Tramp in Flames

by Paul Farley

Paul Farley has been widely and justly praised for his extraordinary knack of casting the contemporary experience in an almost mythic and historic light, and following the exceptional acclaim for his first two books, Farley might have been forgiven for resting on his laurels for his "difficult third". Tramp In Flames, however, finds him pushing his imaginative daring and formal ambition to the limit. A book of astonishing variety and range and no little emotional bravery, Tramp in Flames shows Farley rapidly becoming one of the most unfailingly interesting writers of any genre, and definitive English voices of the age.

Genres: Poetry

84 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Paul Farley is the author of four collections of poetry and has received the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Whitbread Poetry Award and the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Reviews

[Marshall A. Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Paul Farley through his collaborations with Micheal Symmons Roberts. Roberts is one of, if not my favourite poet, and I really enjoyed their collaborative effort Deaths of the Poets. So I figured I’d give Farley’s poetry a gander.

While his style and content isn’t as similar to Roberts’ as I’d have hoped, I did still find a few poems that I really enjoyed. Though I wouldn’t say I disliked his style or content overall, I’m not sure I liked the majority of it enough to seek out another of his collections unless it was recommended to me.

My favourites from this collection were:

Liverpool disappears for a billionth of a second
Pantoum of the emergency
Duel
Johnny Thunders said
Requiem for a friend
The scarecrow wears a wire