Selected Poems

by John Harold Hewitt

Edited, with a new introduction, by acclaimed poets Michael Longley and Frank Ormsby, Selected Poems is testament to Hewitt's remarkable literary legacy, and a celebration of a unique, compelling and still urgent voice in Irish poetry.

Genres: Poetry

176 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2007

About the author

John Harold Hewitt, who was born in Belfast, was the most significant Belfast poet to emerge before the 1960s generation of Northern Irish poets that included Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon and Michael Longley. He was appointed the first writer-in-residence at Queen's University Belfast in 1976. His collections include The Day of the Corncrake (1969) and Out of My Time: Poems 1969 to 1974 (1974). He was also made a Freeman of the City of Belfast in 1983, and was awarded honorary doctorates the University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast.

From November 1930 to 1957, Hewitt held positions in the Belfast Museum & Art Gallery. His radical socialist ideals proved unacceptable to the Belfast Unionist establishment and he was passed over for promotion in 1953. Instead in 1957 he moved to Coventry, a city still rebuilding following its devastation during World War II. Hewitt was appointed Director of the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum where he worked until retirement in 1972.

Hewitt had an active political life, describing himself as "a man of the left", and was involved in the British Labour Party, the Fabian Society and the Belfast Peace League. He was attracted to the Ulster dissenting tradition and was drawn to a concept of regional identity within the island of Ireland, describing his identity as Ulster, Irish, British and European. John Hewitt officially opened the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre (BURC) Offices on Mayday 1985.

Reviews

[Peter McClung · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Irish poet (planter self-described) that deserves to be better known, beautiful descriptions of Ulster, particularly the glens, its nature and its people . Substance and shadow as well as Ulster names are two to get a feel for his style.

[David Campton · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as I can see this is the only collection of Hewitt's prodigious output still in print, but it is a superb one, drawn together by two local poets inspired by him. If truth be told there are more poems per page in this collection that resonate with me than any other anthology of a single poet's work, including (heresy alert) Heaney. Part of that is background and political outlook, part of it about emotional tone. He was at home in different poetic forms and geographical and social settings: an urban Planter poet who sought solace among rural Gaelic culture; an enforced exile and perceptive commentator on the sectarian storm that was to engulf his native city and province. It's a shame it has taken me this long in life to take a deep dive into his work, but I shall return.

[Sarah Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really lovely collection of Hewitt's best work

[Ellie McKee]

I spent more than a year dipping in and out of this book. Some great poems but, sadly, too many went a bit over my head. (The fault of my head, not the poetry, you understand.)

[Malvina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this selection of poetry from John Hewitt. He has an artist's eye for the unusual, a knowledge that the Irish countryside brings forth lush treasures but he still doesn't 'belong' there (being a city boy), and he has a poignant turn of phrase whether composing about politics, Irish life, or family. Some of the more memorable poems for me were The Owl, The Green Shoot, An Irishman in Coventry, The Search, Neither an Elegy nor a Manifesto ("Bear in mind these dead..."), and I Lie Alone. This is a slim volume to keep coming back to.

This simple four-line poem gives a wonderful example of his mastery with words:

GREY AND WHITE
Grey sea, grey sky
two things are bright;
the gull-white foam,
the gull, foam-white.