Against Oblivion: Some Lives of the Twentieth-Century Poets

by Ian Hamilton

Ian Hamilton's last book, published posthumously in 2002, is a typically brilliant revisiting of the concept of Samuel Johnson's classic "Lives of the English Poets," wherein Hamilton considers 45 deceased poets of the twentieth century, offering his personal estimation of what claims they will have on posterity and 'against oblivion.' Examples of each poet's verse accompany Hamilton's text, making the book both a provocative primer and a kind of critical anthology.

'The affective power of this book... lies in its understatement and its understanding of what we might care about. From a century of Manifestoes and Movements, Hamilton works as a corrective for the local and particular... his idea of poetry, of what made greatness in poetry, emerges intact from each measured sentence. His criticism always pointed you towards all that he could find that was true in a piece of writing.' Tim Adams, Observer

Genres: Poetry, Biography, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism

336 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2012

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Robert Ian Hamilton was a British literary critic, reviewer, biographer, poet, magazine editor and publisher.

Reviews

[Jon]

Useful sketches of famous and obscure poets, with at least one poem from each, except Sylvia Plath (1932-63), whose estate refused permission, ending the book on an eerie note, since SP is the last poet Hamilton discusses. Hamilton's writing is excellent throughout but there are some major omissions, even considering Hamilton's stipulation that every poet he analyzed had to be dead. For Hamilton, 20th century English-language poetry is apparently a whites-only zone--don't even look for Langston Hughes (1902-67). Also missing is the important New York School poet Frank O'Hara (1926-66). Hamilton makes one major error in discussing THE DREAM SONGS of John Berryman (1914-72) when he says "Mr. Bones" is the name of Henry's interlocutor. In fact Mr. Bones is a name the interlocutor calls Henry, the main character in the sequence. Then again, Berryman's friend Robert Lowell (1917-77) made the same mistake when he reviewed 77 DREAM SONGS in the NY REVIEW OF BOOKS. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the less I knew about any given poet, the more valuable I tended to find Hamilton's discussion of that poet, and vice versa.

[Sean Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd selection of mostly male and Western poets, whose names for various reasons (not all of them literary) may survive for some time (Oblivion ever invincible, in the end?)

The treatment of the poets' lives and character seems uneven. There is a rather unsympathetic portrait of Phillip Larkin (quoting his 'unpublished' later angry poem... - if it is so unpleasant and 'unpublished', then why quote it?) whilst Ted Hughes emerges as something of a doubly hen-pecked husband...

Female poets are thin on the ground...

For this reader, there were some novelties: the modern mysticism of James Wright, the toying-with-settling-down of Gregory Corso, the ouija-board wielding James Merill, the proper soldier-poet Keith Douglas.

The two great wars loom over the English selection, which contrasts with the more Prufrock-ish quotidianity of Americans such as Fuller, Kees, Jarrell.

Much of the biography is even more engaging than the poetry - it makes for humorous yet also sobering reading - many of the poets end their days either with the bottle or in the mad house, or worse... Quoting John Berryman: "The artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal that will not actually kill him...".

Many of the poets really suffered for their art .. it is difficult not to conclude that a poetic ambition is not something to be wished for nor advised...

Surprisingly, Yeats does not make the list - and the only Irish poet is Louis MacNeice which seems an odd choice - what of Beckett or Heaney or Eavan Boland?

A flawed text - the selection of poets is far too Anglo-American - yet worth a read for anyone interested in male western poets of the middle decades of the 20th Century.

[Cath Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now out of print I think - but if you can get hold of a copy, do. Ian Hamilton, one of the greatest literary critics of his generation, gives a pen portrait of 45 of the key figures in 20th century poetry. Illuminating, precise and penetrating.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

holy cow, what fascinating book. pg 147