The Ghost Orchid

by Michael Longley

A collection of poetry from the Irish poet whose last book "Gorse Fires" won the Whitbread Prize for Poetry. Whether writing about Sissinghurst, Japan, Buchenwald or Belfast, Longley speaks with delicacy and passion about love and loss, life and death. This is a limited edition of 100.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Michael Longley was a Northern Irish poet. Following his death, the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, called Longley "a peerless poet".

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Longley’s sixth collection draws much of its imagery from nature and Greek and Roman classics. Seven poems incorporate quotations and free translations of the Iliad and Odyssey; elsewhere, he retells the story of Baucis and Philemon and other characters from Ovid. The Orient and the erotic are also major influences; references to Hokusai bookend poems about Chinese artefacts. Poppies link vignettes of the First and Second World Wars. Longley’s poetry is earthy in its emphasis on material objects and sex. Alliteration and slant rhymes are common techniques and the vocabulary is always precise. This was the third collection I’ve read by the late Belfast poet, and with its disparate topics it didn’t all cohere for me. My two favourite poems are naughty indeed (photos on blog!).

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Eliana]

Meh.

What is the penchant with some (many, most) male poets to bring almost anything (in fact, everything) back around to sex? Like sir, please calm down.

[Caspar "moved to storygraph" Bryant]

ML's most Ovidian collection (A Flowering!) so far as I know, he mostly works from Homer but he's Being Different here. Brilliant stuff and what a pair with Gorse Fires. He writes sexual encounters in a very acceptable way he has a humour about it that doesn't end up reducing the work to 'light verse' or something trivial. Look at something like Massive Lovers for this.

Also perhaps his most famous poem, Ceasefire in this one it's that. I kind of masochistically prefer The Helmet. im different

[Lanea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Longley is an astoundingly talented poet, but also a very witty one. This collection includes several pieces that either translate or respond to Ancient Greek myth, as well as some lovely, clearly personal pieces.

[Mikael · Rating 1 out of 5]

how did it get here