British Poetry from the 1950s to the 1990s

by Gary E. Day

This collection looks at the developments in British poetry from the Movement until the present. The introduction not only provides a context for these changes but also argues that poetry criticism has been debilitated by the quest for political respectability, a trend which can only be reversed by reconsidering the idea of tradition. The essays themselves focus on general themes or individual authors. Written in a clear and informed manner, they provoke the reader into a fresh awareness of the nature of poetry and its relation to society.

Acknowledgements - Notes on Contributors - Introduction: Poetry, Politics and Tradition; G.Day - Basil Bunting: Briggflatts; D.Brown - Never Such Innocence Again: The Poetry of Philip Larkin; G.Day - Poetic Subjects: Tony Harrison and Peter Reading; N.Roberts - Salvaged from The Ruins: Ken Smith's Constellations; S.Smith - Dance of Being: The Poetry of Peter Redgrove; N.Roberts - Seamus Heaney: from Revivalism to Postmodernism; A.Davies - 'Some Sweet Disorder': The Poetry of Subversion on Paul Muldoon, Tom Paulin and Medbh McGuckian; E.Andrews - The Gaelic Renaissance: Sorley Maclean and Derick Thomson; C.Whyte - Edwin Morgan: Messages and Transformations; R.Watson - 'Half of My Seeing': The English Poetry of Iain Crichton Smith; C.Milton - Vernon Watkins and R.S. Thomas; D.Brown - Anthologies of Women's Poetry: Canon Breakers: Canon Makers; J.Dowson - Women Poets and 'Women's Poetry': Fleur Adcock, Gillian Clarke and Carol Romeos; L.Pykett - They Say, They Say, They Say: Some New Voices of the Nineties; M.Faherty - Index