Gabriel Oak is only one of three suitors for the hand of the beautiful and spirited Bathsheba Everdene. He must compete with the dashing young soldier Sergeant Troy and respectable, middle-aged Farmer Boldwood. And while their fates depend upon the choice Bathsheba makes, she discovers the terrible consequences of an inconstant heart.
'The Best British Poetry 2014' presents the finest and most engaging poems found in literary magazines and webzines over the past year. The material gathered represents the rich variety of current UK poetry. Each poem is accompanied by a note by the poet explaining the inspiration for the poem.
'Though unmarried I have had six children, ' Walt Whitman claimed in a letter late in his life. The title poem of Mark Ford's third collection imagines the great poet's getting of these mysterious children, of whom no historical trace has ever emerged. Conception and extinction dominate this extraordinary new volume from one of the country's most exciting poets; it includes a lament for the passing of the passenger pigeon, a sestina on the Mau Mau insurrection in Kenya (where the poet was born), a chance encounter with a seventy-year-old Hart Crane in Greenwich Village, an elegy for Mick Imlah (whose Selected Poems Ford has edited for Faber), and a moving tribute to that weirdest of religious sects, the Munster Anabaptists. Six Children is Ford's most formally varied and historically wide-ranging volume. It is sure to win many new admirers for a poet whose work has been championed by such as Helen Vendler, John Bayley, Barbara Everett, and John Ashbery.
Training at Fort McClellan Military Base immerses recruits in a rigorous environment designed to mold them into elite soldiers. The story explores the intense challenges and transformative experiences faced by individuals as they navigate the demands of military life. Themes of perseverance, camaraderie, and personal growth unfold against a backdrop of discipline and sacrifice, highlighting the journey from civilian to soldier. As they confront physical and mental obstacles, the recruits discover their true potential and the bonds that form in the face of adversity.
Exploring the lives and influences of notable poets, this collection of essays delves into the contexts surrounding their works, featuring figures like Apollinaire, Pound, Walcott, and Mitchell. The final essay reflects on Douglas Crase, while an appendix showcases a captivating selection of letters from John Ashbery, spanning over three decades of correspondence with Ford. This insightful examination highlights the interconnectedness of poetry and personal relationships, revealing the depth of Ford's engagement with the literary world.
Literary Nonfiction. Literary Criticism. Essays. Poetry. Winner of the 2015 Poetry Foundation's Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism . THIS DIALOGUE OF ONE collects thirteen essays on English, French and American poets by one of the era's most engaging and highly esteemed poet-critics. Like Randall Jarrell, whose achievement is assessed here, Ford combines a refreshing openness to innovation with an authoritative awareness of what makes a poem stand the test of time. Witty, astute and wide-ranging, Ford demonstrates his formidable gifts as a close reader of poetry, whether exploring canonical works by the likes of Whitman, Dickinson, Baudelaire and T.S. Eliot, or championing the cause of neglected figures such as James Thomson, Samuel Greenberg and Joan Murray. As John Lanchester once observed of Ford's essays, "If more literary criticism were like this, more people would read it."
Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Note on Texts -- Abbreviations -- Preface -- Introduction: In Death Divided -- Chapter 1. The Cries of London -- Chapter 2. Only Practical Men Are Wanted Here -- Chapter 3. Crass Clanging Town -- Chapter 4. Power & Purpose -- Chapter 5. The Hand of E. (I) -- Chapter 6. The Hand of E. (II) -- Chapter 7. Literary London (I) -- Chapter 8. Literary London (II) -- Chapter 9. The Well-Beloved -- Chapter 10. London Streets and Interiors -- Epilogue: Christmas in the Elgin Room -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Illustration Sources
Exhilarating fourth collection of poems from the 'intriguing, funny, prophetic' man of letters Mark Ford.
Woman Much Missed is the first book-length study of the many poems that Thomas Hardy composed in the wake of the death of his first wife Emma. It shows how Emma's writings and experiences were fundamental to Hardy's evolution into both a best-selling novelist and into one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century