British Museum

by Daljit Nagra

Daljit Nagra possesses one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary English poetry. British Museum is his third collection, following his electrifying version of the epic Ramayana , and marks a significant departure of style to something quieter, more contemplative and inquisitive, at times valedictory. His political edge has been honed in a series of meditations and reflections upon our heritage, our legacy, and the institutions that define the BBC, Hadrian's Wall, the Sikh gurdwaras of our towns, the British Museum of the title poem. With compassion and charisma, Nagra explores the impact of the first wave of mass migration to our shores, the Arab Spring, the allure of extremism along with a series of personal poems about the pressures of growing up in a traditional community. British Museum is a book that asks profound questions of our ethics and responsibilities at a time of great challenge to our sense of national identity.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Daljit Nagra has published four poetry collections with Faber & Faber. He has won the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem and Best First Collection, the South Bank Show Decibel Award and the Cholmondeley Award. His books have been nominated for the Costa Prize and twice for the T. S. Eliot Prize, and he has been selected as a New Generation Poet by the Poetry Book Society. He is the inaugural Poet-in-Residence for Radio 4 & 4 Extra, and presents a weekly programme, Poetry Extra, on Radio 4 Extra. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was elected to its Council, and is a trustee of the Arvon Trust. He has judged many prizes including the Samuel Johnson Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Costa Prize, the David Cohen Prize and the National Poetry Competition. His poems have been published in the New Yorker, Poetry Chicago, LRB, TLS and New Statesman. He has written for the Guardian and Financial Times. He teaches at Brunel University, London.

Reviews

[Daisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mediocre, nothing memorable in them and they all felt a bit samey.
Better than some of the modern poetry which is essentially 'inspirational' memes typed out to look like poetry (as one reviewer memorably wrote on here: one word per line, poetry does not make) not as good as Byron.

[Udeni · Rating 5 out of 5]

An accomplished and complex collection from the Forward prize-winning Daljit Nagra, who is also poet in residence at Radio Four. His voice is disctinctive - lyrical, sharp, and irreverent. This 2017 collection spans the themes of ethnicity, marriage, and childhood. His persistent theme is what it means to be an immigrant in Britain and his examinations of the British Museum and Hadrian's Wall move between anger and humour.

Nagra uses a dazzling variety of references: Dickens, Shakespeare, Sassoon, Naipaul, Campion, Wordsworth, Betjeman, Dante, and Chaucer to name but a few. He mixes formal registers with rap-style punchlines. I particularly enjoy how Nagra mixes Hindi slang in with formal and informal English words. There is no one like him writing poetry right now.

Amongst all the high energy mash-ups, there is a quietly touching poem dedicated to the late Seamus Heaney.

If this is the only book of poetry I buy this year, I will be content.

[Esther Button · Rating 3 out of 5]

'If they like me they think I'm exotic
If they think I'm too English I'm a mimic'

— get off my poem whitey, p38

rating as of 27/04/2024: 3 stars

[safacake · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I like that there is a palpable anger in some of the poems and some beautiful imagery.

“While allotment dads knelt to pluck / like flowers the first green saag / of spring”

There were some great lines in this collection, and I did like some whole poems too, but for the most part I think this collection just wasn’t to my taste which is a shame as I wanted to like it.

I liked Cane, On Your ‘A 1940 Memory’, The Vishnu of Wolverhampton, The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge, GET OFF MY POEM WHITEY and Shame.

Will definitely still be giving his other collections a read.

[Kyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and really liked the first few poems, but it does become a little repetitive after a while. Also beautiful ideas, but not always the biggest fan of the phrasings

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent and politically charged collection tackles the subject (and ethics) of British national identity in the 21st century. Nagra's poems are far-reaching in subject, from mass migration and subsequent issues to his childhood and coming of age. Familiarity with British culture/current events will be a help here. I think, out of all the electrifying poems in this collection, "Meditations on the British Museum" may be my favorite - but it's a difficult (almost impossible) designation to make: this is exceptionally fine poetry.

[Coralie thebookish_mess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Something I really despise in poetry - more often see in modern poetry- is title that have nearly nothing to do with the poem inside. I don't know when I see a poetry collection called "British museum" my immediate thought is that it will be about the museum, and/or colonisation, things like that and not biographical poems and poems about all and everything. It's really a shame because maybe the poems are not so bad but the "false advertising" puy me off immediately and I am just annoyed.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book of Daljit Nagra's poems that I have read, and there is much here that I like. However any punch in the poems, I felt, was often lost by the references and allusions at times being very erudite and self-conscious. The reader has to work harder with this collection, than with Look We Have Coming to Dover!

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Review to come.]

[Jake Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Your verse, built on the reflex of love, / its lesson that whoever can face up to horror / and survive must be held by a vision at root.”

[Z · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me at all

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some poems I enjoyed but overall this wasn't my favourite.

[Noah Goodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

None of the contemporary poetry assigned in Reed classes has been very good

[Boo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad that I didn't love this as much as I wanted to.