Research Catalog

Title

Speaking to you : contemporary poetry and public address / Natalie Pollard.

Author

Pollard, Natalie.

Publication

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 275 pages; 23 cm

Summary

"Speaking to You examines our pleasures in, accounts of, and uses for British poetry today. It explores the work of four important poets writing post-1960--Don Paterson, Geoffrey Hill, W.S. Graham, and C.H. Sissons--in order to show how contemporary British poetry's creative handling of addresses to 'you' are key in its interactions with readers, critics, lovers, editors, fellow poets, and deceased forebears. The book lays out clearly, in four sections that focus on individual writers, how saying 'you' operates in contemporary poetry. It shows how lyric address is bound up with poetry's ability to delight, move and tease its public. It puts address into dialogue with a range of familiar literary figures across the ages - namely specific Modernist, Romantic, early Modern, and Classical poets - that will be familiar to scholars and ordinary readers alike. From John Donne to Carol Ann Duffy, T.S. Eliot to Philip Larkin, Keats to Tony Harrison, address has been key in constructing political and personal identities. This book argues that, for contemporary poets - like that of these canonical writers - address is persuasive public interlocution; demanding 'you' rethink regional and historical allegiances."--Publisher's website.

Subject

• Paterson, Don, 1963- > Criticism and interpretation
• Hill, Geoffrey > Criticism and interpretation
• Graham, W. S. 1918-1986 > Criticism and interpretation
• Sisson, C. H. 1914-2003 > Criticism and interpretation
• Graham, W. S. 1918-1986
• Hill, Geoffrey
• Paterson, Don, 1963-
• Sisson, C. H. 1914-2003
• Sisson, Charles H. 1914-2003
• Hill, Geoffrey 1932-2016
• Paterson, Don 1963-
• Hill, Geoffrey, 1932-
• Graham, W. S. 1918-1986
• Sisson, Charles H. 1914-2003
• 1900-1999
• English poetry > 20th century > History and criticism
• Forms of address in literature
• You (The English word) in literature
• Literature
• English poetry
• Lyrik

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [247]-264) and index.

Contents

Part 1: W.S. Graham approaches to how you behave. Speaking To You -- Occupied Territory -- Read Me if You Dare: Address and Misbehaviour. -- Part 2: C.H. Sisson to the public: national orientations -- The Words of a Myriad: Orientation and Avoidance -- Sweet Rose of England: Public Bodies -- Old Authentic Words: You, Them & Us. -- Part 3: Geoffrey Hill ceremonies of speech. Oppositional Principles -- Just Concessions: Conviction, Persuasion, Coercion -- Antiphonal Heckling -- Civil Invitations: Common Readers. -- Part 4: Don Paterson on the money. Address and Lyric Commerce.

ISBN

• 9780199657001
• 0199657009

LCCN

2012462673

OCLC

• ocn783148798
• 783148798
• SCSB-14508680

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library