Description
Book SynopsisTony Harrison published his first pamphlet of poems in 1964 and for over fifty years has been a prominent force in modern poetry.
His poetic range is truly far-reaching, from the intimate tenderness of family life and personal love, to war poems written from Bosnia and savage public outcries against politicians. In The Collected Poems, Harrison draws deeply both on classical tradition and on the vernacular of the street. Combining the private and the public in a way Harrison has made distinctly his own, and drawing on his working-class upbringing in Leeds, these are powerful poems for modern times.
This is the first complete paperback collection of one of Britain''s most controversial and critically acclaimed poets.
''Tony Harrison is the greatest poet of the second half of the 20th century. . . He writes brilliantly about class, love and Britain'' Daniel Radcliffe
''Harrison is a masterly technician, and the most fiery and indeli
Trade Review
Brilliant, passionate, outrageous, abrasive, but also, as in the family sonnets, immeasurably tender * Harold Pinter *
Harrison is a masterly technician, and the most fiery and indelible English poet of the age. This book is a vineyard on a volcano * Paul Farley *
Tony Harrison changed the entire landscape of British poetry * Don Paterson *
Slangy, rooted, erudite, rhythmic, Harrison is a titan among poets; a unique Yorkshire brew of Auden, Byron, Brecht and Kipling, with a slug of Roman satire * The Independent *
A pessimist with a relish for life . . . whose work insists that it is speech rather than page-bound silence -- Sean O'Brien * Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry *
Tony Harrison writes in a style I have all my life been waiting for; combining the uninhibitedly vernacular with a line as taut and astringent as Racine's -- Stephen Spender * Observer *
The poem "v." is the most outstanding social poem of the last twenty-five years. Seldom has a British poem of such personal intensity had such universal range -- Martin Booth
The war poems are important and moving, obviously, but his personal writing made me wipe away surreptitious tears -- Alison Flood
Tony Harrison is a superbly accessible and talented poet * Time Out *
Whatever note Harrison strikes, be it melancholy regret or boisterous high spirits, the youthful energy to be found in his verse marks him out as a towering figure in poetry * Glasgow Herald *
Scatological satire suits him as much as political wit or meditation. World-wide in its topography, powerful in its effects . . . stunning! -- Douglas Dunn
One of the few truly great poets writing in English. His range is exhilarating, his clarity and technical mastery a sharp pleasure -- Melvyn Bragg
Some of the most important poems of the present day * Poetry Review *
More than any other English poet I have read in recent years, Harrison makes good Camus' claim that the function of art is 'to open the prisons and give a voice to the sorrows and joys of all -- John Lucas * New Statesman *
