Carcanet Press - The Palace of Oblivion

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Howling forth my regrets in orchidaceous Latin,
Parching and starving amidst the chambers of marvels,
Mourning in diamonds and tissue of silver, in coloratura of sorrow
I sing my age of gilded iron to rest.

from ‘Recitative and Aria of the Sovereign Lady Melancholia’

Baroque in its extravagance of language, in its delight in the bizarre and the prodigious, Peter Davidson’s collection is a cabinet of curiosities, a world of ruined palaces, ghostly gardens and the fragile marvels of a secret past. It moves between languages and continents, English and Latin, the Spanish Netherlands and Spanish America, the Mediterranean and the north. The title sequence evokes a half-known, half-fantastic, seventeenth century; a shorter sequence transforms contemporary England through the eyes of a spy. The collection ends with a group of elegies and epistles concerned with place and history in northern Scotland. Erudite and witty, The Palace of Oblivion is about remembering and inventing out of memory, and provides haunting visions of decay and splendour.

Cover painting Master of Calamarca, Aziel Timor Dei, arcángel arcabucero, oil on canvas, seventeenth century, Museo Nacional de Arte, Bolivia. Cover design StephenRaw.com.

Peter Davidson was born in Scotland in 1957. He is currently Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall, University of Oxford. Peter has edited the Clarendon Poems and Translations of Sir Richard Fanshawe (Vol I, 1998; II, 1999); the Clarendon anthology of seventeenth-century English poetry, Poetry and Revolution (1998), and (with Jane ... read more

Praise for Peter Davidson 'This impressive and unusual collection sets the tone straight away: "The falcon flown, far in the starving air / So many lost, this long, half-secret war." Davidson's verse is meticulous, metrical, alliterative; driven as much by musical half-rhyme as full rhymes; historically specific; highly emotional but broadly impersonal (these are the opposite of anecdotal poems); and intensely romantic.'
Victoria Moul, The Friday Poem
'He shows us in Arctic Elegies a land and state of mind both lyrically described and thrillingly delighted in - a land and state of mind both eminently deserving of celebration, and capable of shining suddenly with beauty and transformative warmth.'
Derek Turner, Brazen Head
'...these poems adopt and create song forms, giving an eerie and unsettling tone that combines the archaic and the modern in striking ways... Davidson's skill with rhyme and an almost-liturgical syntax give a tense and moving atmosphere.'

Sean Hewitt, The Irish Times
'Davidson's work is as ravishing as it is mysterious, and although they are elegies these poems are deeply joyful occasions.'
David Wheatley, The Guardian
'This is a "concept album" of a collection, in that all the poems sing to each other. It has a pleasingly archaic feel... There is a long-suffering melancholy and a sense that even the frost might melt.'
Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman
'Peter Davidson's profoundly civilised and lyrical book is [...] shot through with exquisite poignancies. These have as much to do with the nature of the place - the nature of extreme northerliness - as with the author's finely trained eye. [...] he knows how to see into things, and not only the simply visible, but also the rituals, the inner structures, and music - Lieder and ballad at the piano - of a sequestered, professorial life in rural Aberdeenshire. [...] The stuff and pace of poetry underwrites Prof Davidson's nights and days. He has written a most remarkable book in the same class of accomplishment as the work of Robert Macfarlane, who introduces it.'
Andrew McNeillie, Country Life 'This is a poet's book, his mind wide open to the cultures of the world, especially of the north, specifically Aberdeenshire. The language is luscious, musical and precise, rich with quotation and the cultures of, especially, northern Europe, from minerology and industry to poetry, painting, music [...] The book glows with moments of light, on a city, a river, in a room.'
Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales 'Peter Davidson has written a remarkable and unusual book - I have started the book but want to make it last the summer. It is a sustained prose poem, very moving in its effect... I am savouring it, reading it slowly, hoping to prolong the pleasure of these exquisite essays through the summer. It is, I think, one of the most beautiful books to be written in Scotland for many decades.'
Alexander McCall Smith

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The Palace of Oblivion Peter Davidson 10% off Categories: 21st Century, First Collections, Scottish Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (80 pages) (Pub. Apr 2008) 9781857549263 £9.95 £8.96 Description Excerpt Author Reviews Howling forth my regrets in orchidaceous Latin, Parching and starving amidst the chambers of marvels, Mourning in diamonds and tissue of silver, in coloratura of sorrow I sing my age of gilded iron to rest. from ‘Recitative and Aria of the Sovereign Lady Melancholia’ Baroque in its extravagance of language, in its delight in the bizarre and the prodigious, Peter Davidson’s collection is a cabinet of curiosities, a world of ruined palaces, ghostly gardens and the fragile marvels of a secret past. It moves between languages and continents, English and Latin, the Spanish Netherlands and Spanish America, the Mediterranean and the north. The title sequence evokes a half-known, half-fantastic, seventeenth century; a shorter sequence transforms contemporary England through the eyes of a spy. The collection ends with a group of elegies and epistles concerned with place and history in northern Scotland. Erudite and witty, The Palace of Oblivion is about remembering and inventing out of memory, and provides haunting visions of decay and splendour. Cover painting Master of Calamarca, Aziel Timor Dei, arcángel arcabucero, oil on canvas, seventeenth century, Museo Nacional de Arte, Bolivia. Cover design StephenRaw.com. Peter Davidson was born in Scotland in 1957. He is currently Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall, University of Oxford. Peter has edited the Clarendon Poems and Translations of Sir Richard Fanshawe (Vol I, 1998; II, 1999); the Clarendon anthology of seventeenth-century English poetry, Poetry and Revolution (1998), and (with Jane ... read more Praise for Peter Davidson 'This impressive and unusual collection sets the tone straight away: "The falcon flown, far in the starving air / So many lost, this long, half-secret war." Davidson's verse is meticulous, metrical, alliterative; driven as much by musical half-rhyme as full rhymes; historically specific; highly emotional but broadly impersonal (these are the opposite of anecdotal poems); and intensely romantic.' Victoria Moul, The Friday Poem 'He shows us in Arctic Elegies a land and state of mind both lyrically described and thrillingly delighted in - a land and state of mind both eminently deserving of celebration, and capable of shining suddenly with beauty and transformative warmth.' Derek Turner, Brazen Head '...these poems adopt and create song forms, giving an eerie and unsettling tone that combines the archaic and the modern in striking ways... Davidson's skill with rhyme and an almost-liturgical syntax give a tense and moving atmosphere.' Sean Hewitt, The Irish Times 'Davidson's work is as ravishing as it is mysterious, and although they are elegies these poems are deeply joyful occasions.' David Wheatley, The Guardian 'This is a "concept album" of a collection, in that all the poems sing to each other. It has a pleasingly archaic feel... There is a long-suffering melancholy and a sense that even the frost might melt.' Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman 'Peter Davidson's profoundly civilised and lyrical book is [...] shot through with exquisite poignancies. These have as much to do with the nature of the place - the nature of extreme northerliness - as with the author's finely trained eye. [...] he knows how to see into things, and not only the simply visible, but also the rituals, the inner structures, and music - Lieder and ballad at the piano - of a sequestered, professorial life in rural Aberdeenshire. [...] The stuff and pace of poetry underwrites Prof Davidson's nights and days. He has written a most remarkable book in the same class of accomplishment as the work of Robert Macfarlane, who introduces it.' Andrew McNeillie, Country Life 'This is a poet's book, his mind wide open to the cultures of the world, especially of the north, specifically Aberdeenshire. The language is luscious, musical and precise, rich with quotation and the cultures of, especially, northern Europe, from minerology and industry to poetry, painting, music [...] The book glows with moments of light, on a city, a river, in a room.' Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales 'Peter Davidson has written a remarkable and unusual book - I have started the book but want to make it last the summer. It is a sustained prose poem, very moving in its effect... I am savouring it, reading it slowly, hoping to prolong the pleasure of these exquisite essays through the summer. It is, I think, one of the most beautiful books to be written in Scotland for many decades.' Alexander McCall Smith You might also be interested in: Marabou Jane Yeh	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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