Strong Words
Modern Poets on Modern Poetry
Edited by W. N. Herbert & Matthew Hollis
Bloodaxe Books
Paperback, 320pp., 9781852245153 (9 October 2000) Ebook, 9781780375564 (20 June 2000) |
BBC Radio 3 Book of the Month
Financial Times Christmas Choice |
Poetry has never been so rigorous and diverse, nor has its audience been so numerous and engaged. Strong Words? Not if the poets are right. As Ezra Pound wrote: 'You would think anyone wanting to know about poetry would go to someone who knew something about it.' That's exactly what Bloodaxe has done with this judicious and comprehensive selection of British, Irish and American manifestos by some of modern poetry's finest practitioners.
Opening the 20th century account with Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot, the book moves through key later figures including W. H. Auden, Ted Hughes, Stevie Smith and Dylan Thomas. America is richly represented too, from Robert Frost and William Carlos Williams to the influential New England poets Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop and Sylvia Plath.
Strong Words then brings the issues up to date with over 30 specially commissioned statements from contemporary writers including Seamus Heaney, Andrew Motion, Simon Armitage, Selima Hill, Paul Muldoon and Douglas Dunn, amounting to a new overview of the poetry being written at the start of the 21st century.
For poets and readers, for critics, teachers and students of creative writing and contemporary poetry, this is essential reading. As well as representing many of the most important poets of the last hundred years, Strong Words charts many different stances and movements, from Modernism to Postmodernism, from Futurism to the future theories of poetry. This landmark book champions the continuing dialogue of these voices, past and present, exploring the strongest form that words can take: the poem.
Opening the 20th century account with Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot, the book moves through key later figures including W. H. Auden, Ted Hughes, Stevie Smith and Dylan Thomas. America is richly represented too, from Robert Frost and William Carlos Williams to the influential New England poets Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop and Sylvia Plath.
Strong Words then brings the issues up to date with over 30 specially commissioned statements from contemporary writers including Seamus Heaney, Andrew Motion, Simon Armitage, Selima Hill, Paul Muldoon and Douglas Dunn, amounting to a new overview of the poetry being written at the start of the 21st century.
For poets and readers, for critics, teachers and students of creative writing and contemporary poetry, this is essential reading. As well as representing many of the most important poets of the last hundred years, Strong Words charts many different stances and movements, from Modernism to Postmodernism, from Futurism to the future theories of poetry. This landmark book champions the continuing dialogue of these voices, past and present, exploring the strongest form that words can take: the poem.
Bookshop.
Reviews.
‘Strong Words is by turns provocative, irritating, and utterly compelling… Strong Words brings together a diverse collection of essential commentaries in a single volume.’
– Duncan Wu, BBC Radio 3 Book of the Month
‘A book of this sort is overdue and anyone with a strong interest in poetry will want to read these pieces . . .Strong Words, with its two testaments and many prophets, is as good a Bible as any.’
– Roddy Lumsden, Poetry Review
‘An absorbing, indispensable collection of writings on poetry . . . This anthology is full of gems for the aspiring writer and the informed reader . . . Whether you are interested in poetry, teach poetry or write poetry, this book should be an essential part of your toolkit. There really is something in here for everyone.’
– John Glenday, Amazon
‘an erudite and sophisticated book, a mosaic of the 20th century’s stylistic variety and formal ingenuity. . . . Herbert and Hollis’s primer of 20th-century poetics is not only useful, but imaginative, and includes both the unexpected and the forgotten.’
– Scotland on Sunday
‘Strong Words is exactly the kind of book Pound’s “anyone” would turn to . . . one turns to verse after reading Strong Words with new energy, inspiration and insight . . . a partial but altogether delightful collection.’
– Ian Tromp, Times Literary Supplement
‘an excellent introduction to some of the long-running arguments in the poetry world.’
– Steven Waling, City Life (Manchester)
‘There is a real liveliness to Strong Words . . . The result is a feisty and loud congregation . . . This is a delightful book, ideal for reading either straight or in installments. There is enough range in it to please and annoy any reader simultaneously, and a chaos of findings that affords a kind of coherence when it comes to the question at hand: what is modern poetry?’
– Floyd Skloot, Thumbscrew
‘essential and thought-provoking reading for writers and readers of poetry alike . . . the editors are to be applauded for their brave attempt to be representative, pluralistic and above all intelligent about many different approaches to the writing of poetry.’
– Andy Brown, Stride Magazine
‘rewarding’
– Hayden Murphy, Glasgow Herald
'indispensable'
– Financial Times, Christmas Choice