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The Face of It

R.F. Langley

RF Langley, The Face of It cover
Categories: 21st Century
Imprint: Carcanet Poetry
Publisher: Carcanet Press
Available as:
Paperback (64 pages)
(Pub. Apr 2007)
9781857549003
Out of Stock
  • Description
  • Excerpt
  • Author
  • Awards
  • Reviews
  • The gate is indigo, but when they give
    directions people call it blue. To lose
    the way is to remember something of
    the stump. But can anyone be ready
    for the moment when the dusk ignites the poppy?
        
                                             from 'Achilles'
    Roger Langley's poems explore perception. They take their bearings from forms as diverse as Renaissance hermeticism, a Greek vase, Rauschenberg's painting, Bottom's dream, a green beetle. Here the world may chime, like a building by Palladio, or disappear on a parting wave as in a film by Bergman. Surprise and truth come together. Things are both ordinary and vivid, distinct and universal. Langley's poems take delight in the sound and sense of language: for him, etymology can be revelation. In the interplay of word and object, each poem attempts an epiphany.
    R.F. LANGLEY was born in Rugby in 1938. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge and went on to teach English and Art History in secondary schools. He has lived in Staffordshire for most of his life, but the inspiration for much of his work comes from the landscapes of Suffolk. ... read more
    Awards won by R.F. Langley Short-listed, 2016 East Anglian Book Awards (Complete Poems ) Short-listed, 2000 Whitbread Prize (Complete Poems )
    Praise for R.F. Langley 'The quality of Langley's writing is extraordinary. On first reading I  found myself bolt upright, the book falling from my hands as his poetry  tore through me.'
    Randolph Healey
    'I recommend you read R.F. Langley's magnificent poems, and his prose journals too, sparingly and for the rest of your life, as you might read a book of meditations'
    'Ghostly Mentor', Claire Crowther.
    'R.F. Langley's Complete Poems (Carcanet), edited by Jeremy Noel-Tod, preserves the work of a comparatively neglected figure, who died in 2011 and whose reputation is bound to rise. It's not a log book, but every single poem is exceptionally watchful and scrupulous. A life's work, to last its readers a lifetime'
    The Guardian, 28.11.2015.
    '[R.F. Langley} was attentive to the natural world and to the textures of the English language, and his Complete Poems is a gem of a book'
    Paul Batchelor, Times Literary Supplement, 27.11.2015.
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