Carcanet Press - In Mortal Memory

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What might be better days? Don't get me started.

True and untrue to say they lie ahead

as in the first line of a poem poised to be written.

from 'In the Midst of Life'

In Mortal Memory is a collection of lyric poems, celebratory if often melancholy, both elegiac and ironic. Affirming that life is ‘all becoming’ McNeillie mourns what that means in terms of loss and sorrow at time passing. The sea is a powerful presence, its meaning drawn both from the northern landscapes in which McNeillie’s work is rooted, and from the work of French poets, from Baudelaire and Hugo to Rimbaud and Corbière. The poems pitch up and down across formalities, against the idea of purity, while sustaining a rhyming, singing line.

Cover painting: Giorgio de Chirico, The Nostalgia of the Poet,1914. Oil and charcoal on canvas, 35 5/16 x 16 in. (89.7 x 40.7cm). The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice1976,76.2553.65 © DACS 2009. Cover design StephenRaw.com

Contents:

Part I: Song in Winter
Winter Song
(i)   Chanson d’hiver
(ii)   Road Closed
(iii)   Winter
(iv)   The Shadow of a Blackbird
(v)   O Wood!
(vi)   February Song
(vii)   Les Feuilles d’automne
(viii)   Uneven Song
(ix)   Tidings
(x)   Spinney
Boozy Weather
Grief
How Deep is the Ocean?
High and Dry
Les Poètes maudits
i.m. Juliette Drouet
Love in the Language Room
Le Rêve
Solo in New York
Summer Reading
My Death
Mislaid
Trick Cyclist
At 'The Oystercatcher', Portmahomack
Literalist
Spring Campaign
The Rising of the Year
Hedger
Great Leveller
Internal Exile
Botanical Gardens Revisited
Nightjars
Arctic Terns
Anno Domini 2007
Summer Migrant
The Big Snow
The Wild Thorn

Part II: At Sea
Life-line
The Voyage
Night-Snow
from A Night on Whalsay
Netting the Scottish Fish
The Lilies of the Field
Casting
Synge-Song
O Vos Omnes
   (i)   Baudelaire: 'Quelques caricaturistes français'
   (ii)   Homage to K.D.
   (iii)   i.m. Donato di Niccolo Donatello
   (iv)   i.m. Sion Hill
   (v)   End of the Line…
   (vi)   Alms and the Man
    (vii)   Bedside Reading
    (viii)   Spleen et idéal
Commemoration
Cnut 2008
Aswim
In the Midst of Life
i.m.lah
Seaworthy

Andrew McNeillie was born in North Wales and read English at Magdalen College, Oxford before becoming an editor and publisher. For a key period in his life, he was literature editor at Oxford University Press. He has also held a chair in English at Exeter University where he is now Emeritus ... read more

'The finest poems here are witty and elegiac, comforting and cajoling and speak of pervading human concerns with a rare lyrical ease and quiet authority. McNeillie's special gift is for providing the pleasure that comes from recognition: we can see ourselves in his poems. The book carries an epigram from Wordsworth, and there is a Wordsworthian sense of audience and connection in this collection.'

Times Literary Supplement

Praise for Andrew McNeillie 'Striking a Match in a Storm illustrates that McNeillie is one of Wales's leading modern poets, and his work ranks alongside that of Gwyneth Lewis, Robert Minhinnick, Gillan Clarke and Dannie Abse. No anthology of Welsh poetry will ever be complete again without a comprehensive selection of McNeillie's poetry.'
PC Evans, Poetry Wales
'The wind blows hard and the sea crashes through his poems, brilliant and evocative of the littoral... [a] multifarious collection. Striking a Match in a Storm demonstrates an outstanding nature writer at the helm of these poems.'

Dan McCarthy, Irish Examiner

'A living poetic language flows, easy and slangy, the occasional poems which punctuate the later part of the collection are vitalized and real, among them elegies that remember mourning his father's death, and other deaths, which ring true, urged into being by poetry itself.'
Gillian Clarke 'There is some extraordinary virtuosity here - in one poem, he finds 33 half-rhymes for 'envy'.
John Greening, Country Life

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In Mortal Memory Andrew McNeillie 10% off eBook (EPUB) Categories: 21st Century, Welsh Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (72 pages) (Pub. Feb 2010) 9781847770844 Out of Stock eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE! (Pub. Feb 2010) 9781847779199 £9.95 £8.96 To use the EPUB version, you will need to have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your device. You can find out more at https://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html. Please do not purchase this version if you do not have and are not prepared to install, Adobe Digital Editions. Description Excerpt Author Contents Reviews What might be better days? Don't get me started. True and untrue to say they lie ahead as in the first line of a poem poised to be written. from 'In the Midst of Life' In Mortal Memory is a collection of lyric poems, celebratory if often melancholy, both elegiac and ironic. Affirming that life is ‘all becoming’ McNeillie mourns what that means in terms of loss and sorrow at time passing. The sea is a powerful presence, its meaning drawn both from the northern landscapes in which McNeillie’s work is rooted, and from the work of French poets, from Baudelaire and Hugo to Rimbaud and Corbière. The poems pitch up and down across formalities, against the idea of purity, while sustaining a rhyming, singing line. Cover painting: Giorgio de Chirico, The Nostalgia of the Poet,1914. Oil and charcoal on canvas, 35 5/16 x 16 in. (89.7 x 40.7cm). The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice1976,76.2553.65 © DACS 2009. Cover design StephenRaw.com Contents: Part I: Song in Winter Winter Song (i) Chanson d’hiver (ii) Road Closed (iii) Winter (iv) The Shadow of a Blackbird (v) O Wood! (vi) February Song (vii) Les Feuilles d’automne (viii) Uneven Song (ix) Tidings (x) Spinney Boozy Weather Grief How Deep is the Ocean? High and Dry Les Poètes maudits i.m. Juliette Drouet Love in the Language Room Le Rêve Solo in New York Summer Reading My Death Mislaid Trick Cyclist At 'The Oystercatcher', Portmahomack Literalist Spring Campaign The Rising of the Year Hedger Great Leveller Internal Exile Botanical Gardens Revisited Nightjars Arctic Terns Anno Domini 2007 Summer Migrant The Big Snow The Wild Thorn Part II: At Sea Life-line The Voyage Night-Snow from A Night on Whalsay Netting the Scottish Fish The Lilies of the Field Casting Synge-Song O Vos Omnes (i) Baudelaire: 'Quelques caricaturistes français' (ii) Homage to K.D. (iii) i.m. Donato di Niccolo Donatello (iv) i.m. Sion Hill (v) End of the Line… (vi) Alms and the Man (vii) Bedside Reading (viii) Spleen et idéal Commemoration Cnut 2008 Aswim In the Midst of Life i.m.lah Seaworthy Andrew McNeillie was born in North Wales and read English at Magdalen College, Oxford before becoming an editor and publisher. For a key period in his life, he was literature editor at Oxford University Press. He has also held a chair in English at Exeter University where he is now Emeritus ... read more 'The finest poems here are witty and elegiac, comforting and cajoling and speak of pervading human concerns with a rare lyrical ease and quiet authority. McNeillie's special gift is for providing the pleasure that comes from recognition: we can see ourselves in his poems. The book carries an epigram from Wordsworth, and there is a Wordsworthian sense of audience and connection in this collection.' Times Literary Supplement Praise for Andrew McNeillie 'Striking a Match in a Storm illustrates that McNeillie is one of Wales's leading modern poets, and his work ranks alongside that of Gwyneth Lewis, Robert Minhinnick, Gillan Clarke and Dannie Abse. No anthology of Welsh poetry will ever be complete again without a comprehensive selection of McNeillie's poetry.' PC Evans, Poetry Wales 'The wind blows hard and the sea crashes through his poems, brilliant and evocative of the littoral... [a] multifarious collection. Striking a Match in a Storm demonstrates an outstanding nature writer at the helm of these poems.' Dan McCarthy, Irish Examiner 'A living poetic language flows, easy and slangy, the occasional poems which punctuate the later part of the collection are vitalized and real, among them elegies that remember mourning his father's death, and other deaths, which ring true, urged into being by poetry itself.' Gillian Clarke 'There is some extraordinary virtuosity here - in one poem, he finds 33 half-rhymes for 'envy'. John Greening, Country Life You might also be interested in: Collected Poems Gillian Clarke Collected Poems Lynette Roberts, Edited by Patrick McGuinness	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! 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