Carcanet Press - Now, Then

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Illusions and delusions, joys and jokes, mysteries of memory and temporal paradox figure in Andrew McNeillie's new collection. Here are new sequences of bird poems, and tree poems, lines from an autobiography, lines from America, and poems about old age, in elegiac, ironic, and even vitriolic mode. These poems are about being and longing, belonging and not belonging in the world, past or present, now or then. They are about having and not having a home to go to. Haunted by the rapt, rural and wilderness gaze of childhood, youth and young manhood, the poems in Now, Then express worlds and times past of immediate sensual being and seeing 'then' - 'bubble-rapt' - in a 'sound-warp...like a dipper submerged in a rushing pool' - before the world caught up with their author: now counting his blessings, cursing his luck as time flies faster in life's dark wood.

Andrew McNeillie was born in North Wales and read English at Magdalen College, Oxford before becoming an editor and publisher. For a key period in his life, he was literature editor at Oxford University Press. He has also held a chair in English at Exeter University where he is now Emeritus ... read more

Praise for Andrew McNeillie 'A living poetic language flows, easy and slangyâ¦the occasional poems which punctuate the later part of the collection are vitalized and real, among them elegies that remember mourning his fatherâs death, and other deaths, which ring true, urged into being by poetry itself.'
Gillian Clarke 'The finest poems here are witty and elegiac, comforting and cajoling and speak of pervading human concerns with a rare lyrical ease and quiet authority. McNeillieâs special gift is for providing the pleasure that comes from recognition: we can see ourselves in his poems. The book carries an epigram from Wordsworth, and there is a Wordsworthian sense of audience and connection in this collection.'

Times Literary Supplement

'There is some extraordinary virtuosity here â in one poem, he finds 33 half-rhymes for 'envy'.
John Greening, Country Life

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Now, Then Andrew McNeillie 10% off Imprint: OxfordPoets Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (120 pages) (Pub. Oct 2002) 9781903039601 £8.95 £8.05 Description Author Reviews Illusions and delusions, joys and jokes, mysteries of memory and temporal paradox figure in Andrew McNeillie's new collection. Here are new sequences of bird poems, and tree poems, lines from an autobiography, lines from America, and poems about old age, in elegiac, ironic, and even vitriolic mode. These poems are about being and longing, belonging and not belonging in the world, past or present, now or then. They are about having and not having a home to go to. Haunted by the rapt, rural and wilderness gaze of childhood, youth and young manhood, the poems in Now, Then express worlds and times past of immediate sensual being and seeing 'then' - 'bubble-rapt' - in a 'sound-warp...like a dipper submerged in a rushing pool' - before the world caught up with their author: now counting his blessings, cursing his luck as time flies faster in life's dark wood. Andrew McNeillie was born in North Wales and read English at Magdalen College, Oxford before becoming an editor and publisher. For a key period in his life, he was literature editor at Oxford University Press. He has also held a chair in English at Exeter University where he is now Emeritus ... read more Praise for Andrew McNeillie 'A living poetic language flows, easy and slangyâ¦the occasional poems which punctuate the later part of the collection are vitalized and real, among them elegies that remember mourning his fatherâs death, and other deaths, which ring true, urged into being by poetry itself.' Gillian Clarke 'The finest poems here are witty and elegiac, comforting and cajoling and speak of pervading human concerns with a rare lyrical ease and quiet authority. McNeillieâs special gift is for providing the pleasure that comes from recognition: we can see ourselves in his poems. The book carries an epigram from Wordsworth, and there is a Wordsworthian sense of audience and connection in this collection.' Times Literary Supplement 'There is some extraordinary virtuosity here â in one poem, he finds 33 half-rhymes for 'envy'. John Greening, Country Life	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! Anvil Press Poetry Aspects of Portugal Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Carcanet Poetry Fyfield Books Lintott Press Little Island Press Lives and Letters OxfordPoets PN Review Sheep Meadow Press The Carcanet Blog PN Review 265: Editorial read more Patrick Worsnip: On Translating Saba read more In the Quaker Hotel: Helen Tookey read more Caroline Bird: Rookie read more PN Review 264: Editorial read more The Lascaux Notebooks: Philip Terry read more
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