Worlds: Seven Modern Poets

by Geoffrey Summerfield

Genres: Poetry

1 pages, Paperback

First published September 26, 1974

Reviews

[Georgia Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Believe me, I'm no prophet, let alone a god. Yet as a poet, I know worlds can be born from a word. It is what we do bent over desks. When results are good, there might be praise. When bad, we get abuse or, worse, doubt that we should even exist. Yet, we persist. This book helped me on my way to becoming a writer.

The title is correct. Worlds are inside. They belong to seven poets who open their homes and local pubs and hearts to readers. It comes with their reflections, poems, and photographs. These last could stand alone in an album. Black and white, stark and personal. Charles Causley's cat, Thom Gunn's tattoos, Ted Hughes's bleak landscapes, Norman Craig's fiddle playing, Adrian Mitchell's reading to a room with smiles, Edwin Morgan's council estates and rain, but Seamus Heaney's wife most of all caught my attention. Her hair is down. Needing a comb, my mother would say. Yet comfort in her body and confidence make her beautiful. She will be the muse in years ahead for his poems. And she makes up for the lack of women writers here.

[Bente · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful collection adorned by gorgeous photographs! I do say that this collection presents the following similarities between each poet:
- A love for Keats
- finding a love for poetry after school (bc schools suck at presenting poetry; they never give any attention to 'modern' poetry, apparently even in the 70s that was the case)
- Cats

I didn't care much for Edwin Morgan but I did enjoy the other six a lot. Each poet 'wrote' their own introduction so it felt very personal and intimate to read their own words about what poetry means for them and why they wrote certain poems. I never felt so close to people who are so far away from me.
The notes were so so; sometimes they were really helpful whereas at other times, it would just say "I really enjoyed this". I thought it was funny but again if you need notes, what does that add?
I removed a star also for this terrible misjudgement in the introduction by Geoffrey Summerfield:

"Finally, I regret the omission of women poets from this book. This is simply due to the fact that Britain in the last fifteen years or so has not produced a woman poet of real stature."

This man truly thinks that there are no British/Irish woman poets 'of real stature' (whatever that may mean) between 1975 and 1960??? I call bullsh**. I would go on the hunt for some names to give you here, but I do not have the time for that as of now. Perhaps I can leave a comment later, or if you know of any do let me know because I would love to read some of their work.

[Peter B Waddell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to read the anthology that Simon Armitage said inspired him towards poetry at school. It includes a good variety, though some, like Seamus Heaney, still had a lot of writing still to do. I wonder what women might have been included, and who in retrospect, might have been swapped out?

[chris ✩ · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars. This is probably quite a good selection of poems but personally I’m not a big fan of poetry so this wasn’t for me. I like Norman MacCaig’s section though, it was the most interesting and I actually found myself enjoying it.

[ThymeOperator · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quit after 4/7 poets (Ted Hughes). It's all just so grim and depressing and ugly, as if that's the only subject matter that's 'real'.