Description

Book Synopsis

Pure Filth, Aidan Mathews’ fifth volume of poetry, follows upon Windfalls (Dolmen, 1977), Minding Ruth (Gallery, 1983), According to the Small Hours (Cape, 1998) and Strictly No Poetry (Lilliput, 2017). At its heart, the collection is about reflections on a career and sustained loves for people, God and art, with themes threaded throughout such as the pandemic, suburban Dublin, Irish landscape and history and the Holocaust.
His critic and biographer David Wheatley says:
‘It is no exaggeration to say that Mathews does not have themes so much as obsessions. If his Catholic faith provides the ground base for all his work, sexuality, mental illness and the Holocaust recur in poem after poem, stitching together the quotidian and the extreme … Synthesizing the sexual, the sacred, and the secular, Mathews’ poetry is a testament of great personal power, answerable to the cloister and the locked ward, the social lepers and the captains of the ship of state.’ (Irish Poetry, Wake Forest 2017)



Trade Review

‘Mathews’ great strength is in gleaning unvanquished beauty from the humblest thing, maybe the ugliest thing and perhaps the pure filth of it. A magnificent work.’ ANNE CUNNINGHAM, MEATH CHRONICLE

Pure Filth

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    A Paperback / softback by Aidan Matthews

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      Book details

      Publisher The Lilliput Press Ltd
      Published 2 November 2023
      ISBN-13 9781843518754
      978-1843518754
      ISBN-10 1843518759
      Also in:
      Poetry

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Pure Filth, Aidan Mathews’ fifth volume of poetry, follows upon Windfalls (Dolmen, 1977), Minding Ruth (Gallery, 1983), According to the Small Hours (Cape, 1998) and Strictly No Poetry (Lilliput, 2017). At its heart, the collection is about reflections on a career and sustained loves for people, God and art, with themes threaded throughout such as the pandemic, suburban Dublin, Irish landscape and history and the Holocaust.
      His critic and biographer David Wheatley says:
      ‘It is no exaggeration to say that Mathews does not have themes so much as obsessions. If his Catholic faith provides the ground base for all his work, sexuality, mental illness and the Holocaust recur in poem after poem, stitching together the quotidian and the extreme … Synthesizing the sexual, the sacred, and the secular, Mathews’ poetry is a testament of great personal power, answerable to the cloister and the locked ward, the social lepers and the captains of the ship of state.’ (Irish Poetry, Wake Forest 2017)



      Trade Review

      ‘Mathews’ great strength is in gleaning unvanquished beauty from the humblest thing, maybe the ugliest thing and perhaps the pure filth of it. A magnificent work.’ ANNE CUNNINGHAM, MEATH CHRONICLE

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