Carcanet Press - Searched For Text

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Searched for Text is a first chapbook collection of poems by a poet alive to the challenges of traditional form, finding ways of expressing themes that are intensely real and many-layered in time, culture and society. His elegies, poems of love and landscape, are uneasily sharp and political. He allows no sentimentality to blur the deep sentiment of his experiences: the American childhood and youth, his growing love of England and his finding places in which to be, always a little uneasily, at home. In 'Un Coup de Des' he says:

Chance authors all we do,
The plot's contrived in retrospect.
Spied once I still look out for you;
Chance authors all we do.
A sea bird shot, a woman met
Ungloving who then strolls from view
Alters to fate as we reflect.
Chance authors all we do,
The plot's contrived in retrospect.

Modern Painters
Blue Rinse Matron
Wine Circle
Slowly Sounds the Bell
The Lesson
Compounds
Circumcision
Ishmael
Inquisition
Dodge Ball
Poetry Reading
Facsimile Folio
Winter Mornings
Revenant
Sie Kommt
End of the Affair
Decorating the Nursery
Tart
Little Black Dress
Un Coup de Des
Beside a Cove

Dan Burt was born in 1942 in South Philadelphia. He graduated from LaSalle College a Philadelphia working class college, read English at St. John’s College, Cambridge, and received his law degree from Yale Law School in 1969. He was a lawyer, businessman, and Honorary Fellow of�St. John’s when he began to ... read more

'His language is terse to the point of brutality; the verbs ferocious... his core conviction, formed by the history of the twentieth century and a lifetime in a non-literary world, is of "the curtain falling on the Enlightenment".' Elaine Feinstein, PN Review Praise for Dan Burt 'I was deeply moved by Every Wrong Direction; it is filled with courage, honesty and grace - and quite a bit of sheer page turning thrill. Burt tells it all beautifully and poignantly and what lingers is an impression of exemplary intelligence and daring.'

Alain de Botton

'Dan Burt is a fine poet, and this memoir has all the sensitivity and vigilance you might expect from a writer with such a background. But his prose also has a robustness and documentary power that continually startles and engages.'

Sir Andrew Motion

'Admirably gutsy and hearty... revealing a gift for lively mimetic narrative'
Rory Waterman, TLS
'the verse flexes muscle after muscle. Burt is excellent on place and occasion... The writing... can hover and dance. It has genuine grace. Certain Windows is a very good book...'
George Szirtes, Poetry Book Society 'Full of hard-won wisdom and beautiful lines, it's testament to the transforming power of poetry.'
Suzy Feay, the Independent This is a major debut. Burt's tough, terse language explores the human truth reached when all protective skin is stripped away.
Elaine Feinstein, The Times, 26th May 2012. 'Dan Burt investigates the gaps between people, their cultures, their places of living. Between new and old worlds, between lives of deprivation and comfort, between inner and outer selves, there is something gritty and disturbing working away. From cynicism and anger to deeply felt and even traumatic elegy, these are the revelations and considerations of a life and the lives that contribute to and make one's own. In poems and prose that reach deep down into the reservoir of human loss, distress and need, comes hope. He is a writer of intensity and passion who is able to be wry when needs be. There are the costs, but there is also renewal.'
John Kinsella

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Searched For Text Dan Burt Categories: 21st Century, American Imprint: Lintott Press Publisher: Lintott Press Available as: Paperback (32 pages) (Pub. Oct 2008) 9781847770547 Out of Stock Description Excerpt Author Contents Reviews Searched for Text is a first chapbook collection of poems by a poet alive to the challenges of traditional form, finding ways of expressing themes that are intensely real and many-layered in time, culture and society. His elegies, poems of love and landscape, are uneasily sharp and political. He allows no sentimentality to blur the deep sentiment of his experiences: the American childhood and youth, his growing love of England and his finding places in which to be, always a little uneasily, at home. In 'Un Coup de Des' he says: Chance authors all we do, The plot's contrived in retrospect. Spied once I still look out for you; Chance authors all we do. A sea bird shot, a woman met Ungloving who then strolls from view Alters to fate as we reflect. Chance authors all we do, The plot's contrived in retrospect. Modern Painters Blue Rinse Matron Wine Circle Slowly Sounds the Bell The Lesson Compounds Circumcision Ishmael Inquisition Dodge Ball Poetry Reading Facsimile Folio Winter Mornings Revenant Sie Kommt End of the Affair Decorating the Nursery Tart Little Black Dress Un Coup de Des Beside a Cove Dan Burt was born in 1942 in South Philadelphia. He graduated from LaSalle College a Philadelphia working class college, read English at St. John’s College, Cambridge, and received his law degree from Yale Law School in 1969. He was a lawyer, businessman, and Honorary Fellow of�St. John’s when he began to ... read more 'His language is terse to the point of brutality; the verbs ferocious... his core conviction, formed by the history of the twentieth century and a lifetime in a non-literary world, is of "the curtain falling on the Enlightenment".' Elaine Feinstein, PN Review Praise for Dan Burt 'I was deeply moved by Every Wrong Direction; it is filled with courage, honesty and grace - and quite a bit of sheer page turning thrill. Burt tells it all beautifully and poignantly and what lingers is an impression of exemplary intelligence and daring.' Alain de Botton 'Dan Burt is a fine poet, and this memoir has all the sensitivity and vigilance you might expect from a writer with such a background. But his prose also has a robustness and documentary power that continually startles and engages.' Sir Andrew Motion 'Admirably gutsy and hearty... revealing a gift for lively mimetic narrative' Rory Waterman, TLS 'the verse flexes muscle after muscle. Burt is excellent on place and occasion... The writing... can hover and dance. It has genuine grace. Certain Windows is a very good book...' George Szirtes, Poetry Book Society 'Full of hard-won wisdom and beautiful lines, it's testament to the transforming power of poetry.' Suzy Feay, the Independent This is a major debut. Burt's tough, terse language explores the human truth reached when all protective skin is stripped away. Elaine Feinstein, The Times, 26th May 2012. 'Dan Burt investigates the gaps between people, their cultures, their places of living. Between new and old worlds, between lives of deprivation and comfort, between inner and outer selves, there is something gritty and disturbing working away. From cynicism and anger to deeply felt and even traumatic elegy, these are the revelations and considerations of a life and the lives that contribute to and make one's own. In poems and prose that reach deep down into the reservoir of human loss, distress and need, comes hope. He is a writer of intensity and passion who is able to be wry when needs be. There are the costs, but there is also renewal.' John Kinsella	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! The Carcanet Blog One Little Room: Peter McDonald read more Collected Poems: Mimi Khalvati read more Invisible Dog: Fabio Morbito, translated by Richard Gwyn read more Dante's Purgatorio: Philip Terry read more Billy 'Nibs' Buckshot: John Gallas read more Emotional Support Horse: Claudine Toutoungi read more
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