casparb's review
thought I’d just knock a refresher in what a poet what an acrobat love the journals look at him go xxx
lokster71's review
5.0
"World is crazier and more of it than we think
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various."
from Snow
I've had this book sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for some time. I just haven't quite got around to it. But now I have and it is magnificent. Sometimes you come to a writer too early or too late but I feel like I've come to MacNeice at the perfect time.
This 'Selected Poems' is packed full of thoughtful beauty demonstrating that poetry can cut through to your heart with a delicacy that prose often fails to provide.
This selection features poems from between 1929 and 1962. There's a chunk from 'Autumn Journal' (1939), which I've read in its entirety and recommend with the same passion that I recommend this 'Selected Poems'.
"No.
You cannot argue with the eyes or voice;
Argument will frustrate you till you die
But go your own way, give voice the lie,
Outstare the inhuman eyes..."
from 'Ecologue from Iceland' (1936)
Its subjects are home; landscape; Ireland; love; ageing; grief; time and it's passing; death and pretty much everything else. The selection from 'Autumn Sequal' that focuses on Gwilym's funeral is particularly moving.
"The third illusion, a fine mesh
Of probably impossibles; of course,
Of course, we think, we shall meet him in the flesh
Tomorrow or the next day, in full force
Of flesh and wit and heart. We close the door
On Wales and backwards, eastwards, from the source
Of such clear water, leave that altered shore
Of gulls and psalms, of green and gold largesse.
November the Twenty-fifth. We are back once more
In London. And will he keep us waiting?...Yes"
from 'Autumn Sequel' (1956)
There's not much more for me to say. I've read some fantastic poetry in 2019, from the contemporary - like Fiona Benson's astonishing 'Vertigo & Ghost' - through older writing of the long dead. This was one of the best though and it makes me want to read everything MacNeice ever wrote, which is probably what a book like this should hope to achieve. Read it.
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various."
from Snow
I've had this book sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for some time. I just haven't quite got around to it. But now I have and it is magnificent. Sometimes you come to a writer too early or too late but I feel like I've come to MacNeice at the perfect time.
This 'Selected Poems' is packed full of thoughtful beauty demonstrating that poetry can cut through to your heart with a delicacy that prose often fails to provide.
This selection features poems from between 1929 and 1962. There's a chunk from 'Autumn Journal' (1939), which I've read in its entirety and recommend with the same passion that I recommend this 'Selected Poems'.
"No.
You cannot argue with the eyes or voice;
Argument will frustrate you till you die
But go your own way, give voice the lie,
Outstare the inhuman eyes..."
from 'Ecologue from Iceland' (1936)
Its subjects are home; landscape; Ireland; love; ageing; grief; time and it's passing; death and pretty much everything else. The selection from 'Autumn Sequal' that focuses on Gwilym's funeral is particularly moving.
"The third illusion, a fine mesh
Of probably impossibles; of course,
Of course, we think, we shall meet him in the flesh
Tomorrow or the next day, in full force
Of flesh and wit and heart. We close the door
On Wales and backwards, eastwards, from the source
Of such clear water, leave that altered shore
Of gulls and psalms, of green and gold largesse.
November the Twenty-fifth. We are back once more
In London. And will he keep us waiting?...Yes"
from 'Autumn Sequel' (1956)
There's not much more for me to say. I've read some fantastic poetry in 2019, from the contemporary - like Fiona Benson's astonishing 'Vertigo & Ghost' - through older writing of the long dead. This was one of the best though and it makes me want to read everything MacNeice ever wrote, which is probably what a book like this should hope to achieve. Read it.
More...