Search results for ""Author Christopher Logue""

For the second half of his long life, Christopher Logue (1926-2011) - political rebel, inventor of the poster poem, pioneer of poetry and jazz - was at work on a very different project: a rewriting of Homer's Iliad. The volumes that appeared from War Music (1981) onwards were distinct from translations, in that they set out to be a radical reimagining and reconfiguration of Homer's tale of warfare, human folly and the power of the gods, in a language and style of verse that were emphatically modern. As each instalment, from Kings to Cold Calls, was published, it became clear that this was to be Logue's masterpiece.Sadly, illness prevented him from finishing it. Enough, however, of his projected final volume, Big Men Falling a Long Way, survives in notebook drafts to give a clear sense of its shape, as well as some of its dramatic high points. These have been gathered into an appendix by Logue's friend and one-time editor, Christopher Reid. The result comes as near as possible to representing the poet's complete vision, and confirms what his admirers have long known, that Collected War Music is one of the great poems of our time.

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In this series, a contemporary poet advocates a poet of the past or present whom they have particularly admired. By their selection of verses and by the personal and critical reactions they express, the selectors offer intriguing insight into their own work.

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The arrangement of these Selected Poems demonstrates the consistency of Christopher Logue's vision as it matured through a varied career. He published his first books in the early 1950s, in Paris, where he was associated with Alexander Trocchi, Samuel Beckett and Maurice Girodias. Returning to London in time for the sixties, he wrote plays and a musical for the Royal Court, began the vogue for public poetry readings, recorded Red Bird, the most successful British poetry/jazz disc, and invented the poster poem. He published his poems in many forms, including - again his own invention - New Numbers, a constantly changing collage, which appears here in its final form. The selection culminates in an early treatment of a passage from his version of Homer's Iliad - 'the best . . . since Pope's' (New York Review of Books) - and it illustrates Logue's belief in the power of poetry as a social force - dissident, sensual and humorous. Selected Poems gives the reader a proper idea of Christopher Logue's lyrical gifts, as well as his irrepressible outspokenness and sense of artistic adventure. It contains fine poems which have been out of print for too long and others now regarded as classics.

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