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Selected Poems
This selection of the best poems from six remarkable collections reveals that all the strength and sensuality and strangeness is in there from the start. This is a metaphysical poetry for our rooted, steeped in the physical, but stretching for lyric completion, philosophical clarity, emotional truth. These poems achieve their seriousness not through hectoring argument but through their lightness of touch, their wit, their tenderness, their music. Roberts has always been a poet who, in the words of Lavinia Greenlaw, ‘inspires profound meditation on the nature of the soul, the body, the stars and the heart, and sparks revelation’. He is also formally and thematically diverse, restlessly exploring a wide range of subjects from Cold-War fear to love lyrics, genetics to elegies, always returning to the crucial, elemental themes – the mapping of experience and the search for meaning.After Drysalter , his double-prize-winning tour de force , we now have this opportunity to observe the whole arc to the consistency of grace and power, curiosity and risk, passion and intelligence that – together – make Michael Symmons Roberts such a thrilling and essential poet.
- GenresPoetry
192 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2016
4 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Michael Symmons Roberts
27 books21 followersMichael was born in 1963 and spent his childhood in Lancashire, England before moving south with his family to Newbury in Berkshire in the early ‘70’s. He went to comprehensive school in Newbury, then to Oxford University to read Philosophy & Theology.
After graduating, he trained as a newspaper journalist before joining the BBC in Cardiff as a radio producer in 1989. He moved with the BBC to London, then to Manchester, initially in radio, then as a documentary filmmaker. His last job at the corporation was as Executive Producer and Head of Development for BBC Religion & Ethics, before he left the BBC to focus on writing.
His 4th book of poetry – Corpus – was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize for best collection, and the Griffin International Prize. His 6th collection - Drysalter - was the winner of the 2013 Forward Prize and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.
He has previously received the Society of Authors’ Gregory Award for British poets under 30, the K Blundell Trust Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize for his 2001 collection Burning Babylon. In 2007 he received a major Arts Council Writers Award.
His continuing collaboration with composer James MacMillan has led to two BBC Proms choral commissions, song cycles, music theatre works and operas for the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and Welsh National Opera. Their WNO commission - The Sacrifice - won the RPS Award for Opera in 2008, and their Royal Opera House / Scottish Opera commission - Clemency - was nominated for an Olivier Award.
His work for radio includes A Fearful Symmetry - for Radio 4 - which won the Sandford St Martin Prize, and Last Words commissioned by Radio 4 to mark the first anniversary of 9/11. His first novel – Patrick’s Alphabet – was published by Jonathan Cape in 2006, and his second – Breath – in 2008. He is a trustee of the Arvon Foundation, and Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2012 he was made a Fellow of the English Association, for services to the language arts.
He is married with three sons, and lives near Manchester. (source: http://www.symmonsroberts.com/about_l...)
After graduating, he trained as a newspaper journalist before joining the BBC in Cardiff as a radio producer in 1989. He moved with the BBC to London, then to Manchester, initially in radio, then as a documentary filmmaker. His last job at the corporation was as Executive Producer and Head of Development for BBC Religion & Ethics, before he left the BBC to focus on writing.
His 4th book of poetry – Corpus – was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize for best collection, and the Griffin International Prize. His 6th collection - Drysalter - was the winner of the 2013 Forward Prize and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.
He has previously received the Society of Authors’ Gregory Award for British poets under 30, the K Blundell Trust Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize for his 2001 collection Burning Babylon. In 2007 he received a major Arts Council Writers Award.
His continuing collaboration with composer James MacMillan has led to two BBC Proms choral commissions, song cycles, music theatre works and operas for the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and Welsh National Opera. Their WNO commission - The Sacrifice - won the RPS Award for Opera in 2008, and their Royal Opera House / Scottish Opera commission - Clemency - was nominated for an Olivier Award.
His work for radio includes A Fearful Symmetry - for Radio 4 - which won the Sandford St Martin Prize, and Last Words commissioned by Radio 4 to mark the first anniversary of 9/11. His first novel – Patrick’s Alphabet – was published by Jonathan Cape in 2006, and his second – Breath – in 2008. He is a trustee of the Arvon Foundation, and Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2012 he was made a Fellow of the English Association, for services to the language arts.
He is married with three sons, and lives near Manchester. (source: http://www.symmonsroberts.com/about_l...)
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 27, 2022
I received this book as a gift from my best friend for being his best man at his wedding. And started reading it two days after he returned the favour, being my best man at my wedding.
I've thoroughly enjoyed reading through Roberts' poetry and am excited to find full versions of these collections so I can read more.
Fun coincidence - two days ago I found a copy of the book which contains some of my favourite poems from this complication whilst going through a bookstore with the same friend who gave it to me. I highly recommend Roberts and especially his series of poems entitled 'food for risen bodies'.
Upon re-read Jan 1, 2019 from sometime around 3 am to 5:30 am, changed rating from 4 to 5/5. This is a fabulous collection of amazing poetry and I'm excited to begin to collect all of Roberts' books of poetry. His wording is breathtaking and the concepts he works with are absolutely wonderful. A master.
Upon re-read Dec 2022, changed rating back to 4/5. I’ve read (and re-read) alot of his work since I first read this book and I’m still happy to call Michael Symmons Roberts one of my favourite poets, but not all of his poems hit me the same way. I found that a few poems I’d forgotten about made bigger impacts this time around, but mostly it’s a large selection of poems from Corpus and a similar amount of poems from the much larger collection Drysalter.
My favourite poems from this selection are:
From Soft keys (1993)
Angel of the Perfumes
From Raising Sparks (1999)
The lung wash
From Burning Babylon (2001)
Deposition
From Corpus (2004)
Jairus
Carnivorous
Food for risen bodies II
From the half-healed (2008)
The sharpest knife in the world
From Drysalter (2013)
World into fragments
Excise me
The road retaken
Something and nothing (II)
I've thoroughly enjoyed reading through Roberts' poetry and am excited to find full versions of these collections so I can read more.
Fun coincidence - two days ago I found a copy of the book which contains some of my favourite poems from this complication whilst going through a bookstore with the same friend who gave it to me. I highly recommend Roberts and especially his series of poems entitled 'food for risen bodies'.
Upon re-read Jan 1, 2019 from sometime around 3 am to 5:30 am, changed rating from 4 to 5/5. This is a fabulous collection of amazing poetry and I'm excited to begin to collect all of Roberts' books of poetry. His wording is breathtaking and the concepts he works with are absolutely wonderful. A master.
Upon re-read Dec 2022, changed rating back to 4/5. I’ve read (and re-read) alot of his work since I first read this book and I’m still happy to call Michael Symmons Roberts one of my favourite poets, but not all of his poems hit me the same way. I found that a few poems I’d forgotten about made bigger impacts this time around, but mostly it’s a large selection of poems from Corpus and a similar amount of poems from the much larger collection Drysalter.
My favourite poems from this selection are:
From Soft keys (1993)
Angel of the Perfumes
From Raising Sparks (1999)
The lung wash
From Burning Babylon (2001)
Deposition
From Corpus (2004)
Jairus
Carnivorous
Food for risen bodies II
From the half-healed (2008)
The sharpest knife in the world
From Drysalter (2013)
World into fragments
Excise me
The road retaken
Something and nothing (II)
Displaying 1 of 1 review