Quote of the Day
Your list has always been interesting, idiosyncratic, imaginative and your translations [...] have been a source of pleasure to me.
Al Alvarez
|
|
Book Search
Subscribe to our mailing list
|
|
Church Chapel and the Unitarian ConspiracyDonald Davie
'A gathered church.'
That posy, the elect, Was gathered in, not into, garden-walls; For God must out of sheer caprice resect The jugular stalks of those He culls and calls. Watts thought his church, though scant of privilege, Walled in its own communion. In its walks Some may have doubted if so sparse a hedge Tempered the blast to blooms still on their stalks. from 'Dissentient Voice: A Gathered Church'
Donald Davie has insisted -- even as he was writing about Modernism and Ezra Pound -- on an area of English literature, history and spirituality misread and misvalued in a secular age when the churches are themselves at pains to dilute or deny the conflicts, sermons, hymns and tracts which defined and energised their chapel lives. Davie neither dilutes nor denies: he reappraises with scholarly, searching love the elements from which his culture and imagination are shaped.
He edited the Oxford Book of Christian Verse and the Penguin Book of Psalms. This volume brings together his 1976 Clark Lectures (Cambridge), the 1980 Ward-Phillips Lectures (Notre Dame) and related material, illuminating the political and spiritual heritage of distinctively English Protestant traditions. This volume completes Carcanet's programme of collecting the prose writings of Donald Davie.
Praise for Donald Davie
'From the publication of his debut collection of poems in 1955 until his passing in 1995, Donald Davie enjoyed a doubly excellent reputation as a critic and a poet... Sinéad Morrissey's Selected Poems gives an admirably rounded picture of his work and guides the reader through the editor's well-judged inclusions with a succinct introduction.'
N.S. Thompson, The TLS 'This is very unusual, essential and distinctive poetry of a kind we so often don't see. Davie had a well developed sense of his own outlook and it does come through in quite complex and multifaceted ways.' Clark Allison, Stride Magazine 'This is a sampler of one of the major poets of the last generation that has been assembled by leaning into the proclivities of one of the major poets of our own... if you have read none of Davie's poetry before, you have a small, perfectly formed, ever-expanding universe to explore.' Rory Waterman, The Friday Poem 'This is an accessible exploration of Davie's work. And it makes me want to read more, so this taster selection clearly works. It is an important reminder of the great writer he was, and how relevant he still is, nearly thirty years after his death. Morrissey's introduction is clear-eyed and intelligent, a perfect primer' James Nash, Everybody's Reviewing 'He has drawn a map of modernism, starting with Hardy and Pound, that remains one of the definitive outlines of twentieth-century experiment in form and language. The mapmaker, in this case,is a notable locus on the map.' Helen Vendler `These poems thrive on the restless energy that drives their author on from form to form and place to place. Few poets are more likely than Davie to persuade new readers that poetry can still be a matter of concern and pleasure.' Martin Dodsworth, The Guardian 'In his criticism, he has drawn a map of modernism, starting with Hardy and Pound, that remains one of the definitive outlines of twentieth-century experiment in form and language.' Helen Vendler |
Share this...
Quick Links
Carcanet Poetry
Carcanet Classics
Carcanet Fiction
Carcanet Film
Lives and Letters
PN Review
Video
Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years!
The Carcanet Blog
Not a Moment Too Soon: Frank Kuppner
read more
Coco Island: Christine Roseeta Walker
read more
that which appears: Thomas A Clark
read more
Come Here to This Gate: Rory Waterman
read more
Near-Life Experience: Rowland Bagnall
read more
The Silence: Gillian Clarke
read more
|
We thank the Arts Council England for their support and assistance in this interactive Project.
|
|
This website ©2000-2024 Carcanet Press Ltd
|