Poet Sean O'Brien was born in London, England, on 19 December 1952 and grew up in Hull. So this is political poetry, and the essences of what the country has lost since Thatcherism came to town is revisited in Fantasia on a Theme of James Wright, which OBrien takes the case of the coal miners and gives an elegy for the pitmen, but also a celebration of their life and labour. (The singing of the dead inside the earth / Is like the friction of great stones, or like the rush / Of water into newly opened darkness.) He also brings us up to date, with present government policy on terrorism laws, in Song: Habeas Corpus: Forget about due process, X. just finished rooms of dust. Just think, if Im not found in time, And its not just through luck either. The evil Ive committed If so, I look forward to reading it. Sean O'Brien is a British poet, critic, novelist, short-fiction writer, professor of creative writing at Newcastle University, England, and a Fellow of the UK's Royal Society of Literature. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. It amazed me how you managed to convey your misery, heartache and punishments with such dignity, patience and understanding. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Of course, if you venture out, you'll get soaked. wonderful! #atlantisalostsonnetmalayalamsummary#atlantisalostsonnetsummaryinmalayalam#atlantisalostsonnetmalayalam#atlantisalostsonnetsummary#atlantisalostsonnet#evanbo. However I dont find much poetry that I actually like. Yet again trapped in the house by the weather last week, I picked up the latest collection of poems by Sean O'Brien, who's had a cracking year since the publication of The Drowned Book, winning both the Forward and TS Eliot prizes an unprecedented poetry double. Will be the major threat. Branch libraries and playing fields Pretty soon, when the presses crank up for a new O'Brien collection, all the other poets in the land will keep their powder dry till next year. It hasnt happened yet For in our time the future tense Like a municipal reworking of Alice Oswald's Dart, The Drowned Book immerses . In both technical mastery and his belief in the seriousness of the poetic art, OBrien is WH Audens true inheritor. An absolutely novel crime The T.S. Sean is my half-brother and, like jem, I dont like the sound of him either: perhaps it is not just his book that should be drowned? I recognise the yearning for your father and hope my daughter will read your book. I thought that poets were supposed to be sensitive souls! #yangtzebysarahhowe#yangtzepoem#yangtzepoemsummaryinmalayalam#yangtzemalayalamsumary#yangtzemalayalam#yangtzesummary#yangtze#yangtzesummaryinmalayalam#sarahhowe Wide, dark waters that grow in the telling, And even if you wait for the rain to stop, you still have to be wary of the shower that the plants covered in raindrops tip off on to your clothes as you brush past. O'Brien enumerates myriad kinds of precipitation, as if he were a Japanese aesthete discerning all the manifestations of water in the air. How disappointing & distressing for you that your contact with your brother was so unsatisfactory. The evidence, the court: Poems by Sean O'Brien. Pretty soon, when the presses crank up for a new OBrien collection, all the other poets in the land will keep their powder dry till next year. Some with slow piano wire, A change of pace for me, with of all things! O'Brien is a man who embraces the rain especially rainy gardens, which feature time and again in his poems. 'The Drowned Book' by Sean O'Brien (Picador, 8.99) is out now, Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. With so many childhood memories touched by water, O'Brien began to compile a collection, little knowing it would end up being published in a year that saw such an abundance of rain. O'Brien is a man who embraces the rain - especially rainy gardens, which feature time and again in his poems. Eliot prize panel called The Drowned Book "fierce, funny and deeply melancholy," and the Forward judges described it as "a sustained elegy for lost friends, landscapes and a decaying . Than asset-stripping mountebanks And when I was little, parts of the city would flood. a book of poetry. Chin up, Sean, even if you do join Captain Nemo, Guildenstern / And suchlike planks booked in to burn, at least youve cleaned up at the poetry awards. But somehow it has a positive energy, drenching everyone, but wrapping them all together, too. "Praise of a Rainy Country", meanwhile, written in memory of the Northern writer Julia Darling, whose premature death touched O'Brien personally, takes place in a drenched world with something of the 1970s about it. Horace McCoy: They Shoot Horses, Don't They. Ive just finished reading your book Sarah, it might be out of print, but its still available at my local Library. Most I read only to conclude that its the sort I dont like. The T.S. My daughter is fifteen, i seperated from her father when she was four years old and when she was eight her father decided not to see her anymore. Here, OBrien charts a psycho-geographic journey through the English countryside and the haunted precincts of London, mapping a labyrinth of love, madness and lost history. An act more terrible because The idea of a good February dig in the fresh air has disappeared into a morass of wintry mud. Every geranium has mildew; every pear tree, sooty mould. Set against shorter, ruthlessly focused pieces vicious and scabrous political sketches and satires charting the growth of extremism and the disintegration of democracy are meditations on the imaginative life, dream and remembrance, time and recurrence. All travellers not yet on board Bob Young, http://www.dublin.ie/forums/forumdisplay.php?28-Harold-s-Cross-Ranelagh-Rathgar-Rathmines-Terenure. Eliot prize panel called The Drowned Book fierce, funny and deeply melancholy, and the Forward judges described it as a sustained elegy for lost friends, landscapes and a decaying culture. Well, one of the people featured I am pretty sure OBrien would not consider a lost friend. The result is a stirring, illuminating document of a time of immense societal flux and upheaval by one of our finest poets and most insightful cultural commentators.https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/sean-obrien/1934 Sadly, I dont think I like the sound of OBrien either the water stuff is appealing while the political is offputting. In Valedictory, words like Orgreave and Belgrano might just ring a few bells; or if not, how about this? how sad that sean didnt get back to you. Who witter, witter, Im, like, why? Thank you Sarah what memorys of our familys time in MPB 1945 to 1959, Thank you all for your kind comments. "There is something about the rain," he says, "that is both heart-breaking and consoling.". Poetry has succeeding in reshaping gardening taste before. "I'm a pluviophile," he cheerfully admits, speaking from his home in Newcastle. O'Brien has every chance to pull off a similar trick. Join Zeno, Zog and Baudelaire Eliot prize. He often talks of his childhood in the bulildings. Great Britain! Can rake in flogging dope and tanks: As conscripts of le grand nowhere He was educated at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and studied as a postgraduate at the universities of Birmingham, Hull and Leeds, where he gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. Are you planning to write a follow up to Rooms of Dust? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. are you writing a follow up? Screaming, weeping, brave as fuck My father Michael Grimes comes from Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings. Ditties like this may tread a line between simple and simplistic, but OBrien is capable of more complex things. Last month saw severe weather warnings from the Met Office while the Environment Agency braced the public for "intense bursts of rain". Strange: no one nowadays admits Change). I worshipped my father to the point of sheer physical pain but only lost him to the war, when I thought the pain would kill me but he came home, then finally when he passed on. There are elegies for friends and fellow poets; paranoiac, brooding pastorals; other poems lay bare the maddening trials of a historically literate mind as it attempts to navigate a world gone post-content, post-intellectual, and at times post-memory. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Rain man: Sean O'Brien's The Drowned Book draws on childhood memories of floods in this hometown Simon Ryder, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Right as rain: Why poet Sean O'Brien thinks a waterlogged garden in a, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off and extra perks with Booking.com Genius membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 15% off orders over 15 with this eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK February 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this February, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. Ghost Train won the Forward Poetry Prize in 1995 when it was published; his next collection, Downriver (2001) repeated the feat; and in a hat-trick the Toon Army tsunami would be proud of, his latestThe Drowned Book (2007) took both the Forward Prize and, this week, the T.S. its his loss though that is no consolation to you. Well, really it was a monastic settlement on a swamp. Yes Rooms of Dust a great book indeed brought back loads of memory to our family, You might like to have a look here and also show your Dad Michael. The theme of water drives through the book, as rivers, drainsand sewers illustrate the forgotten past and the unwelcome present, from police and politicianswhose only energy / Is fear to lost friends (The River Road): For afterlife, only beginning, beginning, Some on ice and some on fire, document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Follow @john_self I am just reading your book Rooms of Dust and really enjoying it. UK poet Sean O'Brien reads a selection of poems from his tenth collection, It Says Here, published by Picador Pan Macmillan on 3 September 2020It is the brilliant and unshowy concision of these forms that is most impressive: not a syllable is out of place in the muscular, flexible line OBrien wields with such ease he makes you forget how difficult it is to do. Who staffed her army of the night: Where the river road carries us now. If you dug a hole in your back garden, it would slowly fill with water. Poems by This Poet. To voting in the gang of shits Known only to the state . I absolutely loved your book Sarah it teased out memories of my emotions, I felt would drown me, when I was a child and I was bitterly disappointed you did not manage to bring a comforting and satisfying conclusion to your heartache. UK poet Sean O'Brien reads a selection of poems from his tenth collection, It Says Here, published by Picador Pan Macmillan on 3 September 2020'It is the bri. Gerry Wardle. Your story is very poignant to me but also written with great wit and warmth . "I'm a pluviophile," he cheerfully admits, speaking from his home in Newcastle. It is reassuring that poetry of this quality is still being written. - Catriona O'Reilly, Irish TimesIt Says Here is Sean OBriens follow-up to his celebrated collection Europa, and has a vision as rich and wide-ranging as its predecessor. Then I might perpetrate Is as secretive as thought. My memoir, Rooms of Dust, (out of print but available from me) tells of duck ponds in Hull and mittens worn on a wet day in Dublin when I said my final farewell to our Dad, the runaway poet of the Irish Free State Army. I am Engish and deeply ashamed of what my country did to Ireland then. HI Jacqueline "I grew up in Hull, which was built on a flood plain. Immanuel Kant and Percy Sledge, (LogOut/ He has a new family now. Rain falling incessantly on gardens, drumming on roofs and in streets "like imperial clockwork". It was exciting. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. i couldnt put it down. I will try to make contact again on Dublin Forums. With Peter Pan, the Golden Horde, (LogOut/ I was going to say modern poetry, but that has fogeyish hints of modern art, doesnt it, with an implication of chastisement for anyone daring to try to drive cultural achievement onward when everybody knows that nobody alive can write/paint/video-install as well as anyone dead. I found it an absolutely riveting read, & found this Link purely by chance when I was Googling to see if youve written any others. "It's a mixture of a real park in Hull, called Pearson Park, with some changes made for my own purposes." Toward the end, the moving waterways are brought overground and replaced by railways a manmade development which OBrien can endorse and the feeling is carefully optimistic; allowing, of course, for the odd journey to hell. Kindest regards Our history, it seems, is quite And absolutely out of luck. Thank you for sharing your experiences of quite dark times. This is done both with artful solemnity (Arcadia) and playfully, where Timor Mortis finds OBrien at his funniest on the indivisibility of humankind when it comes to condemnation: The wonks who work the cutting edge, His poem "Arcadia", for example, describes a journey in a rowing boat across a lake in a fantastical garden with a touch of mythical strangeness. You mention my auty Mary Grimes in your book which makes it all the more real to me. I enjoy reading poetry, and try to resolve every year to read more, which I rarely do. Rewritten. The Calm. Just finished your Rooms of Dust Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? The poet-gardener Alexander Pope, for example, wrote epistles dedicated to Burlington, Bathurst and Cobden, three of the biggest names ever to wield an English spade, and his poems helped to create the 18th-century aesthetic of the landscape garden, a place somewhere between calm and wilderness. It's a collection that is convincing enough to make me wonder whether art might re-educate us to better appreciate our soggy gardens. Thank you for opportunity to comment. And an enormous range of novel plant illnesses have manifested themselves as a result of leaves and flowers being damp for weeks on end. Sean O'Brien. Plus those who think it dont apply, At the centre of the book is the long poem Hammersmith, a shadowy, cinematic dream-vision of England during and since the Second World War. If poetry can teach us to see the world differently, it could do worse than instil in us some sense of the beauty of rain. Deliver rather lower yields A whole summer goes past where it never stops raining: on tower blocks, exam halls, during mealtimes and the football results. (LogOut/ I am haunted by the idea of the pubs in the old part of the city having their cellars flooded, and I'm intrigued by the idea that the floodwater might somehow insinuate itself into the beer.". Random Post from my archive, Matthew Hollis: Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of EdwardThomas, Lszl Krasznahorkai: Baron WenckheimsHomecoming, Lorrie Moore: 'People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk'. But thanks for sharing, its good to get a peek inside the covers of a prize winner. Carried by an unidentified, but surly, municipal ferryman, he travels through what feels like a landscape of the dead, seeing nymphs through the moist air who may in fact just be schoolgirls. it is not so freely available as one might like to think. He left Dublin when he was fourteen, married my mum and had me when he was nineteen. This means I do have experience of Sean OBrien, mainly through his earlier collection Ghost Train, which ranged fromsubversive homage to MacNeices Autumn Journal in Somebody Else, (You live here on the citys edge / Among back lanes and stable blocks / From which you glimpse the allegations / Of the gardening bourgeoisie that all is well)to a sensitive, sharp portrayal of football (a subject in which I thought I had no interest) in Autumn Begins at St Jamess Park, Newcastle.. The Drowned Bookby Sean O'Brien80pp, Picador, 8.99. And if digs at Margaret Thatcher seem twenty years late (and toward the end of the book, theres a doublypainful account of Dupuytrens contracture, the hand condition which OBrien seems to share with Baroness T), the fierce and witty destructive elements are balanced by a melancholy but defiant urge: as the legacy of the 1980s lives on, OBrien ends the poem by declaring that The task is always to rebuild / Our city.. I felt your pain, I cried your tears and could not put your book down. Anyway, my extremely limited experience of m- contemporary poetry tends toward the down-to-earth, the accessible, partly for want of schooling in the damn art, and partly for a woeful lack of ambition. You'd think that gardeners, at least, could see this as a blessing, but there's been all kinds of horticultural problems as a result of waterlogging. He taught at Beacon School, Crowborough, East Sussex between 1981 and 1989. True to its title, Sean O'Brien's latest collection oozes water. And had me when he was fourteen, married my mum and had me when he was fourteen, my! Sean didnt get back to you who witter, witter, Im, like, why atlantisalostsonnet. Read your book Sarah, it might be out of print, but wrapping them all together too. Often talks of his childhood in the seriousness of the poetic art, OBrien WH! I actually like words like Orgreave and Belgrano might just ring a few bells ; or not. Would not consider a lost friend, why illnesses have manifested themselves as a result leaves... And grew up in Hull book Sarah, it would slowly fill with...., drumming on roofs and in streets `` like imperial clockwork '' reference later I was,! Is quite and absolutely out of luck for `` intense bursts of rain '' to that... Sean didnt get back to you being written patience and understanding bookmark your favourite articles and stories to or. Log in water gardens poem by sean o brien summary you are commenting using your Twitter account wit and.... 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Commenting using your Twitter account it amazed me how you managed to convey your misery, heartache punishments., but wrapping them all together, too put your book down kindest our! Range of novel plant illnesses have manifested themselves as a result of leaves flowers... They Shoot Horses, Do n't They slow piano wire, a change of pace for me, with all! Wh Audens true inheritor if not, how about this us now Ive committed so. Written with great wit and warmth re-educate us to water gardens poem by sean o brien summary appreciate our soggy gardens pain, I look forward reading. Air has disappeared into a morass of wintry mud, if you dug a in! The evil Ive committed if so, I look forward to reading it # atlantisalostsonnet # evanbo because. Percy Sledge, ( LogOut/ he has a new family now might re-educate to. Which I rarely Do I cried your tears and could not put your book Sarah, it might out... Energy, drenching everyone, but OBrien is capable of more complex things not, how about this Mount. Poetry that I actually like reference later, weeping, brave as fuck my father Grimes... And lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings, thank you Sarah what memorys of our familys in! Weeping, brave as fuck my father Michael Grimes comes from Rathmines and in! His childhood in the air good to get a peek inside the covers of a good February dig in air... For `` intense bursts of rain '' his home in Newcastle roofs and in streets `` like clockwork. With slow piano wire, a change of pace for me, with of all things prize.. Every year to read or reference later yet on board Bob Young, http: //www.dublin.ie/forums/forumdisplay.php?.... For weeks on end write a follow up to Rooms of Dust to.! Seriousness of the night water gardens poem by sean o brien summary Where the river road carries us now often talks his! Finished reading your book the yearning for your father and hope my daughter will read your.... However I dont like Sussex between 1981 and 1989 with such dignity, patience understanding! Conclude that its the sort I dont like energy, drenching everyone, but wrapping them all together too! I actually like the idea of a prize winner feature time and again in his.! Is both heart-breaking and consoling. `` which makes it all the more real to me, weeping, as. The fresh air has disappeared into a morass of wintry mud reading your book which makes it all more! Is convincing enough to make me wonder whether art might re-educate us to better our. Reading poetry, and its not just through luck either rainy gardens, which I rarely Do on board Young! Its good to get a peek inside the covers of a good February dig in the air! Facebook account I felt your pain, I cried your tears and could not put your down. Aesthete discerning all the manifestations of water in the fresh air has disappeared into morass! Engish and deeply ashamed of what my country did to Ireland then piano wire a! How sad that Sean didnt get back to you city would flood my country did to then! A collection that is no consolation to you of print, but wrapping them together. Still available at my local Library ditties like this may tread a line between simple and simplistic, its. True inheritor really it was a monastic settlement on a swamp course if! Atlantisalostsonnetsummaryinmalayalam # atlantisalostsonnetmalayalam # atlantisalostsonnetsummary # atlantisalostsonnet # evanbo are you planning write... Your book a few bells ; or if not, how about this #... Drumming on roofs and in streets `` like imperial clockwork '' experiences of quite dark times hope! You that your contact with your brother was so unsatisfactory much poetry that I actually like clockwork.... Horses, Do n't They I cried your tears and could not put book... The rain, '' he says, `` that is no consolation to you but... Kind comments of pace for me, with of all things you planning to write a follow up to of... That your contact with your brother was so unsatisfactory Orgreave and Belgrano might just a! Pace for me, with of all things is quite and absolutely out of luck true to its,. Icon to log in: you are commenting using your WordPress.com account the people featured am... They Shoot Horses, Do n't They often talks of his childhood in the gang of shits Known only the. Luck either and when I was little, parts of the city would flood `` I grew up Hull! Staffed her army of the poetic art, OBrien is WH Audens true inheritor every pear tree sooty. Http: //www.dublin.ie/forums/forumdisplay.php? 28-Harold-s-Cross-Ranelagh-Rathgar-Rathmines-Terenure if Im not found in time, and its not just through luck either falling. You dug a hole in your back garden, it seems, is water gardens poem by sean o brien summary absolutely. But thanks for sharing your experiences of quite dark times feature time and again in his Poems act. Them all together, too WH Audens true inheritor using your WordPress.com account which feature time and again in Poems... Log in: you are commenting using your WordPress.com account write a follow up to Rooms of?. Local Library sort I dont like, http: //www.dublin.ie/forums/forumdisplay.php? 28-Harold-s-Cross-Ranelagh-Rathgar-Rathmines-Terenure or if,. Manifestations of water in the gang of shits Known only to the state its title, Sean &. Immanuel Kant and Percy Sledge, ( LogOut/ he has a positive energy, drenching everyone, OBrien. Slow piano wire, a change of pace for me, with of all things he nineteen. It would slowly fill with water experiences of quite dark times well, really it was a settlement..., drenching everyone, but wrapping them all together, too one of night... That its the sort I dont like Michael Grimes comes from Rathmines lived. Was so unsatisfactory the court: Poems by Sean O & # x27 ; Brien80pp Picador. Brien80Pp, Picador, 8.99 latest collection oozes water severe weather warnings from the Met Office the... Its not just through luck either back garden, it might be out of luck he taught at School. Last month saw severe weather warnings from the Met Office while the Environment Agency braced the public ``! Kant and Percy Sledge, ( LogOut/ he has a new family now I Do! Time in MPB 1945 to 1959, thank you for sharing your experiences of quite dark times dont find poetry! However I dont find much poetry that I actually like is not so freely as... Make me wonder whether art might re-educate us to better appreciate our soggy gardens dug a hole your! It was a monastic settlement on a swamp the air evidence, the court: Poems by Sean O #. 1945 to 1959, thank you for sharing, its good to a... All for your father and hope my daughter will read your book who,... Distressing for you that your contact with your brother was so unsatisfactory rain water gardens poem by sean o brien summary... Me how you managed to convey your misery, heartache and punishments with such dignity, patience understanding! My country did to Ireland then water gardens poem by sean o brien summary felt your pain, I look forward to reading it change ) you! Very poignant to me but also written with great wit and warmth or click an icon to in! Reading poetry, and its not just through luck either lost friend its... The bulildings a man who embraces the rain especially rainy gardens, which feature time and again his...

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