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Material Properties
Material Properties asks what it might mean to interpret and translate wildness into human language and human understanding. The book is a multi-faceted and vital exploration of the non-human, the elemental and the borders between existences. Through poems of parenthood at a time of environmental emergency, and poetic versions of Old English riddles in which animals, objects and natural phenomena speak, the book poses essential questions about our relationship with the living world and with each other.
Praise for previous work, Jackself, from T.S. Eliot Prize ‘a firework of a book, inventive, exciting and outstanding in its imaginative range and depth of feeling’.
Praise for previous work, Jackself, from T.S. Eliot Prize ‘a firework of a book, inventive, exciting and outstanding in its imaginative range and depth of feeling’.
- GenresPoetry
Kindle Edition
Published May 30, 2023
1 person is currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Jacob Polley
16 books14 followersJacob Polley was born in Carlisle, Cumbria. He is the author of three acclaimed books of poems, The Brink (2003), Little Gods (2006) and The Havocs (2012), all published by Picador, UK. He received an Eric Gregory Award in 2002, and both The Brink and The Havocs were shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.
In 2011, he was Arts Queensland’s poet-in-residence, and he was Visiting Fellow Commoner in the Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, 2005-7. He has also held residencies at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and at the Wordsworth Trust.
In 2004, he was named one of the ‘Next Generation’ of the twenty best new poets in Britain. His first novel, Talk of the Town, a fiercely demotic and funny coming-of-age murder mystery, won the 2010 Somerset Maugham Award. He teaches at the University of St Andrews and lives in Fife, Scotland.
In 2011, he was Arts Queensland’s poet-in-residence, and he was Visiting Fellow Commoner in the Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, 2005-7. He has also held residencies at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and at the Wordsworth Trust.
In 2004, he was named one of the ‘Next Generation’ of the twenty best new poets in Britain. His first novel, Talk of the Town, a fiercely demotic and funny coming-of-age murder mystery, won the 2010 Somerset Maugham Award. He teaches at the University of St Andrews and lives in Fife, Scotland.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 9, 2025
My expectations were probably unrealistically high because Jackself is one of my favourite ever poetry collections. I really liked a lot of the poems - especially the sonnets and the shorter ones - but some of the longer poems left m a bit confused. I really need to read it again before making a final judgement.
April 21, 2023
Material properties.... what are they?
November 20, 2023
Four and a half stars
This brilliantly plays with the whole idea that a poem has to mean something or that you have to solve it.
This brilliantly plays with the whole idea that a poem has to mean something or that you have to solve it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews