If the starting point for a number of poems in Ian Duhig's richly varied new collection is Sterne's "Tristram Shandy," its presiding genius is the great 18th-century civil engineer, fiddler, and polymath Blind Jack Metcalf whose life Duhig here celebrates, and from whose example he draws great inspiration. Writing with an almost Burnsian eclecticism, Duhig explores urban poverty, determinism, social justice, and the consolations of poetry and music on a journey that takes in everything from a riotous reimagining of Don Juan to the tragedy of Manuel Bravo (the Leeds asylum seeker from Angola...
If the starting point for a number of poems in Ian Duhig's richly varied new collection is Sterne's "Tristram Shandy," its presiding genius is the gre...
John Riley (1937-1978) was known as one of the members of the so-called Cambrrdge School of poetry, and was co-editor, with Tim Longville, of the seminal Grosseteste Review and its associated press. His poetry, as with many others associated with the magazine, shows the influence of Pound and Olson, but it also reveals his interest in the Russian tradition -- exemplified by his fine translations of Mandelstam, and by his long poem, 'Czargrad', the latter a glimpse of Byzantium under its Russian name.
John Riley (1937-1978) was known as one of the members of the so-called Cambrrdge School of poetry, and was co-editor, with Tim Longville, of the s...
