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The Interpretation of Owls is a representative selection of one of
the UK's most prolific and respected poets. Edited by Kevin Gardner
in consultation with John Greening himself, this first American
collection showcases highlights of a remarkable forty-year poetic
journey, displaying extraordinary variety and technical skill. The
contents (arranged thematically to illustrate Greening's abiding
interests and influences) comprise more than 250 poems chosen from
twenty individual collections published between 1982 and the
present. Kevin Gardner has also made a welcome selection of
previously uncollected and unpublished work. Readers of John
Greening's accessible and musical lines will find themselves
transported from America to England to Iceland to Ireland, with a
long stay in Egypt and brief stopovers in several other countries.
Passing from the present to the ancient world and back, these poems
reimagine historical figures, look inward at the poetic self, and
explore the very meaning of home. This outward journeying through
time and space is reinforced by a constant questing for spiritual
meaning-reminiscent of T. S. Eliot, whose influence on Greening has
been profound. Though we are unlikely to find him wrestling with
angels, Greening is nevertheless constantly hoping for revelation,
attuned to the numinous, treating creation as sacred, and ready to
find a world of spirituality in history, myth, or even a lump of
East Anglian clay. The Interpretation of Owls features an author's
preface, an editor's introduction, two indexes, and for readers who
want to experience the work in its order of original publication, a
chronological table of contents. Additionally, there is an
invaluable new interview with the poet in which he discusses with
the editor the background to some of the works.
A household name in Great Britain, John Betjeman was a public
literary figure who openly declared his Christian faith and
championed the social and aesthetic joys of Anglicanism as unique
to English identity. Through poetry in newspapers and on radio and
television broadcasts, Betjeman celebrated the cultural
significance of the Church of England well beyond its religious
role. Although a steadfast proponent for Christianity and the
Church, Gardner explains, Betjeman nevertheless struggled mightily
to believe the faith, and he was forthcoming with his own spiritual
failures. In this master study of his writings, Gardner deems
Betjeman to be the poet of the Church of England--and demonstrates
his works to be a vital part of Anglicanism's living traditions.
John Betjeman's unforgettable poems on landscape and suburbia, desire and death, faith and doubt, helped to establish him as the beloved voice of a nation. Yet the ten books of poetry he published individually, later assembled in the Collected Poems, were an incomplete representation of his poetic oeuvre. Many poems published in journals or magazines were excluded from Betjeman's books by him or his editors and a substantial number of finished poems were never printed at all, remaining unknown to readers - until now.
In this exquisite new edition of Betjeman's verse editor Kevin Gardner promises new treasures for 'Betj's' admirers the world over. Betjeman wrote many of these poems in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when he was still developing his unique poetic voice. They reveal a young poet experimenting with both Modernism and post-Romanticism, yet influenced by Shelley and Pope among others. Some of these poems are profoundly psychological, personal and deeply affecting to read today. Several have the delicate and eccentric touch of much of his early poetry and shed new light on his growth as a young poet, while many others reflect the sustained maturity of his later verse. Almost all are typically amusing and highly witty in the style typical of Betjeman; some verge on the bawdy and even, in one instance, point towards homosexuality. These charming and surprising new discoveries, found in archives as far apart as Austin, Texas, and Christ Church, Oxford, will delight poetry lovers and introduce a whole new generation to Betjeman's unforgettable work.
The book represent a genuine and important discovery in the canon
of Betjeman's poems, often considered closed with the publication
of the "Complete Poems". Between 1953-57, John Betjeman read a
series of poems on "The Faith in the West" program airing on the
BBC's West of England Home Service. This series, called "Poems in
the Porch", was so popular that Betjeman received constant requests
to publish the poems. Although he deprecatingly referred to the
poems as mere 'verses', Betjeman at last capitulated to the public.
The result was a slim volume of six poems, entitled Poems in the
Porch. What few people now realize is that Betjeman read at least
20 original poems on the radio in this series, perhaps even more,
although owing to the haphazard records of both the BBC and
Betjeman himself it is impossible to reconstruct with complete
accuracy the history of this series. Kevin Gardner has been able to
identify and collect 26 of these poems and has written a
fascinating introductory essay recounting the story of Betjeman as
a radio poet and discussing the artistry of these poems. Most have
never been published and currently exist only in manuscript.
Despite the gap between the BBC records on the one hand and the
printed and manuscript texts on the other, Gardner has been able to
construct a relatively reliable edition of "Betjeman's Poems in the
Porch".
Sir John Betjeman was one of the twentieth century's great makers
of the Christian imagination. He was maybe the most significant
literary figure of our time to declare his Christian faith and his
terror of dying. Betjeman used his formidable gifts for poetry to
show us how to think about the Anglican faith and about Englishness
and Christianity in general. Here is an anthology of about 75 poems
on religious themes, with clarifying footnotes and a critical
introduction that offers an overview of his life and poetry as well
as a commentary on some of his more difficult poems. Here is a new
perspective on Betjeman's life and beliefs. This new edition of
Betjeman's religious poetry will demonstrate that Betjeman is the
great poet of the Church in the twentieth century; it will also
introduce delightful, accessible and important poetry to new
readers. It will suggest to both British and American readers ways
of thinking about spiritual cultural and ecclesiastical matters as
well as about the intersection of literature and art.
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