habits, class distinctions and the right to be heard.
20 years after the Trojan war, the Gods have decided it is time for Odysseus to return to Ithaca, before his wife Penelope is forced to marry again. Angry Poseidon is seeking revenge for the murder of his son, and Odysseus has many perilous storms and treacherous landfalls ahead of him if he is to be reunited with Penelope.
Growing up in Marsden among the hills of West Yorkshire, Simon Armitage has
always associated his early poetic experiences with the night-time view from
his bedroom window, those 'private, moonstruck observations' and the clockwork
comings and goings in the village providing rich subject matter for his first
poems.
The narrative features a lively debate between an owl and a nightingale, tackling timeless themes like love, marriage, and identity while reflecting on cultural and class distinctions. Scholars interpret the poem as both a commentary on debate traditions and a reflection on human-animal differences. Simon Armitage's translation employs full rhyming couplets in iambic octameter and is accompanied by a facing-page translation and an insightful introduction, making this early Middle English work accessible and relevant to modern readers.
"The Penguin Book of Poetry from Britain and Ireland since 1945 is the first major anthology to survey the poetry from Britain and Ireland published in the half-century after the Second World War. This book presents poems of consistent quality and surprise from a period whose immense political, social and scientific changes have altered both poetry and its readership." "Wider in its franchise, sometimes less formal in structure and often more attuned to vernacular cultures, here is some of the best poetry written by men and women in the post-war era. Fuelled by Butler's Education Act, by immense technological change and social mobility, and by the increasing position of English as the core language for so many cultural and racial groups, these are the poems of the democratic voice." "In their long essay which prefaces this anthology, Simon Armitage and Robert Crawford - both poets and critics in their thirties - describe and explain the excitement and diversity of the poetry of the period. Their choice of poets (which ranges from Edwin Muir, born in 1887, to Kate Clanchy, born in 1965) reflects the changes they describe."--Jacket
