The Darkness of Snow - Brossura

Frank Ormsby

Brossura

ISBN 10: 178037366X ISBN 13: 9781780373669

Casa editrice: Bloodaxe Books, 2017

Riassunto

Poetry Book Society Recommendation The Darkness of Snow is Frank Ormsby's most varied and versatile collection to date. It includes three substantial sets of poems whose themes are refreshingly and sometimes painfully new. One is a suite of poems - sombre, good-humoured, flippant - about the early stages of Parkinson's Disease. Ormsby was diagnosed as having the disease in 2011. Another was prompted by the work of Irish painters in Normandy, Brittany and Belgium at the end of the 19th century. There are also further explorations of his boyhood years in Fermanagh, while poems set in Belfast reflect the aftermath of the Troubles and celebrate the city's current phase of recovery and restoration. The book ends with a narrative poem about the trial of an unnamed tyrant in which we learn about the Accused (as he is called), about the villagers who have travelled to bear witness to the atrocities carried out in the village, and about one of the interpreters, who understands the slipperiness of Truth. The Darkness of Snow covers work written since Frank Ormsby's retrospective, Goat's Milk: New & Selected Poems (2015). His broad range and eye for the particular combine to make this an exceptional collection.

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Recensione:

...The Darkness of Snow's dark heart beats strongest in two closing sequences which help elevate it to a collection of extraordinary worth. --Martin Malone, Poetry Ireland Review

'To describe Frank Ormsby's The Darkness of Snow as wide-ranging would be something of an understatement, for this collection amounts to a surprisingly vast and deeply engrossing journey acorss the peripheries of the human condition... a deeply lyrical yet utterly unostentatious collection. Although we live in a world riddled with uncertainty, this can be warmly recommended without the slightest equivocation.' - Malcolm Bradbury, Acumen

'Ormsby has found his place and time in The Darkness of Snow. Ecological and political, personal and historical, these are songs of reconciliation by a poet who was always, in fact, a generous maker of his own peace processes, and exceptionally wise in the art of being human.' - Carol Rumens, PN Review

'Ormsby's generosity pervades this book not only in the sequences, but also in the other delicate, graceful, individual lyrics which fill the book with precision and insight.' --Ian Pople, The Manchester Review [on The Darkness of Snow]

"Fervour" seems an apt description for what Ormsby has been undertaking in his lifelong commitment to poetry. He has written - quietly, diligently and effectively - for more than 40 years now. His first full collection, A Store of Candles, was published in 1977 and The Darkness of Snow marks the latest chapter in that "mad desire" to pursue perfect poems. --Pól Ó Muirķ The Irish Times

L'autore:

Frank Ormsby was born in 1947, in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, and was educated at Queen's University in Belfast. Until 2010 he was Head of English at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. His latest collections are The Darkness of Snow (Bloodaxe Books, 2017), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation in the UK and shortlisted for a National Book Circle Critics Award in the US, and The Rain Barrel (Bloodaxe Books, October 2019). His retrospective Goat's Milk: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2015), includes work from four previous collections, A Store of Candles (Oxford University Press, 1977), A Northern Spring (Secker & Warburg, 1986), The Ghost Train (Gallery Press, 1995) and Fireflies (Carcanet, 2009), together with new poems. It was shortlisted for the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize 2018.

He has edited a number of anthologies and other books, including Northern Windows: An Anthology of Ulster Autobiography (1987), Thine in Storm and Calm: An Amanda McKittrick Ros Reader (1988), The Collected Poems of John Hewitt (1991), and The Hip Flask: Short Poems from Ireland (2001), all from Blackstaff Press, and The Blackbird's Nest (2006), an anthology of poems from Queen's University, Belfast.

Frank Ormsby was editor of The Honest Ulsterman from 1969 to 1989, and has also edited Poetry Ireland Review. In 1992 he received the Cultural Traditions Award, given in memory of John Hewitt, and in 2002 the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry from the University of St Thomas at St Paul, Minnesota. Frank Ormsby was guest of honour at BBC Proms in the Park 2017 at Castle Coole in Northern Ireland; actor Adrian Dunbar read two poems from Goat's Milk: New & Selected Poems accompanied by the Ulster Orchestra and harpist Richard Allen in a specially commissioned work by Graeme Stewart.

In September 2019 Frank Ormsby was named the eighth Ireland Professor of Poetry. He will serve from 1 November 2019 until 31 October 2022.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Bloodaxe Books
• Data di pubblicazione: 2017
• ISBN 10: 178037366X
• ISBN 13: 9781780373669
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 128