Swithering
A poetry collection built around hesitation and change, tracing the end of childhood and the volatility of desire in hard-edged, exact language.
Work Information
It captures the unease and allure of things in flux with sharply pitched lyricism.
Robin Robertson’s 2006 collection was published by Picador in a 96-page paperback. It turns myth, landscape, and emotional instability into a hard, crystalline lyric book.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Picador
- Published
- 2006-01-25
- Pages
- 96 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 12.8 x 1 x 19.6 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780330441681
- ISBN-10
- 033044168X
- Price
- 2824 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Poetry/British
WINNER OF THE 2006 FORWARD PRIZE In Scots, the verb 'swither' has two meanings: to be doubtful, to waver, to be in two minds; and to appear in shifting forms - indeterminate and volatile. From disarmingly direct poems about the end of childhood to erotically charged lyrics about the ends of desire, Robertson's powerful third collection is stalked and haunted by both senses. Hard-edged, pitch-perfect, effortlessly various, Swithering is a book of brave and black romance, locating its voice in that space where great change is an ever-present possibility. Swithering has just won the Forward Prize for Best Collection and is also shortlisted for this year's T.S. Eliot Prize.
Robin Robertson is from the north-east coast of Scotland. A Painted Field won a number of awards, including the 1997 Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Saltire Scottish First Book of the Year Award. His second collection, Slow Air, was published in 2002 and he recently received the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Reviews
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Since I discovered Robin Robertson's work in the London Review of Books, I have become an enthusiast. In fact, my eyes, my mind and body get so jangled when I read his poetry that it's hard to analyse why I like it so much. So I'm afraid I'm not going to try. Read it yourselves!
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Stunning work from the greatest bardic poet alive in my opinion. His language has flare-like intensity. Wonderful musicality and stark troubling and often beautiful imagery. Re-wired my aesthetics in the same way Cormac McCarthy did through his novels. I am an artist and songwriter and constantly plunder Robertsons slim precious collections for inspiration and guidance. (I recommend listening to the poet himself reading his poems, has the rare command of cadence second only to Ted Hughes). X
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Prompt delivery. excellent condition. Terrific book.
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For me the least succesful of the 4 volumes of poetry read so far. I still consider him an outstanding modern poet and fully recommend the extanct other 3 volumes.
Related Literary Awards
- Forward Prizes for Poetry Edition 15 (2006) ・Excellence Award