Fire of Joy, The: Roughly 80 Poems to Get by Heart and Say Aloud

by Clive James

Essentially, this is Clive James' desert island poems: a selection of his favourite verse and a personal commentary on each.

The Fire of Joy was the final book Clive James completed before his death in 2019. It takes its title from the French expression Feu de Joie, which refers to a military celebration when all the riflemen of a regiment fire one shot after another in a wave of continuous sound: it is a reminder that the regiment’s collective power relies on the individual, and vice versa.

In this book, James has chosen a succession of English poems, exploding in sequence from Chaucer to the present day; they tell the story of someone writing something wonderful, and someone else coming along, reading it, and feeling impelled to write something even more wonderful. After a lifetime, these are the poems James found so good that he remembered them despite himself. In offering them to you, the main purpose of this book is to provide ammunition that will satisfy your urge to discover, learn and declaim verse.

As well as his selection of poems, James offers a commentary on each: whether this is a biographical, historical or critical introduction to the poem, or a more personal anecdote about the role a particular poem has played in James’s life, these mini essays provide the joy of James’s enthusiasm and the benefit of his knowledge. Full of the flashing fires of poems you will not be able to forget, this book will ignite your passion and leave you with a contagious crackle rattling in your ears.

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

An expatriate Australian broadcast personality and author of cultural criticism, memoir, fiction, travelogue and poetry. Translator of Dante.

Reviews

[Alex Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this - more for Clive James commentary on each poem than for the poems themselves. I enjoyed no more than 5 of the 80 poems on offer. Most seem like pretentious twaddle if I am honest. Think this is my problem - I read this to try and 'get' poetry. It looks like a lost cause. But at least I tried and it was fun doing so.

[Malvina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a Clive James fan for years, first being introduced through the first of his autobiographies 'Unreliable Memoirs' via a book club (for which I've forever been thankful). His body of work is immense, his intellect and insights unstoppable, his humour a delight. It is a gift to read this book, his last before he died 11 months ago at the age of 80 years. To celebrate his age, the book showcases eighty of his favourite poems, plus a few others just because he can, and doesn't want them forgotten. From his cracking introduction (where he explains the significance of the title) you know you're in for a treat. Even reading his 'Rules On Reading Aloud' is rather marvellous. And then the poems begin...

They're mostly printed in entirety, apart from some excerpts from very lengthy poems. They are listed chronologically, from an 'Anonymous' poem from ??, and 'They Flee From Me' by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1535), to the final 'The Red Sea' by Stephen Edgar (2008) - and a few riotous others in the Postcript. Each poem is followed by a short commentary, and that is the utter delight of the book.

Clive James has the gift of cutting through language and potential inaccessibility (or not) in poetry, and making it all a thing of joy - 'the fire of joy', in actuality, as his title proclaims.

I think my four favourite comments were as follows:

1. On Christina Rosetti's poem 'Remember': 'The line "Yet if you should forget me for a while" really means "forget me and my ghost will return to make a shambles of your sock drawer"...'
2. On Emily Dickinson: 'Her collected works are a bowl of beads...Shadows still hold their breath when she speaks.'
3. On Galway Kinnell (who I confess I've never heard of) and his poem 'The Avenue Bearing the Initial of Christ into the New World': 'All of his word pictures, throughout the poem, flare with that magnesium intensity.'
4. On Seamus Heaney and his poem 'Shore Woman': 'The only possible answer to the question "How did he think of that?" was "Because he's him."'

This is a book to keep on the shelf and dip into again and again. It will continually bring you that fire of joy.
Many thanks to Beauty & Lace Book Club and Pan McMillan Australia for the fabulous opportunity to read this review copy. It was a privilege and delight.

[Rohan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great random find at a library, encouraging me to read poetry aloud (that's how you appreciate the rhythm)

And it's so good to read poems and not have to "analyse" them, just enjoy them for what they are. I recommend it!

[Tom Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book I wish I’d read as a kid. Because it’s the best way into poetry that I’ve ever come across.

As always, Clive James is insightful and entertaining in this, his last book. And as always, he delights in sharing his enthusiasms.

Loved it. Tried to stick to just one poem a night, to stretch it out for as long as possible. Brilliant.

[Richard Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of poems gave me great pleasure. It's becpme the book I give to others.

My blog:

https://richardswsmith.wordpress.com/...

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should be regarded along with the slim book on Philip Larkin as James’s farewell to the love of his life.

No, not his ego - poetry.

The comments are witty and often shrewd. Ted Hughes had a ‘Merlin-type magic’ for transformation, but was marinated in mysticism: ‘voodoo and necromancy became far too natural for a man whose business should have been clarity.’ Derek Walcott is praised for a style as lush as his surroundings, but lamented for only rarely delivering ‘the lightning strike of his talent without taking an hour out of your life.’

There are some well known choices here: ‘An Arundel Tomb’, ‘My Last Duchess’, ‘La Figlia Che Piange.’ Also welcome are less well-known talents. I hope more people are encouraged to read Stephen Edgar after absorbing his superb poem ‘The Red Sea’, which closes the anthology. Life ends but beauty endures. So does poetry. So will this book.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed reading a couple of poems before bed each night from this anthology, Clive James also adds some notes about each poem, discussing why he likes it, etc. Perfect bedtime reading.

[Simon Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything about this is great, all the way through to the very final acknowledgments and the pictures in the fold of the dust jacket.

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned:
“Anyone can be destructive, but the capacity to build something will go on being the great human surprise.”

I had not expected this to cover so many different eras of poetry! I enjoy poetry books for flow and easy to digest temporary distraction, but this was a hard read as the themes and author types jumped around and was more of an education. With it in terms of walking through approaches, descriptions and breakdowns on meaning though - I had no idea that James was such an English scholar! Poetry really is a mad and magic land...

“Shadows still hold their breath when she speaks” (Emily Dickinson)

[G.G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of English poetry, from the anonymous "Western Wind" (Western wind when wilt thou blow/that the small rain down can rain./Christ, if my love were in my arms/and I in my bed again.) through "The Red Sea" by Stephen Edgar (b. 1951). James includes old favorites like Donne's "The Sun Rising", Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How do I love thee?", and Arnold's "Dover Beach", but the majority of his choices were unfamiliar to me. What pleasure to discover John Clare's "All Nature Has a Feeling" (1845), Seamus Heaney's "Shore Woman" (c.1969), U. A. Fanthorpe's "Not My Best Side" (1978), and many others.

James' commentary is often as interesting as the poems. On Dylan Thomas, he writes:

On the Caedmon LP record, which we played to pieces back there at the Sydney house parties in the late 1950s, he performs [In My Craft or Sullen Art] like a tenor who has escaped from the nearest opera house, condemned never to hear an orchestra again, so he must supply his own music from the weight and balance of the words (p.199)

On Philip Larkin's "An Arundel Tomb":

[T]he poet knows only or cares only that [the earl and the countess] are still together, traveling further into time even as he gazes upon 'their supine stationary voyage'. It's one of the great registrations in all his poetry of the difference between the personal and the eternal (p.230)

On Sylvia Plath's "Cut":

I read this poem the month it was published in London magazine, during the bad winter of 1962, and I thought: if she can do this, she can do anything. [...] Plath's poem had a world war in it. She continued to think on a world scale while Hughes occupied himself with voles and weasels. (p.251)

James' concluding essay, "Growing up in poetical Australia", recalls with affection the poets he knew when he was a student at Sydney University in the 1950s. Despite his forays into fiction, memoir, and television, we can surely agree with him when he writes that he "chose the right profession--poetry--and followed it to the end." (p.297)

[Melissa Trevelion · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fire of Joy was the final book Clive James wrote before his death in 2019. His vision impaired and unable to write Clive remembered his favourite English poems by heart.
His love of poetry and vast collection captured in his mind he wanted to expand and ignite the minds of individuals to explore the most significant poems from the sixteenth century to the present day.

There are over 80 poems in the book; each James has offered commentary which is critical, positive or technical and what impact the poem has played in his life.

I feel generations of today have lost the meaning of poetry and how much it plays a part in history and our lives, The journey may be filled with dead ends and suffering or endless joy and happiness, with poetry you read, you listen, and you feel.

This a book you can read at your own pace or in a full sit, I recommend reading a few poems at a time so you can feel the emotion of the poem.

Thank you Beauty & Lace and Pan Macmillan AU for the opportunity to read and review.

[David Campton · Rating 5 out of 5]

80 poems (plus), some well known to me but most not, pulled together to mark Clive James' 80th and last birthday with the final chapter and postscript written between that date and his death a month later. This anthology is supposedly aimed at encouraging readers to memorize poems and say them aloud, clearly a formative experience for James in his early days in Australia and London. But this is a feat that has consistently eluded me despite the fact that I have a flypaper memory for useless facts and once earned a living as an actor. But I never retained lines longer than I needed to. My brain needed to make space for important things like the speed of Concorde. But I do remember the timbre and rhythm of James' voice and it spoke loud in these pages with his trademark wit, perception and warmth. It also reminded me that my poetic endeavours both as a reader and writer are mere paddling in the shallows, like the image evoked in the final poem.

[Peter Langston · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful apocalypse of poems Mr James chose for his final commentary. A favourite of mine since his earliest writing on leaving his homeland and becoming an Australian in England, it was first his commentaries of great poetry and his choice of immortal works which drew me in further and then his own sublime verse. Here we have his final selection - the “80 or so” he still remembered when his eyes failed and he approached the leaving. He has done so with expected alacrity and engaging wit, whilst providing insight into form, style and the character of the poets featured. What a joyous way to say goodbye.

[Adam Wainwright · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a few bright patches in here but I found it a bit of a slog. My overriding view of James is that he was a randy old goat. I did pick out a few interesting poems in there - Carol Ann Duffy (Mrs Midas) and even though he was an execrable human being the minimalist Ezra Pound.

As with all poetry however, it is like an art I think which needs time to bed down and dwell in your head. I can't see that happening with many here, as I got undercurrents of 'randy old goat' and as a gay bloke I don't have the common experience to connect fully I guess. I will, however, re-read nearly immediately but take one poem a day and try to absorb.

[Stephen Hull · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clive James’s final book is a poetry anthology with a difference. Well, two differences, actually. The first is that the poems were chosen to be read aloud. The second is that each comes with a pithy Clive James afterword. If you like Clive James’s writing, you’ll be delighted. If you hate Clive James’s writing, you’ll be annoyed. Either way, you’ll have an interesting poetry anthology to keep you company, so you can’t really lose. Me, I (with slight reservations) like Clive James’s writing, so enjoyed it a lot – even more so because this was his final book, written in the shadow of impending death (even more that the previous three were).

[Anna Mullick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply moving and changed my view on poetry. The joy in this book has changed how I feel about myself, aging and dying. I love how uncynical he is and how unpretentious the book reads. Truly an incredible introduction to poetry and made me a bit weepy at times. It felt almost sacred or haunting reading a book by a dying man (who died shortly after he wrote the book) whilst I feel at the beginning of my life. It is a pleasure to take the lessons he learnt at the end of his life and hopefully apply them to mine. SMASHING. Fave poems - Mrs midas, last meeting (Gwen hardwood) and any Sylvia Plath but the cut

[Jenny Esots · Rating 4 out of 5]

An introduction to classic poets through the eyes of Clive.
This is a collection that needs to be slowly savoured.
Poems are particularly poignant and powerful when read aloud and I feel this is the way Clive intended them to be read.
There is also a delight in hearing someone else read them, so if you are lucky enough to find a person to do this for you (or collective of people), the door is open to the full experience of poetry.
My taste in poems doesn't align with Clive, but I love his perky and literate introductions, memories and descriptions.

[Robin Hargreaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find myself turning more and more to poetry. This book is a gem if you like the idea but find some work hard to penetrate. James’ brief analysis/critique/poignant reflection after each work is marvelous. I would read the poem (aloud) which is definitely the way to get the rhythm. Then read the short segment afterwards then re read always with a much better understanding.
James’ occasional references to to the fact that the end of his poetic and physical life was fast approaching is heart warmingly frank and never maudlin.
I loved this book. What a marvelous teacher he would have been.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because I liked the idea of a poetry collection that also provides some commentary on the poems. However, the author is unfortunately very opinionated and I do wish it was more of a general comment on the poems, their authors and the context of their creation rather than the author's personal judgment of these things.
When it comes to the poems themselves, I did like a few of them but not as many as I would have hoped, considering it's such a curated collection.