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Jackself
Jackself is the fourth collection from one of Britain's finest poets, and sees Jacob Polley at the height of his powers. In one of the most original books of poetry to appear in the last decade, Jackself spins a kind of 'fictionalized autobiography' through nursery rhymes, riddles and cautionary tales, and through the many 'Jacks' of our folktale, legend, phrase and fable - everyman Jacks and no one Jacks, Jackdaw, Jack-O-Lantern, Jack Sprat, Cheapjack and Jack Frost. At once playful and terrifying, lyric and narratively compelling, Jackself is an unforgettable exploration of an innocence and childhood lost in the darker corners of Reiver country and of English folklore, and once more shows Polley as one of the most remarkable imaginations at work in poetry today.
- GenresPoetry
80 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 3, 2016
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142 people want to read
About the author
Jacob Polley
16 books14 followersJacob Polley was born in Carlisle, Cumbria. He is the author of three acclaimed books of poems, The Brink (2003), Little Gods (2006) and The Havocs (2012), all published by Picador, UK. He received an Eric Gregory Award in 2002, and both The Brink and The Havocs were shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.
In 2011, he was Arts Queensland’s poet-in-residence, and he was Visiting Fellow Commoner in the Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, 2005-7. He has also held residencies at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and at the Wordsworth Trust.
In 2004, he was named one of the ‘Next Generation’ of the twenty best new poets in Britain. His first novel, Talk of the Town, a fiercely demotic and funny coming-of-age murder mystery, won the 2010 Somerset Maugham Award. He teaches at the University of St Andrews and lives in Fife, Scotland.
In 2011, he was Arts Queensland’s poet-in-residence, and he was Visiting Fellow Commoner in the Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, 2005-7. He has also held residencies at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and at the Wordsworth Trust.
In 2004, he was named one of the ‘Next Generation’ of the twenty best new poets in Britain. His first novel, Talk of the Town, a fiercely demotic and funny coming-of-age murder mystery, won the 2010 Somerset Maugham Award. He teaches at the University of St Andrews and lives in Fife, Scotland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
November 16, 2016
Have read Jacob Polley's 'Jackself' from cover to cover. I tried twice to put it down, but just couldn't resist going back to it.
It speaks in a living, vital, urgent language spiced with the ordinary-made-unique.
It moved me to tears, to laughter, and to writing more than I have written for months.
It speaks in a living, vital, urgent language spiced with the ordinary-made-unique.
It moved me to tears, to laughter, and to writing more than I have written for months.
February 14, 2017
Poems are space particles
separated, dissipated
and randomly reformed,
no longer needed are origin poets
who are burnt-through
during atmospheric reentry
Jacob Polley doesn't exist.
separated, dissipated
and randomly reformed,
no longer needed are origin poets
who are burnt-through
during atmospheric reentry
Jacob Polley doesn't exist.
January 23, 2021
Playful, surreal and mesmeric – simply fantastic.
August 18, 2023
Fabulous collection of poetry - awe inspiring and by far one of the most imaginative minds I have ever come across. If you love poetry seek this out, if you haven't read a poem since school days read this - it will assault your senses and obliterate any negative thoughts you have of this genre. A book to be opened again, again and again and spoken about to others. Read it aloud and hear your heart sing, read it to yourself and feel your heart break by the sheer power of his words.
February 6, 2017
I can't remember the last time I read a poetry book that felt as fresh as this - it felt as if I was reading something genuinely different. The fact that there was something of a sinister undercurrent to the whole sequence was interesting and I liked the way it was rooted in Cumbria (I spent some of my childhood living there and it seemed to take something essential from the place - not that I can really explain what that something is...) One for multiple readings - it was all I could do not to start again immediately!
February 4, 2017
What an exceptional book this is. I am certain to return to it again and again. So many poems already stand out for their marvellous music, and their unearthings of archetypal angsts almost beyond the scope of words. This work, with its rootednesss in folk histories, and its tragicomic take on the passage of the individual from childhood to adult, is truly extraordinary. It's wonderful that it won the T.S. Eliot Prize. A fantastic conjuring of congeries. Read it, savour it, be disturbed, be amused, and be delighted by the music in it.
February 5, 2018
Jackself, is set within ‘Reiver,’ a rural landscape, reminiscent of the author’s own childhood home of Cumbria in the north of England. In the first poem ‘The House that Jack Built,’ Polley describes an English rural landscape as it evolves, throughout time. It is a pastoral landscape that most readers, especially those of British/Western origin, will recognise.
Jackself, the protagonist is a boy strongly based on a number of fairy tale character’s called Jack; an everyman/everyboy. He is the loveable rogue, the simple son, to the more sinister murderer, Jack the Ripper. An ever changing carnivalesque kaleidoscope.
This is not simply a book of poetry ; though the poems can and do stand alone and can be read as individuals, but when read together, they become a real masterpiece, a retelling of the dark side of English folklore
Jackself, the protagonist is a boy strongly based on a number of fairy tale character’s called Jack; an everyman/everyboy. He is the loveable rogue, the simple son, to the more sinister murderer, Jack the Ripper. An ever changing carnivalesque kaleidoscope.
This is not simply a book of poetry ; though the poems can and do stand alone and can be read as individuals, but when read together, they become a real masterpiece, a retelling of the dark side of English folklore
December 1, 2021
I don't buy a lot of poetry books because most of the ones I did buy were impenetrable. I knew I wasn't buying 'Oh, shines the moon on old East Cheam!' but I did expect to understand the essential theme of the poem.
Wonderfully, 'Jackself' is understandable, though the language is often tricky, deliberately so, to great poetic effect. The use of offset is highly effective too and many of the images are sublime.
The poems demand to be read aloud to get the full flavour of the language, though I'd advise doing this on public transport.
I read each poem through at least thrice before proceeding, such is the beauty of them.
Wonderfully, 'Jackself' is understandable, though the language is often tricky, deliberately so, to great poetic effect. The use of offset is highly effective too and many of the images are sublime.
The poems demand to be read aloud to get the full flavour of the language, though I'd advise doing this on public transport.
I read each poem through at least thrice before proceeding, such is the beauty of them.
May 27, 2021
I can see why its design is appealing: questions of identity and poetry/art are at stake in the autographic use of folk tales and folk tale personae, and I'm sure many are enticed by Polley's gothic and fantastical verses. The relationship between Jackself and Jeremy Wren is also touching. But overall I felt distant from the force of the poetry, not least perhaps because these were not tales I grew up with.
March 6, 2023
Continuing my week of reading TS Eliot Prize winner’s. This one was the winner in 2016. Yeah it was pretty good, playful, and pretty funny actually. The first poem kinda turned down my mood ‘cause the title reminded me of that dumb movie.
January 31, 2025
A wonderful assortment of verse that also tells a singular flowing narrative, I was struck by a handful of poems which were almost horrifyingly beautiful, and especially by the characterisation of Jeremy Wren and his ghost. An excellent start to the 2017 reading year.
December 15, 2018
Oh my god - I put off reading this as I thought (for some reason) that I wouldn't like it. It is outstanding and weird and disturbing and fresh and wow - I couldn't put it down.
November 27, 2017
I think I have a new favourite poet. (And not a woman for once.)
What this made me think of most was Posy Simmonds' Tamara Drewe (the graphic novel not the movie).
What this made me think of most was Posy Simmonds' Tamara Drewe (the graphic novel not the movie).
December 19, 2017
Pure delight from start to finish. Poetry for the tongue!
November 13, 2018
You have to hear Jake read it.
January 20, 2019
Brilliant! Individual poems with an accumulative plot thread that takes you on eerie, funny, poetic journey. Loved it.
December 31, 2020
I only liked Jack Frost and Tithe. Disappointed because I was sold on the premise but maybe it just went over my head. Didn’t enjoy.
August 5, 2023
Brilliant, brilliant book of poetry. So insanely inventive.
August 10, 2025
我相信等我读懂更多，我会更喜欢它。它的氛围和语调是难解但迷人的，有几首能瞬间击中我，于是我相信，我也是JACKSELF
March 2, 2017
… like citrus in winter …
I had to keep putting the book down. Is that a weird thing to say? Does anyone else do that? Again and again, I would come across a phrase or an image, that was so arresting and intense that, like sharp grapefruit, I was compelled to stop and savour before reading on. Jacob himself talks of “a glimpse of something” in The Guardian‘s series My Writing Day; and it is these glimpses that the judges of the TS Eliot Prize hint at when they describe the collection as “a firework of a book”.
The images are embedded in a playful, shadowy autobiography of Jack, and his many selves, set in a mythic Cumbrian border country called Lamanby. Jack and his mate, Jeremy Wren, banter and fool about through 34 poems. Their casual brutality and grimy surroundings, mixed with nursery rhymes and folklore, put me in mind of the wonderful Rooster in Jez Butterworth‘s play, Jerusalem.
If you buy only one book of poetry this year, it really should be this one. Highly recommended.
Jacob Polley was born in Carlisle, Cumbria. He is the author of four books of poems and a novel, Talk of the Town. He teaches at the University of Newcastle where lives.
Cover design moment: The very arresting puppet cut-out design was inspired by a Franz-Josef Holler design called “Jockey” and presumably comes out of the PanMacmillan Art Department. I am still trying to find out.
This book is the fifth review in my British Books Challenge 2017. Come and join us at over at Chelley Toy’s site.
Jackself by Jacob Polley was published by Picador Poetry on 3 November 2016. It won the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry 2016 announced on 16 January 2017. I bought it from Emily’s Bookshop. Hiya Em!
I had to keep putting the book down. Is that a weird thing to say? Does anyone else do that? Again and again, I would come across a phrase or an image, that was so arresting and intense that, like sharp grapefruit, I was compelled to stop and savour before reading on. Jacob himself talks of “a glimpse of something” in The Guardian‘s series My Writing Day; and it is these glimpses that the judges of the TS Eliot Prize hint at when they describe the collection as “a firework of a book”.
The images are embedded in a playful, shadowy autobiography of Jack, and his many selves, set in a mythic Cumbrian border country called Lamanby. Jack and his mate, Jeremy Wren, banter and fool about through 34 poems. Their casual brutality and grimy surroundings, mixed with nursery rhymes and folklore, put me in mind of the wonderful Rooster in Jez Butterworth‘s play, Jerusalem.
If you buy only one book of poetry this year, it really should be this one. Highly recommended.
Jacob Polley was born in Carlisle, Cumbria. He is the author of four books of poems and a novel, Talk of the Town. He teaches at the University of Newcastle where lives.
Cover design moment: The very arresting puppet cut-out design was inspired by a Franz-Josef Holler design called “Jockey” and presumably comes out of the PanMacmillan Art Department. I am still trying to find out.
This book is the fifth review in my British Books Challenge 2017. Come and join us at over at Chelley Toy’s site.
Jackself by Jacob Polley was published by Picador Poetry on 3 November 2016. It won the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry 2016 announced on 16 January 2017. I bought it from Emily’s Bookshop. Hiya Em!
March 21, 2018
Jackself is an intense, opaque, difficult and emotionally dark poetic narrative written in short, angry poems, seemingly random in structure and form. It is initially very hard to get into Polley's flow and his mind. One makes associations of fairy tales to the names and titles, but the reality behind the words is much more earthly and mundane. Jackself, the protagonist of these poems, emerges as a boy growing up in rural England, engaged in ordinary escapades and encounters with the nature that surrounds him, school life and his peers. A simple reflection on childhood in wolf's clothing. Jackself is a vicious, depressing look at the ravages of growing up.
Gaps in the form, a lack of pattern or form, makes it hard to follow the poems. The roughness of Northern England's great outdoors comes across as something fantastic and dangerous, full of adventure. Other children are often bullies in an evil, fairy tale sense. The vocabulary is vast and always surprising, but the sense doesn't come out on first reading. Around the half way point a sense of story seeps in, especially with the introduction of Jackself's best friend, Jeremy Wren. Poems of their time together evoke a silly sense of camaraderie, of boyish fun and innocence, as well as insecurity. 'Jack Frost' is the first poem where the boys emerge somehow as characters, as friends, and the strength of their friendship begins to come through. The poems when Jackself is alone, like the wonderful 'Blackjack' full of Northern mud and rain, are then shadowed by an absence.
The collection really takes off with the devastating poem 'The Pact' when their friendship reaches an awful finale. When Polley writes with narrative clarity it cuts through the word play and the clever poetic forms, working to truly shock the reader. 'The Pact' and the equally sad poem that follows, 'The Hole' are the pinacle of this ambitious piece of work. It works better as a whole rather than as individual poems, and grasping the threads amidst the wordy gymnastics is not easy. Polley's poems give rewards gradually, but he succeeds in creating an atmospheric collection, with a few shattering moments, that deserves a revisit. 6
Gaps in the form, a lack of pattern or form, makes it hard to follow the poems. The roughness of Northern England's great outdoors comes across as something fantastic and dangerous, full of adventure. Other children are often bullies in an evil, fairy tale sense. The vocabulary is vast and always surprising, but the sense doesn't come out on first reading. Around the half way point a sense of story seeps in, especially with the introduction of Jackself's best friend, Jeremy Wren. Poems of their time together evoke a silly sense of camaraderie, of boyish fun and innocence, as well as insecurity. 'Jack Frost' is the first poem where the boys emerge somehow as characters, as friends, and the strength of their friendship begins to come through. The poems when Jackself is alone, like the wonderful 'Blackjack' full of Northern mud and rain, are then shadowed by an absence.
The collection really takes off with the devastating poem 'The Pact' when their friendship reaches an awful finale. When Polley writes with narrative clarity it cuts through the word play and the clever poetic forms, working to truly shock the reader. 'The Pact' and the equally sad poem that follows, 'The Hole' are the pinacle of this ambitious piece of work. It works better as a whole rather than as individual poems, and grasping the threads amidst the wordy gymnastics is not easy. Polley's poems give rewards gradually, but he succeeds in creating an atmospheric collection, with a few shattering moments, that deserves a revisit. 6
February 5, 2017
(With thanks to Newbooks magazine/Nudge for the review copy.)
Jacob Polley's 'Jackself' is an interesting poetry collection which weaves different Jacks into it - including Jack Frost, jackdaws and Spring-Heeled Jack, whilst also telling the story of Jackself and Lamanby his home. There are also references to nursery rhymes and folklore, and an underlying hint of menace and darkness that mixes with the countryside setting, which I particularly enjoyed.
My personal favourites from this collection are 'Jack Frost', Pact' and 'A Haunting', all of which feature Jackself's friend, Jeremy Wren. Some of the poems are easier to read than others and Polley's poetry will take you down unexpected ways with unexpected characters, leaving you slightly uneasy at the end. It's a collection that definitely warrants repeated reading to fully appreciate both Jackself's life and Polley's clever use of language. Intriguing, interesting, slightly bewildering but worth investing your time in.
Jacob Polley's 'Jackself' is an interesting poetry collection which weaves different Jacks into it - including Jack Frost, jackdaws and Spring-Heeled Jack, whilst also telling the story of Jackself and Lamanby his home. There are also references to nursery rhymes and folklore, and an underlying hint of menace and darkness that mixes with the countryside setting, which I particularly enjoyed.
My personal favourites from this collection are 'Jack Frost', Pact' and 'A Haunting', all of which feature Jackself's friend, Jeremy Wren. Some of the poems are easier to read than others and Polley's poetry will take you down unexpected ways with unexpected characters, leaving you slightly uneasy at the end. It's a collection that definitely warrants repeated reading to fully appreciate both Jackself's life and Polley's clever use of language. Intriguing, interesting, slightly bewildering but worth investing your time in.
March 5, 2023
but skin me, Jackself says,
and you'd see I'm monster underneath
and he rips out the Misery's
throat with his teeth
Nice to kick off the year with this.
I can see why this collection won the T. S. Eliot prize - I wasn't expecting a narrative like this, rather an interpretation of each 'Jack' in English legend. There is that, but also a whole coming of age and life, friendship and grief, all told creatively through the different settings without being forced to fit them.
When I read the synopsis I knew this was written for me. While I'm not overly fond of poems which play with negative space and I didn't much care for the beginning, these seemed to just get better and better as the collection went on.
I'll be back with my favourite lines.
and you'd see I'm monster underneath
and he rips out the Misery's
throat with his teeth
Nice to kick off the year with this.
I can see why this collection won the T. S. Eliot prize - I wasn't expecting a narrative like this, rather an interpretation of each 'Jack' in English legend. There is that, but also a whole coming of age and life, friendship and grief, all told creatively through the different settings without being forced to fit them.
When I read the synopsis I knew this was written for me. While I'm not overly fond of poems which play with negative space and I didn't much care for the beginning, these seemed to just get better and better as the collection went on.
I'll be back with my favourite lines.
September 18, 2019
This is my favourite recent poetry collection - and I must have read it four or five times since it was first published. Every time I read it I notice something new. I love the way characters reappear and there's a narrative running through the book although most of the poems can stand alone. The first poem reads like a creation story and there really is a sense of a whole world within the pages of the book, albeit a whole world enclosed within a relatively small place.
November 27, 2017
I'm not sure I understand the subject matter of this collection of interconnected poems. Is it grief? Growing up? Myth? A sense of place? This doesn't matter, though -- the questions raised encouraged me to read and reread these remarkable poems. They are fresh, vivid, imaginative, and the language is so new, and so raw. I love all the Hopkins connections too.
January 15, 2022
The voice
It's the voice and tone of this which makes it. The story moves with the logic of myth and poetry. It feels like serious whimsy. It's as dark as the best fairy tales. I could easily imagine liking this better with every subsequent read.
It's the voice and tone of this which makes it. The story moves with the logic of myth and poetry. It feels like serious whimsy. It's as dark as the best fairy tales. I could easily imagine liking this better with every subsequent read.
February 2, 2017
I love words
'I am the wilderness'
'I am the wilderness'
June 19, 2024
Simply wonderful. Poetry bringing fresh air.
October 25, 2024
The writing is really good, but the story told didn’t appeal to me as much. I give it 2 stars purely for the language.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews