Poetry Matters
Reviews
Each month, Poetry Matters will include reviews of some of the most recent books of poetry. The reviews are written with an eye to introducing readers to contemporary verse, and allowing them to choose for themselves from among the different styles and voices of new poetry in Britain and Ireland. They will also introduce readers to some of the key debates about modern verse, and its production and reception, by representing a number of contrasting critical positions and preferences.
Over time, the reviews will build into an archive, and we hope that they can be used as a resource both by readers and teachers, who might want to test their own views of various writers against the opinions of our reviewers.
Feedback is always welcome, so do feel free to contact us with your own opinions of the books under review, or of the reviews themselves.
The views expressed by contributors to the reviews section of Poetry Matters are not those of Tower Poetry, or of Christ Church, Oxford, and are solely those of the reviewers.
June 2008
May 2008
- Michael Hofmann’s Selected Poems reviewed by Simon Pomery
- John Kinsella’s Shades of the Sublime and Beautiful reviewed by Nicholas Pierpan
- For All We Know by Ciaran Carson, reviewed by Anna Lewis
January 2008
- C.E.J. Simons reviews Sophie Hannah’s Pessimism for Beginners
- Jane Griffiths reviews Public Dream by Frances Leviston
- Ben Wilkinson reviews Tilt by Jean Sprackland
- Sarah Bennett reviews The Fifty Minute Mermaid by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Paul Muldoon
November 2007
- Peter McDonald reviews Hawks and Doves by Alan Gillis
- Alan Gillis reviews On Purpose by Nick Laird
- Matthew Sperling reviews Common Prayer by Fiona Sampson
September 2007
- AB Jackson reviews A Treatise of Civil Power by Geoffrey Hill
- C.E.J. Simons reviews The Drowned Book by Sean O’Brien
- April Warman reviews Demolition by Neil Rollinson
- John Redmond reviews Local Honey by Robert Saxton
August 2007
- Fran Brearton reviews The Pomegranates of Kandahar by Sarah Maguire
- 'Dark Wings': Alison Brackenbury reviews Birds with a Broken Wing by Adam Thorpe and Black Moon by Matthew Sweeney
July 2007
- Lesley Bankes-Hughes reviews The Hat by Carol Ann Duffy
- David Wheatley reviews The Best Man That Ever Was by Annie Freud
April 2007
- Fiona Sampson reviews The Estate by Sasha Dugdale
- Mishtooni Bose reviews The Speed of Dark by Ian Duhig
- Carrie Etter reviews Lorraine Mariner’s Bye for Now
March 2007
- April Warman reviews Gift Songs by John Burnside
- Alison Brackenbury reviews Look We Have Coming to Dover by Daljit Nagra
- Ups and Downs: Tim Kendall reviews Mocker by David Wheatley
February 2007
- Jane Holland reviews The Poem and the Journey by Ruth Padel
- Patrick Macfarlane reviews Misappropriations by Jasmine Donahaye
January 2007
- Stephen Burt reviews Averno by Louise Glück
- Fran Brearton reviews Horse Latitudes by Paul Muldoon
- April Warman reviews Little Gods by Jacob Polley
December 2006
- John Redmond reviews Essays on Departure by Marilyn Hacker
- Fiona Sampson reviews The Deleted World, Tomas Tranströmer, versions by Robin Robertson and An Anthology of Contemporary Russian Women Poets, edited by Valentina Polukhina and Daniel Weissbort
November 2006
- Robert Herbert reviews Trouble Came to the Turnip by Caroline Bird
- Jane Griffiths reviews Spirit Brides by Togara Muzanenhamo
- Matthew Sperling reviews Cracks in the Universe by Charles Tomlinson
October 2006
- Fiona Sampson reviews The Biplane Houses by Les Murray
- April Warman reviews The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea by Mark Haddon
September 2006
- Jeremy Noel-Tod reviews Tramp in Flames by Paul Farley
- Peter McDonald reviews Tyrannosaurus Rex versus The Corduroy Kid by Simon Armitage
July 2006
- Alison Brackenbury reviews Juniper Street by Vona Groarke
- Gillian Clarke reviews Slower by Andrew McNeillie
June 2006
May 2006
- John Redmond reviews James Fenton’s Selected Poems
- Carrie Etter reviews The Book of Blood by Vicki Feavera
April 2006
March 2006
- Jeremy Noel-Tod reviews Swithering by Robin Robertson
- April Warman reviews Without Title by Geoffrey Hill
January 2006
December 2005
- Frances Leviston reviews: Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy
- Olivia Cole reviews Skirrid Hill by Owen Sheers
- Matthew Sperling reviews The Anti-Basilisk by Christopher Middleto
November 2005
- Stephen Burt reviews Stolen Love Behaviour by John Stammers
- Carrie Etter reviews Marabou by Jane Yeh
- Kissing and Telling: April Warman reviews Selected Poems by Sharon Old
October 2005
September 2005
- Jane Draycott reviews How to Write a Poem by John Redmond
- Mishtooni Bose reviews Intimates by Helen Farish
- Jane Yeh reviews Selected Poems by Robert Crawford
August 2005
July 2005
- Polly Clark reviews The State of the Prisons by Sinead Morrissey
- Peter McDonald reviews Harbour Lights by Derek Mahon
- John Lyon reviews We Were Pedestrians by Gerard Woodward
June 2005
- Fiona Sampson reviews Collected Poems 1978-2003 by U.A. Fanthorpe
- John Redmond reviews Woods etc. by Alice Oswald
- Matthew Sperling reviews three new collections from Stride
May 2005
- Frances Leviston reviews: Ginnel by Lucy Newlyn
- Alan Gillis reviews: Mandelson! Mandelson! A Memoir by David Herd
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
- John Redmond reviews: To a Fault by Nick Laird
- Fiona Sampson reviews: Strange Land by Tim Kendall
- Matthew Sperling reviews: The Good Neighbour by John Burnside
