W. S. Graham Speaking Towards You

by Pite, Ralph; Jones, Hester

• ISBN13: 9780853235798
• ISBN10: 0853235791
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-05
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Summary

Graham's work was published by T. S. Eliot in the 1940s and 50s, but as a major post-war poet, his work has received astonishingly little critical attention given its prestige and influence. This collection of essays covers all aspects of Graham's work its critical reception, recent influence and its relations with other developments in the arts, in particular the work of the St Ives School of visual artists. It includes some biographical material (brief reminiscences by and interviews with those who knew him) and discussions of the material contained in several collections of manuscripts. Nothing so far published has paid attention to these manuscript collections or to the large number of uncollected poems published since his death. Neither has enough been written about Graham's importance to poets of the 1980s and 1990s. "The ten essays in this book are all extremely competent studies of Graham's work [...] constantly aware of the subtleties of Graham's very individual attitudes to his art. The book will make an excellent companion for many readers and students."PNReview

Author Biography

Matthew Francis is a poet and novelist, and lecturer in creative writing at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth Fiona Green is a lecturer in the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Jesus College Hester Jones is a lecturer in English at the University of Liverpool Tony Lopez is Professor of Poetry at the University of Plymouth Edwin Morgan taught at the University of Glasgow until 1980 when he retired as professor Adam Piette is Reader in English at the University of Glasgow Ralph Pite is Reader in English at the University of Liverpool Peter Robinson is a Visiting Professor of English Literature at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan Ian Sansom has recently published The Truth About Babies

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	vii
Acknowledgements	ix
Abbreviations	x
Introduction: Contacting Graham	1	(10)
Ralph Pite
Hester Jones
Listen. Put on Morning	9	(2)
`Listen': W.S. Graham	11	(15)
Ian Sansom
from The White Threshold	25	(1)
Graham and the 1940s	26	(18)
Tony Lopez
from The Nightfishing	43	(1)
`Roaring between the lines': W.S. Graham and the White Threshold of Line-Breaks	44	(21)
Adam Piette
from The Dark Dialogues	63	(2)
Abstract, Real and Particular: Graham and Painting	65	(21)
Ralph Pite
from Implements in their Places	85	(1)
Syntax Gram and the Magic Typewriter: W.S. Graham's Automatic Writing	86	(22)
Matthew Francis
from To My Wife at Midnight	107	(1)
Dependence in the Poetry of W.S. Graham	108	(24)
Peter Robinson
from Dear Bryan Wynter	131	(1)
Achieve Further through Elegy	132	(28)
Fiona Green
Letter X -- My Dear So Many Times	159	(1)
Graham and the Numinous: The `Centre Aloneness' and the `Unhailed Water'	160	(26)
Hester Jones
from Johann Joachim Quantz's Five Lessons	185	(1)
The Poetry of W.S. Graham	186	(9)
Edwin Morgan
Further Reading	195	(2)
General Index	197	(6)
Index of Graham's Works	203