Killing Time: The Millennium Poem

by Simon Armitage

In this 1000-line poem, the manic countdown to 1000 years of history reaches its climax, with the last 12 months spooling past like newsreel. It is a vision full of humorous and bleaker possibilities, which ranges forward and back through time and space, mixing and matching as it goes.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Simon Armitage, whose The Shout was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, has published ten volumes of poetry and has received numerous honors for his work. He was appointed UK Poet Laureate in 2019

Armitage's poetry collections include Book of Matches (1993) and The Dead Sea Poems (1995). He has written two novels, Little Green Man (2001) and The White Stuff (2004), as well as All Points North (1998), a collection of essays on the north of England. He has produced a dramatised version of Homer's Odyssey and a collection of poetry entitled Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid (which was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize), both of which were published in July 2006. Many of Armitage's poems appear in the AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) GCSE syllabus for English Literature in the United Kingdom. These include "Homecoming", "November", "Kid", "Hitcher", and a selection of poems from Book of Matches, most notably of these "Mother any distance...". His writing is characterised by a dry Yorkshire wit combined with "an accessible, realist style and critical seriousness."

Reviews

[Lesley Potts · Rating 4 out of 5]

No-one said the books you read have to be lengthy, right? I think my friend, Joy, an English teacher in England sent this to me back in 1999, the year it was published. It's a 1,000 line poem, "the manic countdown to a thousand years of history..." I remember how much fun New Year's Eve was that year - watching the whole world from the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, and on through Asia, and Europe welcome the new century (although technically it wasn't if you remember the nitpicking arguments). I never did read it until now and it was well worth the wait. There was a total eclipse in England that year. The Columbine massacre, poignantly described in terms of horticulture, the Paddington train crash, reality tv shows, the War in Iraq, and an exploration of time itself. It was kind of nice to finish my reading challenge on New Year's Eve reading a poem about New Year's Eve. I didn't plan it that way, it just happened.

[Harry Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has become one of my top 3 books of all time so far. Masterful.

[Natashaketel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather eerie social commentary on the impact of technology on society and the effects of the media on our daily life. Very very quick read and hugely thought-provoking.

[Indu Muralidharan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those long poems that compel the reader to stay on the page, from the first line to the thousandth, in a whirlwind journey through images of time as it has evolved through a millennium. The poem starts by introducing a freak monkey shaped life-form that has evolved from technology and has a voracious appetite for the news. From there, it turns a panoramic eye on the world as it stood at the end of the twentieth century, making observations on political conditions, war and peace, consumerist culture, the environment and humanity, exploring the nature of time and the meaning of truth through current events of the period as well the many dimensions of civilisation.

Time is explored through metaphors, such as a reality show trying to recreate how civilisation adapted and evolved, two boys who distribute flowers in their school (a chilling reference to the Columbine high school shootings) and two men observing the world below from a hot air balloon. Universal truths come through from between the sharp images and the intrinsic rhymes, of how water holds memory that can restore history and conjure up ‘whatever is unseen and unsung (Killing Time, 31)’. Also how one day to the Universal Spirit is as thousand years, and thousand years as one day. And how while millions partied in a frenzy on the millennium’s eve, a million people and more kept away with the awareness that this was but a fictional time and date far removed from the world’s real pulse.

Sixteen years after it was written, ‘Killing Time’ remains more relevant than ever, in a world where everything has a price and few things have real value any more, where cameras and microphones work 24 x 7 in every nook and cranny manufacturing news, where time continues to build up thicker and faster than ever, and time or the memory of a past, richer time that is held between and implied between the lines of poems such as these, seem to be the only time that really counts.

[Graham Salisbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Armitage's 1000-line poem was originally conceived as part of a full-length documentary which was appropriately and symbolically broadcast on New Year's Day 2000.

Filled with contemporary references - the Columbine high school shootings, the Paddington rail crash, the London nail bombings, the Millenium Eclipse - Armitage casts his expert eye over an age characterised by cynicism, materiality and the impossiblity of avoiding the searchlight of media intrusion.

As ever, his imagery is haunting, original, memorable and witty. Pour yourself a coffee, pull up a chair, but fasten your seat-belt for a roller-coaster ride to the end of the last millenium.

[Belinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Armitage displays the urgency of time through his constant repetition of lists. His lists often include one line annecdotes, metaphors, or simply names. It increases the pace of his poem. His short passages also highlight an attention span. In some cases he chooses not to continue into detail but merely concludes his idea in four lines. In comparison to the lengthier passages, he is identifying reinforcing the idea of attention span with time. His longer passages seem to resemble the news.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this. Sloppy and indulgent stuff that trades resonance for relevance.

[R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional. Armitage's best work by far, in my opinion, and one of the best long poems I've ever read.

[Jen B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is wonderful, but I had to knock a star off for how it was written to be easily digested by the non-poetry-reading masses, although I know this is because it was commissioned by the New Millennium Experience Company to be read aloud on TV on New Year's Day, 2000. It was still a really good, comprehensive, skillful poem, I just really hate limericks.

[Faye Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just genius.

Published in 1999, but perhaps even more poignant as the years go on.

A poem I often go back to and have read over and over. Armitage's use of metaphors keep the poem from feeling exhausting and allows you to remain present within it.

A haunting yet necessary read.