Selected Poems

by W.S. Graham

When T.S. Eliot wrote of W.S. Graham's collection, The Nightfishing , that 'some of these poems - by their sustained power, their emotional depth and maturity and their superb technical skill - may well be among the more important poetical achievements of our time', he could not have stated the truth more clearly. Graham's career, which ended with his death in 1986, followed a pattern of steady refinement of vision and ever-deepening enquiry. In Selected Poems , taken from both the publications of his lifetime and posthumous volumes, and containing at least one major poem never collected before, the full stature of this still insufficiently appreciated genius is revealed.

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

William Sydney Graham was a Scottish poet who was often associated with Dylan Thomas and the neo-romantic group of poets. Graham's poetry was mostly overlooked in his lifetime; however, partly thanks to the support of Harold Pinter, his work was eventually acknowledged. He was represented in the second edition of the Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse (1962) and the Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry (2001).

Graham left school to become an apprentice draughtsman and then studied structural engineering at Stow College, Glasgow. He was awarded a bursary to study literature for a year at Newbattle Abbey College in 1938. Graham spent the war years working at a number of jobs in Scotland and Ireland before moving to Cornwall in 1944. His first book, Cage Without Grievance was published in 1942.

The 1940s were prolific years for Graham, and he published four more books during that decade. These were The Seven Journeys (1944), 2ND Poems (1945), The Voyages of Alfred Wallis (1948) and The White Threshold (1949).

Reviews

[Patrick Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some nice stuff here...
for example:

"Listen. Put on morning.
Waken into falling light.
A man’s imagining
Suddenly may inherit
The handclapping centuries
Of his one minute on earth.
And hear the virgin juries
Talk with his own breath
To the corner boys of his street.
And hear the Black Maria
Searching the town at night.
And hear the playropes caa
The sister Mary in.
And hear Willie and Davie
Among bracken of Narnain
Sing in a mist heavy
With myrtle and listeners.
And hear the higher town
Weep a petition of fears
At the poorhouse close upon
The public heartbeat.
And hear the children tig
And run with my own feet
Into the netting drag
Of a suiciding principle.
Listen. Put on lightbreak.
Waken into miracle.
The audience lies awake
Under the tenements
Under the sugar docks
Under the printed moments.
The centuries turn their locks
And open under the hill
Their inherited books and doors
All gathered to distil
Like happy berry pickers
One voice to talk to us.
Yes listen. It carries away
The second and the years
Till the heart’s in a jacket of snow
And the head’s in a helmet white
And the song sleeps to be wakened
By the morning ear bright.
Listen. Put on morning.
Waken into falling light."

[Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love every poem in this book!!! but ‘the nightfishing’, ‘the constructed space’, ‘approaches to how they behave’, and ‘falling into the sea’ are my faves. “through always every / night through every whisper / from the first that once / names me to the bone”. love that. the bits in between words and naming things to the bone is good stuff

[Clark Hays · Rating 4 out of 5]

Language ah now you have me. Night-time tongue,
Please speak for me between the social beasts,
Which quick assail me. Here I am hiding in
The jungle of mistakes of communication.

[James Fountain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Graham is a magnificent innovator, and a poet whose writing gives great reward with little effort. Born in Greenock, near Glasgow, he led an unconventional life, and after time spent working at sea, he and his wife settled in Cornwall, where his poetry began to flourish. His lines are exciting in their unconventionality, nothing that you read of his will ever fail to surprise with their freshness and their curiosity at the world. His gift is that he stays true to his personality, hence T. S. Eliot's Faber and Faber published his books. Of a group of late modernists in the early 1940s, Graham stuck out as a successor to Dylan as a powerful and original voice to drive modernism onward. He deserves a much wider audience than he gets. He is interested in identity, explores the wondrous, contrasting landscapes of Scotland and Cornwall (where he settled) and delves into the dark recesses of the mind with finesse. Layered and highly skilful, with elements of powerful and crushing beauty, his astonishing lyrics are worth listening to.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth reading.