The Oxford Book of Short Poems by P J Kavanagh
For this anthology P. J. Kavanagh and James Michie have chosen those short poems (of less than fourteen lines) which they consider to be the best in the English language, from medieval times to the present day. The sonnet is excluded; and epigrams and epitaphs, of which adequate anthologies exist, have been avoided. The result is a collection of more than 650 poems which draws attention to the short works of great poets, wich are sometimes overlooked, whilst giving extended room to the established masters of the short poem. The anthology ranges from the short poems of Chaucer, Skelton, Sidney, Shakespeare, Milton, and Bunyan to those of Oscar Wilde, Edith Sitwell, Stevie Smith, Philip Larkin, and Ted Hughes, by way of Pope, William Cowper, Blake, Emily Bronte, and Emily Dickinson, and demonstrates the gradual changes in style, subject-matter, and tone from one generation of poets to the next. This book is intended for general readers who enjoy literature, poetry and Oxford Books of. Students (GCSE, A-level, undergraduate) of literature.
P. J. Kavanagh was a poet, writer, actor, broadcaster and columnist. Born in 1931, son of the radio comedy writer Ted Kavanagh, he went to a Benedictine school, served in the Korean war during national service, and worked for the British Council in Barcelona and Indonesia. He acted on stage and TV - his last appearance in an episode of Father Ted. The Perfect Stranger, awarded the Richard Hillary Memorial Prize in 1966, describes his early life. His columns for The Spectator and the Times Literary Supplement (he called them substitute poems) are collected in People and Places (1988) and A Kind of Journal (2003). Poetry remained his major occupation. His New Selected Poems came out in 2014. Earlier collections include Presences (1987), An Enchantment (1991) and Something About (2004). His Collected Poems was given the Cholmondeley Award in 1992. His novel A Song and Dance won the 1968 Guardian Fiction Prize. His other novels are A Happy Man, People and Weather and Only by Mistake, and for younger readers Scarf Jack and Rebel for Good. A travel-autobiography Finding Connections traces his Irish forebears in New Zealand. He edited G. K. Chesterton and Ivor Gurney, and the anthologies Voices in Ireland, The Oxford Book of Short Poems (with James Michie) and A Book of Consolations. P. J. died in August 2015 in the Cotswold hills, where he had come to live with his wife and two sons over forty years before.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780192820730 |
| ISBN 10 | 0192820737 |
| Title | The Oxford Book of Short Poems |
| Author | P J Kavanagh |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Year published | 1987-09-17 |
| Number of pages | 352 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |