Carcanet Press - Timely Issues

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... He hangs upon the Cross and I seek words
And how they can be lifted into prayer.
The soldiers come with hammers and with
swords
And flies are buzzing in the blinding air.
Should I seek opposites as Herbert did
To reach the truth: I need the spirit to
Leap through flesh...

from 'Prayer: Homage to George Herbert'

In her long experimental poem 'Concerning History' from her 1998 collec-tion Praises, Elizabeth Jennings asks,
'Does history tell love-stories? 'The answer as she, like her mentor Robert Graves, knows is yes, if the poet listens carefully. Out of lives which history mistreats, out of crisis, out of innocence and out of religious faith emerge love stories. Like Rilke, her task is to praise, as a lover praises, the things made, the makers and the Maker.

All of Elizabeth Jennings's later poetry has been an act of prayer and praise. Things are no longer overlooked, the daily world is suffused with another light, ancient and steadily sourced. Her sonnets, sequences, lyric poems and elegies are the work of a writer endlessly curious about the human creature and its spiritual dimensions.

Elizabeth Jennings was born in Boston, Lincolnshire in 1926, and lived most of her life in Oxford, where she moved in 1932. She was educated at Rye St Antony and Oxford High School before reading English at St Anne’s College, Oxford, where she began a B.Litt., but left to pursue a ... read more

Praise for Elizabeth Jennings But there is no sterility here: I defy you to read "A Living Death" and not be on the verge of tears by the end of it ("I am caught up / Within a death that does not die â¦") This is a supremely dippable-into book. Its bulk is liberating, not intimidating. - Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian, Tuesday 3rd April, 2012. But there is no sterility here: I defy you to read "A Living Death" and not be on the verge of tears by the end of it ("I am caught up / Within a death that does not die â¦") This is a supremely dippable-into book. Its bulk is liberating, not intimidating. - Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian, Tuesday 3rd April, 2012. But there is no sterility here: I defy you to read "A Living Death" and not be on the verge of tears by the end of it ("I am caught up / Within a death that does not die â¦") This is a supremely dippable-into book. Its bulk is liberating, not intimidating. - Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian, Tuesday 3rd April, 2012. '[A] fine poet who ... manages to build the richest of poems from the barest of methods' - The Times, 14/12/75 '[A] subtle and remarkable poet ... how accomplished she is' - Alan Brownjohn, Encounter, Jan 1980 'the outstanding thing about Jennings's poetry is its wisdom, hard-earned from grief and religious faith' - Douglas Dunn, the Glasgow Herald, 15/5/82 'in an era dominated by vacuous verbiage, such poetry as Elizabeth Jennings continues to produce is indeed a triumphant anomaly.' - David Gascoyne, the Tablet, 14/9/85 'She is one of the few living poets one could not do without.' - Peter Levi, the Spectator, 19/10/85 (on Collected Poems): 'it contains some of the finest lyric poetry of the 20th century' - Anne Stevenson, The Sunday Times, 14/9/86 'she has shown herself to be a poet who really has a personal vision along with the gift for making it immediate and shareable' - Kingsley Amis, the Spectator, 6/12/86 'Elizabeth Jennings is a highly original and sensitive poet, greatly undervalued' - Robert Collie, the Gay Times, February 1989 'in an agnostic age it is daring to write poems of religious rhapsody and more daring still to write as if the making of poems were a sacred activity.' - James Aitchison, the Glasgow Herald, 7/5/89 'one of contemporary English poetry's major sublunary assets' - Will Eaves, the Times Literary Supplement, 15/01/93 'Her poetry ... conveys a strength of feeling and sincerity that few contemporary poets can match.' - Tom Velickovic, the Bookseller, 16/9/94 'a pleasure, as well as a poetic education, to read' - Gwyneth Lewis, Poetry Review, Volume 84 no 4, Winter 1994 'Elizabeth Jennings is a wonderful poet.' - Hugh Bredin, Fortnight 'she writes with a clear-eyed, simple tenderness which is never mawkish and reminds me of the great 17th-century poet, George Herbert' - Vernon Scannell, the Sunday Telegraph 'She's a major poet of our time' - Germaine Greer

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Timely Issues Elizabeth Jennings RRP: GBP£ 6.95 Discount: 10% You Save: GBP£ 0.70 Price: GBP£ 6.25 Available Paperback ISBN: 978 1 857545 15 9 Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Published: June 2001 216 x 135 x 13 mm 288 pages Publisher: Carcanet Press Description Excerpt Author Reviews ... He hangs upon the Cross and I seek words And how they can be lifted into prayer. The soldiers come with hammers and with swords And flies are buzzing in the blinding air. Should I seek opposites as Herbert did To reach the truth: I need the spirit to Leap through flesh... from 'Prayer: Homage to George Herbert' In her long experimental poem 'Concerning History' from her 1998 collec-tion Praises, Elizabeth Jennings asks, 'Does history tell love-stories? 'The answer as she, like her mentor Robert Graves, knows is yes, if the poet listens carefully. Out of lives which history mistreats, out of crisis, out of innocence and out of religious faith emerge love stories. Like Rilke, her task is to praise, as a lover praises, the things made, the makers and the Maker. All of Elizabeth Jennings's later poetry has been an act of prayer and praise. Things are no longer overlooked, the daily world is suffused with another light, ancient and steadily sourced. Her sonnets, sequences, lyric poems and elegies are the work of a writer endlessly curious about the human creature and its spiritual dimensions. Elizabeth Jennings was born in Boston, Lincolnshire in 1926, and lived most of her life in Oxford, where she moved in 1932. She was educated at Rye St Antony and Oxford High School before reading English at St Anne’s College, Oxford, where she began a B.Litt., but left to pursue a ... read more Praise for Elizabeth Jennings But there is no sterility here: I defy you to read "A Living Death" and not be on the verge of tears by the end of it ("I am caught up / Within a death that does not die â¦") This is a supremely dippable-into book. Its bulk is liberating, not intimidating. - Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian, Tuesday 3rd April, 2012. But there is no sterility here: I defy you to read "A Living Death" and not be on the verge of tears by the end of it ("I am caught up / Within a death that does not die â¦") This is a supremely dippable-into book. Its bulk is liberating, not intimidating. - Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian, Tuesday 3rd April, 2012. But there is no sterility here: I defy you to read "A Living Death" and not be on the verge of tears by the end of it ("I am caught up / Within a death that does not die â¦") This is a supremely dippable-into book. Its bulk is liberating, not intimidating. - Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian, Tuesday 3rd April, 2012. '[A] fine poet who ... manages to build the richest of poems from the barest of methods' - The Times, 14/12/75 '[A] subtle and remarkable poet ... how accomplished she is' - Alan Brownjohn, Encounter, Jan 1980 'the outstanding thing about Jennings's poetry is its wisdom, hard-earned from grief and religious faith' - Douglas Dunn, the Glasgow Herald, 15/5/82 'in an era dominated by vacuous verbiage, such poetry as Elizabeth Jennings continues to produce is indeed a triumphant anomaly.' - David Gascoyne, the Tablet, 14/9/85 'She is one of the few living poets one could not do without.' - Peter Levi, the Spectator, 19/10/85 (on Collected Poems): 'it contains some of the finest lyric poetry of the 20th century' - Anne Stevenson, The Sunday Times, 14/9/86 'she has shown herself to be a poet who really has a personal vision along with the gift for making it immediate and shareable' - Kingsley Amis, the Spectator, 6/12/86 'Elizabeth Jennings is a highly original and sensitive poet, greatly undervalued' - Robert Collie, the Gay Times, February 1989 'in an agnostic age it is daring to write poems of religious rhapsody and more daring still to write as if the making of poems were a sacred activity.' - James Aitchison, the Glasgow Herald, 7/5/89 'one of contemporary English poetry's major sublunary assets' - Will Eaves, the Times Literary Supplement, 15/01/93 'Her poetry ... conveys a strength of feeling and sincerity that few contemporary poets can match.' - Tom Velickovic, the Bookseller, 16/9/94 'a pleasure, as well as a poetic education, to read' - Gwyneth Lewis, Poetry Review, Volume 84 no 4, Winter 1994 'Elizabeth Jennings is a wonderful poet.' - Hugh Bredin, Fortnight 'she writes with a clear-eyed, simple tenderness which is never mawkish and reminds me of the great 17th-century poet, George Herbert' - Vernon Scannell, the Sunday Telegraph 'She's a major poet of our time' - Germaine Greer	Share this... 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