Barry MacSweeney was described as 'a contrary, lone
wolf...[whose] ear for a soaring lyric melody was
unmatched' (Nicholas Johnson, Independent). MacSweeney
found fame with his first book, The Boy from the
Green Cabaret Tells of his Mother, which appeared
when he was just nineteen years old. But he soon
retreated from the publicity, and for almost thirty
years his poetry appeared only in small press
publications. Identifying himself with Chatterton and
Rimbaud, MacSweeney developed a poetics based on
experiment and excess, from the fragmented lyricism of
'Brother Wolf' to the political anger of 'Jury Vet';
from the dizzying historical perspectives of
Ranter to the nightmarish urban landscape of
Hellhound Memos. In 1997, MacSweeney once again
found a wider audience, with the publication of his last
full-length book, The Book of Demons, which
recorded his fierce fight against alcoholism. This book
also included Pearl, a sequence of tender lyrics
celebrating the poet's first love and his rural
Northumbrian childhood. At the time of his death in
2000, MacSweeney was preparing a retrospective selection
of his work for publication. When Wolf Tongue:
Selected Poems 1[zasłonięte]965-20 appeared in 2003, it
brought a wealth of poetry back into print, displaying
the incredible range, ambition and quality of
MacSweeney's work. Reading Barry MacSweeney is the first
book of essays to assess MacSweeney's achievement.
Bringing together academic critics, poets and friends of
the poet, the book considers many aspects of
MacSweeney's career, including his political verse, his
re-imagining of pastoral poetry, his love of popular
music, and his mapping of Northumberland. Contributors
include Professor W.N. Herbert, Matthew Jarvis, Peter
Riley, Professor William Rowe, Harriet Tarlo and
Professor John Wilkinson, as well as MacSweeney's
journalist friend Terry Kelly, and poet S.J. Litherland,
MacSweeney's former partner.
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