Nearly Too Much : The Poetry of J.H. Prynne

Liverpool English Texts and Studies

by N.H. Reeve, Richard Kerridge

Aiming to provide an analysis of J.H. Prynne's poetry for those to whom it is familiar, and also an introduction for the benefit of readers to whom it is new, this book examines Prynne's work in relation to traditions of romanticism and modernism, recent theory, debates about modernism and postmodernism, political questions of discourse and power, and the implications of lyrical uses of scientific and technical material. The impetus for these discussions is provided by detailed, exploratory readings of individual poems and sequences from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1996

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first book-length study of the great English modernist, but it isn’t a very worthwhile one. The authors write for other academics in conformance to a format which confers academic prestige but is likely to be tiresome to general fans of Prynne, thus the book abounds with references to Bakhtin and Kristeva. This just mystifies the text and prevents it from being a clear, accessible introduction to Prynne’s poetry. It’s a pity, because two decades later these two authors published an annotated edition of Prynne’s collection The Oval Window where the Introduction serves as a very friendly, jargon-free introduction to what makes Prynne’s poetry special and how one goes about tackling it. Obviously the difference there is that they were finally writing for a general audience instead of within the ivory tower.

The close readings of several Prynne poems that appear herein are plainly incomplete. The discussion of “Thoughts on the Eszterhazy Court Uniform” is ignorant of the fact that Prynne’s reference to Haydn is specifically to the composer’s “Farewell” symphony, which is really the key to the poem. The authors are great fans of The Oval Window and some of their notes on its language are still helpful, but their insights are still limited compared to the aforementioned annotated edition where they had access to Prynne’s personal archive.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful entry point for Prynne's rather formidable poetry.