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Speech Lessons
‘The long hangar of the turf shed
faces the Broad Road where cars whine.
There our winter warmth is stored . . .’
For more than half a century John Montague has brought a lively diversity of voice and experience to Irish poetry. ‘He is,’ as John Carey wrote in The Sunday Times, ‘virtually Ireland’s poet laureate. . . . His best poems are all autobiographical, and mostly about his aunts’ farm in County Tyrone . . . Splinter-sharp, they go straight to the heart, and catch in the memory like burrs.
Speech Lessons, his latest collection, reprises the great themes of his work — his own, his family’s and his province’s histories. From signs of silent affection on that Ulster farm, the stations of a journey towards a fluent voice, re-imaginings of a bicycle trip along the Marne in the late 1940s and reflections on a President’s resignation, he continues his acts of excavation and recreation. ‘In My Grandfather’s Mansion’, a compendium of memories and another of the author’s extended works with a hint of the epic note, is the hub of an uncommonly enterprising and exuberant book.
faces the Broad Road where cars whine.
There our winter warmth is stored . . .’
For more than half a century John Montague has brought a lively diversity of voice and experience to Irish poetry. ‘He is,’ as John Carey wrote in The Sunday Times, ‘virtually Ireland’s poet laureate. . . . His best poems are all autobiographical, and mostly about his aunts’ farm in County Tyrone . . . Splinter-sharp, they go straight to the heart, and catch in the memory like burrs.
Speech Lessons, his latest collection, reprises the great themes of his work — his own, his family’s and his province’s histories. From signs of silent affection on that Ulster farm, the stations of a journey towards a fluent voice, re-imaginings of a bicycle trip along the Marne in the late 1940s and reflections on a President’s resignation, he continues his acts of excavation and recreation. ‘In My Grandfather’s Mansion’, a compendium of memories and another of the author’s extended works with a hint of the epic note, is the hub of an uncommonly enterprising and exuberant book.
- GenresPoetry
65 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2011
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About the author
John Montague
120 books20 followersJohn Patrick Montague, BA, MA, MFA, DLitt
American-born Irish poet, writer of short fiction, essayist, and professor. Graduate of University College Dublin and the University of Iowa.
Awarded honourary doctorates by the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of Ulster, and University College Dublin. Recipient of the American Ireland Fund Literary Award, the Irish-American Cultural Institute’s Award for Literature, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and Australia's Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize.
He was appointed the first occupant of the Ireland Chair of Poetry. A native of Brooklyn, New York, he became Distinguished Writer-in-Residence for the New York State Writers' Institute and Professor of Poetry and Writer-in-Residence at State University of New York at Albany. He also taught at University College Cork, Queen’s University in Belfast, Trinity College Dublin, and his alma mater University College Dublin.
In addition to receiving honourary doctorates in the United States and Ireland, France invested him a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.
American-born Irish poet, writer of short fiction, essayist, and professor. Graduate of University College Dublin and the University of Iowa.
Awarded honourary doctorates by the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of Ulster, and University College Dublin. Recipient of the American Ireland Fund Literary Award, the Irish-American Cultural Institute’s Award for Literature, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and Australia's Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize.
He was appointed the first occupant of the Ireland Chair of Poetry. A native of Brooklyn, New York, he became Distinguished Writer-in-Residence for the New York State Writers' Institute and Professor of Poetry and Writer-in-Residence at State University of New York at Albany. He also taught at University College Cork, Queen’s University in Belfast, Trinity College Dublin, and his alma mater University College Dublin.
In addition to receiving honourary doctorates in the United States and Ireland, France invested him a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.
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November 4, 2012"Speech Lessons exhibits all the lyrical grace of John Montague’s previous volumes without ever slipping into easy nostalgia." - Magdalena Kay, University of Victoria, British Columbia
This book was reviewed in the November 2012 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our website: http://bit.ly/TrD5J1
This book was reviewed in the November 2012 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our website: http://bit.ly/TrD5J1
Displaying 1 of 1 review