Carcanet Press - All The Poems

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Beads and jewels of long ago look out
from their dark shopwindows
like blackberries in a wayside bramble bush
holding out their arms:
Take me, pick me, I am dark and sweet,
ripe and moist with life.
from 'The Dark Music of the Rue du Cherche-Midi'

Muriel Spark was a poet before she was a novelist: All the Poems presents the full range of the poetry of one of the most acclaimed modern British writers. Here are villanelles, ballads and epigrams, as well as freer forms, all marked by brilliantly precise observation and command of her medium. Her poems are witty, idiosyncratic and haunting, transforming the familiar into glittering moments of strangeness, revealing the dark music beneath the mundane. The edge of danger and wry insights in Muriel Spark's poems are equally unforgettable.

Although most of my life has been devoted to fiction, I have always thought of myself as a poet. I do not write poetic prose, but feel that my outlook on life and my perceptions of events are those of a poet. Whether in prose or verse, all creative writing is mysteriously connected with music and I always hope this factor is apparent throughout my work.

Muriel Spark

The National Library of Scotland holds the Muriel Spark archive and has just launched a dedicated website. Visit www.nls.uk/murielspark/ for more information.

Table of Contents

A Tour of London

The Dark Music of the Rue du Cherche-Midi

The Yellow Book

What?

Verlaine Villanelle

Edinburgh Villanelle

Holy Water Rondel

The Creative Writing Class

Authors' Ghosts

That Bad Cold

Leaning Over an Old Wall

Flower into Animal

Abroad

Going Up to Sotheby's

On the Lack of Sleep

The Grave that Time Dug

The Pearl-Miners

Omen

My Kingdom for a Horse

Intermittence

Letters

Holidays

Facts

Complaint in a Wash-Out Season

Litany of Time Past

The Fall

Faith and Works

Conundrum

The Messengers

Fruitless Fable

Note by the Wayside

Mungo Bays the Moon

Panickings

The Hospital

The Empty Space

Hats

Anger in the Works

Dimmed-Up

While Flickering Over the Pages

Standing in the Field

To the Gods of My Right Hand

That Lonely Shoe lying on the Road

The Victoria Falls

Conversation Piece

Elementary

Against the Transcendentalists

Shipton-under-Wychwood

Conversations

The Card Party

Chrysalis

Elegy in a Kensington Churchyard

Evelyn Cavallo

The Rout

Four People in a Neglected Garden

Like Africa

We Were Not Expecting the Prince To-day

Communication

Created and Abandoned

The Goose

A Visit

Bluebell Among the Sables

Industriad

Canaan

The Nativity

The Three Kings

Sisera

The Ballad of the Fanfarlo

From the Latin:

Persicos Odi

To Lucius Sestius in the Spring

Winter Poem

Prologue and Epilogue

Muriel Spark was born in Edinburgh in 1918. After some years living in Africa, she returned to England, where she edited Poetry Review from 1947 to 1949 and published her first volume of poems, The Fanfarlo , in 1952. She eventually made her home in Italy. Her many novels include Memento ... read more

Praise for Muriel Spark The marvellous thing about Muriel Spark's writing is that...it never gets knotted up in its own so-sharp-she'll-cut-herself cleverness. Spark's writing has a subtle merriment about it, a lightness of touch, a willingness to share in fleeting moments of mundane love and pleasure.
- Jenny Turner, London Review of Books
Like all her work, surprising, beautifully written, and with unnerving glimpses into the abyss which lies, always, beneath our feet.
- John Mortimer, Evening Standard

Herbert Lomas, AMBIT magazine
'...I read more

Ian Sansom, The Guardian , Saturday 11th December 2004
All in the dinkety details:
Ian Sansom admires the sharp intelligence and wry wit of Muriel Spark's Collected Poems
In 1932 a certain Muriel Camberg, of James Gillespie's Girls' School in Edinburgh, was crowned at the Scottish Ideal Home Exhibition, for the best poem commemorating the death of Sir Walter Scott. read more

Susan Eilenberg, The London Review of Books :
In her voice reverberate the voices of others (Blake, Tennyson, Yeats, Eliot, Coleridge), sometimes to grotesque ('The new moon like a pair of surgical forceps/With the old moon in her jaws'), and sometimes to lyrical effect. read more

Reviewed by Sean O'Brien in The Sunday Times , 14 November 2004-11-16
Muriel Spark is among our most distinguished novelists. read more

Reviewed in The Times
Spark aficionados will discover in her poems seeds of the same unsentimental vision of human folly, the same forceful honesty, offbeat glamour, spare authority of style, and surreal wit they find in her novels. read more

Editor's Choice in the Philadelphia Inquirer
The poetic underpinnings of the fiction and the close attention to form are evident throughout this collection. read more

Reviewed in the Financial Times
Muriel Spark is so well-known and well-loved as a novelist that her poetry has almost inevitably been eclipsed. read more

Quote of the Day British publishing always needs the supplement of such enterprises as Carcanet -- beautifully independent, skilfully managed, and by people with exceptional literary taste. It gives one heart that there are such people and such a press, and that they are too resourceful to succumb to the climate. Sir Frank Kermode Home Authors Titles Paperback Hardback Limited Edition Journal CD eBook Imprints Aspects of Portugal Audio Books Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Carcanet Poetry Comma Press FyfieldBooks Lintott Press Lives and Letters Northern House OxfordPoets PN Review Sheep Meadow Press Information About Us Academic Enquiries Authors For Events Catalogue Contact Us Copyright and Permissions Join Our Mailing List Opportunities at Carcanet Press Enquiries PN Review Shopping Guide Stocklist Submission Guidelines Trade Information Resources Audio Interviews Gallery Reviews Video
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All The Poems Muriel Spark RRP: GBP£ 14.95 Discount: 10% You Save: GBP£ 1.50 Price: GBP£ 13.45 Available Hardback ISBN: 978 1 857547 73 3 Categories: 20th Century, Catholic, Scottish, Women Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Published: October 2004 215 x 135 mm 400 pages Publisher: Carcanet Press Also available in: Paperback Description Excerpt Author Contents Reviews Beads and jewels of long ago look out from their dark shopwindows like blackberries in a wayside bramble bush holding out their arms: Take me, pick me, I am dark and sweet, ripe and moist with life. from 'The Dark Music of the Rue du Cherche-Midi' Muriel Spark was a poet before she was a novelist: All the Poems presents the full range of the poetry of one of the most acclaimed modern British writers. Here are villanelles, ballads and epigrams, as well as freer forms, all marked by brilliantly precise observation and command of her medium. Her poems are witty, idiosyncratic and haunting, transforming the familiar into glittering moments of strangeness, revealing the dark music beneath the mundane. The edge of danger and wry insights in Muriel Spark's poems are equally unforgettable. Although most of my life has been devoted to fiction, I have always thought of myself as a poet. I do not write poetic prose, but feel that my outlook on life and my perceptions of events are those of a poet. Whether in prose or verse, all creative writing is mysteriously connected with music and I always hope this factor is apparent throughout my work. Muriel Spark The National Library of Scotland holds the Muriel Spark archive and has just launched a dedicated website. Visit www.nls.uk/murielspark/ for more information. Table of Contents A Tour of London The Dark Music of the Rue du Cherche-Midi The Yellow Book What? Verlaine Villanelle Edinburgh Villanelle Holy Water Rondel The Creative Writing Class Authors' Ghosts That Bad Cold Leaning Over an Old Wall Flower into Animal Abroad Going Up to Sotheby's On the Lack of Sleep The Grave that Time Dug The Pearl-Miners Omen My Kingdom for a Horse Intermittence Letters Holidays Facts Complaint in a Wash-Out Season Litany of Time Past The Fall Faith and Works Conundrum The Messengers Fruitless Fable Note by the Wayside Mungo Bays the Moon Panickings The Hospital The Empty Space Hats Anger in the Works Dimmed-Up While Flickering Over the Pages Standing in the Field To the Gods of My Right Hand That Lonely Shoe lying on the Road The Victoria Falls Conversation Piece Elementary Against the Transcendentalists Shipton-under-Wychwood Conversations The Card Party Chrysalis Elegy in a Kensington Churchyard Evelyn Cavallo The Rout Four People in a Neglected Garden Like Africa We Were Not Expecting the Prince To-day Communication Created and Abandoned The Goose A Visit Bluebell Among the Sables Industriad Canaan The Nativity The Three Kings Sisera The Ballad of the Fanfarlo From the Latin: Persicos Odi To Lucius Sestius in the Spring Winter Poem Prologue and Epilogue Muriel Spark was born in Edinburgh in 1918. After some years living in Africa, she returned to England, where she edited Poetry Review from 1947 to 1949 and published her first volume of poems, The Fanfarlo , in 1952. She eventually made her home in Italy. Her many novels include Memento ... read more Praise for Muriel Spark The marvellous thing about Muriel Spark's writing is that...it never gets knotted up in its own so-sharp-she'll-cut-herself cleverness. Spark's writing has a subtle merriment about it, a lightness of touch, a willingness to share in fleeting moments of mundane love and pleasure. - Jenny Turner, London Review of Books Like all her work, surprising, beautifully written, and with unnerving glimpses into the abyss which lies, always, beneath our feet. - John Mortimer, Evening Standard Herbert Lomas, AMBIT magazine '...I read more Ian Sansom, The Guardian , Saturday 11th December 2004 All in the dinkety details: Ian Sansom admires the sharp intelligence and wry wit of Muriel Spark's Collected Poems In 1932 a certain Muriel Camberg, of James Gillespie's Girls' School in Edinburgh, was crowned at the Scottish Ideal Home Exhibition, for the best poem commemorating the death of Sir Walter Scott. read more Susan Eilenberg, The London Review of Books : In her voice reverberate the voices of others (Blake, Tennyson, Yeats, Eliot, Coleridge), sometimes to grotesque ('The new moon like a pair of surgical forceps/With the old moon in her jaws'), and sometimes to lyrical effect. read more Reviewed by Sean O'Brien in The Sunday Times , 14 November 2004-11-16 Muriel Spark is among our most distinguished novelists. read more Reviewed in The Times Spark aficionados will discover in her poems seeds of the same unsentimental vision of human folly, the same forceful honesty, offbeat glamour, spare authority of style, and surreal wit they find in her novels. read more Editor's Choice in the Philadelphia Inquirer The poetic underpinnings of the fiction and the close attention to form are evident throughout this collection. read more Reviewed in the Financial Times Muriel Spark is so well-known and well-loved as a novelist that her poetry has almost inevitably been eclipsed. read more You might also be interested in: Curriculum Vitae Muriel Spark Collected Poems Edwin Morgan	Share this... 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