Ode to Didcot Power Station

by Kit Wright

Few English poets have quite Kit Wright's range. From heart-felt lyricism to blistering satire, from the ribald to the grief-stricken, his poems cover almost everything life can throw at anyone, quite literally from the sublime to the ridiculous. Entertaining and engaging, writing with wit, panache and dazzling virtuosity, Kit Wright is both a seriously funny poet and a poignant chronicler of our times. His latest collection, published on his 70th birthday, shows him young at heart and writing, as always, from the heart of England. 'A witty, brilliantly varied collection.' - Suzi Feay, Independent on Sunday [on Ode to Didcot Power Station]. 'Sublime' Kit Wright, one of the best poets writing in Britain today.' - Carol Ann Duffy, Guardian. 'As a poet he simply has more bounce per ounce.' - Patricia Beer, TLS. 'Funny and profoundly human.' - Christina Patterson, Sunday Times. 'His poetry is profoundly English in its combining of jaunty rhythms, comic rhymes'with subject-matter that is frequently bleak, blackly funny, and grimly personal. Bereavement, breakdown, failure (particularly in love), the "tears and terrors" or the quiet desperation beneath the surfaces of ordinary English life, a recurring note of grief or sympathy for victims and underdogs - and a persistent strain of remorse and self-reproach' these are fairly constant in Wright's work, but so are the metrical ingenuity, the levity, and verbal panache.' - Alan Jenkins, Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry. 'He has formal virtuosity which is often comic; rumbustious, ribald, benign. But through all this work there is that poignancy, darkness, brush with despair which makes great comic work.' - Ruth Padel, Independent on Sunday. 'Masterly yet modest.' - Sean O'Brien, TLS.

Genres: Poetry

108 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2014

About the author

Kit Wright (born 17 June 1944 in Crockham Hill, Kent) is the author of more than twenty-five books, for both adults and children, and the winner of awards including an Arts Council Writers' Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize and (jointly) the Heinemann Award. After a scholarship to Oxford University, he worked as a lecturer in Canada, then returned to England and a position in the Poetry Society. He is currently a full-time writer.

Reviews

[Jon Margetts · Rating 2 out of 5]

The collection as a whole didn’t quite match up to the standard and wit of the titular poem. Flashes of intrigue, but on the whole a bit disjointed.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thoroughly English, containing lots of gentle humour. Too much of both of those things for me. Favourite moments: 'The Spiritus Loci...'; 'Stabat Mater'; 'London Stars'.