Land of Three Rivers is a celebration of North-East England in poetry,
featuring its places and people, culture, history, language and
stories in poems and songs with both rural and urban settings. Taking
its bearings from the Tyne, Wear and Tees of the title (from Vin
Garbutt’s song ‘John North’), the book maps the region in poems
relating to past and present, depicting life from Roman times through
medieval Northumbria and the industrial era of mining and shipbuilding
up to the present-day. The anthology has modern perspectives on
historical subjects, such as W.H. Auden’s ‘Roman Wall Blues’ and
Alistair Elliot on the aftermath of the Battle of Heavenfield in the
7th century, as well as poets from past ages, starting with Caedmon,
the first English poet, writing in the 8th century. There are classic
North-East songs from the oral tradition of balladeers and pitmen
poets alongside the work of literary chroniclers like Mark Akenside
from the 18th century, followed by evocations of Northumberland by
decadent gentry poet Algernon Charles Swinburne contrasting with grim
tales of life down the pit by Tommy Armstrong and Joseph Skipsey in
the 19th century. The region’s favourite tipple is championed by
18th-century poet John Cunningham in his eulogy ‘Newcastle Beer’
– and in other vivid tales from the past by Edward Chicken and
Thomas Wilson – while 200 years later, Tony Harrison’s defences
are ‘broken down / on nine or ten Newcastle Brown’ in his
‘Newcastle Is Peru’ (1969). Durham is celebrated in a 12th-century
priest’s poem but is a trinity of ‘University, Cathedral, Gaol’
for Tony Harrison. The River Tyne flows through poems by Wilfrid
Gibson, James Kirkup, Michael Roberts, Francis Scarfe from early to
mid-20th century, while the region’s dialects (from Northumbrian to
Geordie and Pitmatic) are heard in poems by Basil Bunting, William
Martin, Tom Pickard, Katrina Porteous, Fred Reed and John Seed. Other
modern and contemporary poets and songwriters featured include Gillian
Allnutt, Peter Armstrong, Peter Bennet, Robyn Bolam, George Charlton,
Andy Croft, Julia Darling, Richard Dawson, W.N. Herbert, James Kirkup,
Pippa Little, Barry MacSweeney, Sean O’Brien, Rodney Pybus, Kathleen
Raine, Mark Robinson, Jon Silkin and Anne Stevenson, as well as poets
who’ve spent time in the North-East, such as Fleur Adcock, David
Constantine, Fred D’Aguiar, Frances Horovitz, Philip Larkin, Michael
Longley and Carol Rumens, writing highly memorable poems in response
to the place, its people and their stories. And there are classic
modern songs by Alan Hull, Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Nail and Sting. The
book's introduction is in two parts, with Rodney Pybus covering the
historical background and Neil Astley the last 50 years. This
emphasises the importance of the oral tradition during the centuries
when little “written poetry” of note was produced in the region.
There are also fascinating commentaries on key historical figures by
the late Alan Myers.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781780373775
Publisert
2017
Utgiver
Vendor
Bloodaxe Books
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter