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Collected Poems, 1978 - 1999
Craig Raine's first collection, "The Onion, Memory" (1977), could be said to have changed the landscape of contemporary British poetry. This, together with his second, "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" (1978) established Raine as the founder of the 'Martian' school where the poet forces us to see the most commonplace objects as miraculous.
Raine presented a wholly original view of the modern world further broadened by publicaton of "Rich" (1984) and his epic verse novel, " History: the Home Movie" (1994) where the poet illuminates the details of daily lives. This was followed by "Clay. Whereabouts Unknown" in 1996.
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"The Collected Poems" confirms Raine as one of the most influential poets to have emerged in Britain since the war.
Raine presented a wholly original view of the modern world further broadened by publicaton of "Rich" (1984) and his epic verse novel, " History: the Home Movie" (1994) where the poet illuminates the details of daily lives. This was followed by "Clay. Whereabouts Unknown" in 1996.
" "
"The Collected Poems" confirms Raine as one of the most influential poets to have emerged in Britain since the war.
- GenresPoetry
651 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2000
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About the author
Craig Raine
81 books46 followersPoet and critic Craig Raine was born on 3 December 1944 in Bishop Auckland, England, and read English at Exeter College, Oxford.
He lectured at Exeter College (1971-2), Lincoln College, Oxford, (1974-5), and Christ Church, Oxford, (1976-9), and was books editor for New Review (1977-8), editor of Quarto (1979-80), and poetry editor at the New Statesman (1981). Reviews and articles from this period are collected in Haydn and the Valve Trumpet (1990). He became poetry editor at the London publishers Faber and Faber in 1981, and became a fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1991. He gained a Cholmondeley Award in 1983 and the Sunday Times Writer of the Year Award in 1998. He is founder and editor of the literary magazine Areté.
His poetry collections include the acclaimed The Onion, Memory (1978), A Martian Sends a Postcard Home (1979), A Free Translation (1981), Rich (1984) and History: The Home Movie (1994), an epic poem that celebrates the history of his own family and that of his wife. His libretto The Electrification of the Soviet Union (1986) is based on The Last Summer, a novella by Boris Pasternak. Collected Poems 1978-1999 was published in 1999. A new long poem A la recherche du temps perdu, an elegy to a former lover, and a collection of his reviews and essays, entitled In Defence of T. S. Eliot, were both published in 2000. Another collection of essays, More Dynamite, appeared in 2013.
Craig Raine lives in Oxford. His latest books are How Snow Falls (2010), a new poetry collection; and two novels, Heartbreak (2010), and The Divine Comedy (2012).
He lectured at Exeter College (1971-2), Lincoln College, Oxford, (1974-5), and Christ Church, Oxford, (1976-9), and was books editor for New Review (1977-8), editor of Quarto (1979-80), and poetry editor at the New Statesman (1981). Reviews and articles from this period are collected in Haydn and the Valve Trumpet (1990). He became poetry editor at the London publishers Faber and Faber in 1981, and became a fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1991. He gained a Cholmondeley Award in 1983 and the Sunday Times Writer of the Year Award in 1998. He is founder and editor of the literary magazine Areté.
His poetry collections include the acclaimed The Onion, Memory (1978), A Martian Sends a Postcard Home (1979), A Free Translation (1981), Rich (1984) and History: The Home Movie (1994), an epic poem that celebrates the history of his own family and that of his wife. His libretto The Electrification of the Soviet Union (1986) is based on The Last Summer, a novella by Boris Pasternak. Collected Poems 1978-1999 was published in 1999. A new long poem A la recherche du temps perdu, an elegy to a former lover, and a collection of his reviews and essays, entitled In Defence of T. S. Eliot, were both published in 2000. Another collection of essays, More Dynamite, appeared in 2013.
Craig Raine lives in Oxford. His latest books are How Snow Falls (2010), a new poetry collection; and two novels, Heartbreak (2010), and The Divine Comedy (2012).
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June 4, 2012
When I first encountered Craig Raine's poetry it was like a homecoming, one of the most exciting moments in my literary youth. Here was someone who seemed to write about the same world that I saw through my eyes - the most commonplace things having a breathless mystery about them. I have since discovered that his approach spawned an entire school of "Martian Poetry" that takes his "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" as its point of departure into a tour of the most familiar things seen through alien eyes: "There are tiddlywinks / of light in the summer woods. /Play with them. The ironing-board / has permanent lumbago. Pity it." In "Scrap", "The [petrol] pump held a gun to its head an empty theatrical gesture". "Enquiry into Two Inches of Ivory", "A Cemetery in Co.Durham" and "The Behaviour of Dogs" are the poems that stand out the most for me from this collection and are always with me.
Displaying 1 of 1 review