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Michael Symmons Roberts
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Deaths of the Poets Hardcover – International Edition, March 28, 2017

by Michael Symmons Roberts (Author), Paul Farley (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 28 ratings
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From Chatterton’s Pre-Raphaelite demise to Keats’ death-warrant in a smudge of arterial blood; from Dylan Thomas’ eighteen straight whiskies to Sylvia Plath’s desperate suicide in the gas oven of her Primrose Hill kitchen or John Berryman’s leap from a bridge onto the frozen Mississippi, the deaths of poets have often cast a backward shadow on their work.

The post-Romantic myth of the dissolute drunken poet – exemplified by Thomas and made iconic by his death in New York – has fatally skewed the image of poets in our culture. Novelists can be stable, savvy, politically adept and in-control, but poets should be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive. Is this just a myth, or is there some essential truth behind it: that great poems only come when a poet's life is pushed right to an emotional knife-edge of acceptability, safety, security? What is the price of poetry?

In this book, two contemporary poets undertake a series of journeys – across Britain, America and Europe – to the death places of poets of the past, in part as pilgrims, honouring inspirational writers, but also as investigators, interrogating the myth. The result is a book that is, in turn, enlightening and provocative, eye-wateringly funny and powerfully moving.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    432 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Jonathan Cape
  4. Publication date
    March 28, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    5.6 x 1.5 x 8.7 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0224097547
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0224097543
  8. See all details
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About the Author

Michael Symmons Roberts (Author)
Michael Symmons Roberts’s fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and the Griffin International Prize. His sixth collection, Drysalter, was the winner of both the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize in 2013. His Selected Poems was published in 2016. He is a regular broadcaster, and librettist, working many times with the composer James MacMillan. He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Paul Farley (Author)
Paul Farley is the author of four collections of poetry and has won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Whitbread Poetry Award and the E.M. Forster Award. He broadcasts regularly on radio and presents The Echo Chamber on Radio 4. Edgelands, cowritten with Michael Symmons Roberts, received the Royal Society of Literature’s Jerwood Award and the 2011 Foyles Best Book of Ideas Award and was serialised as Radio 4 Book of the Week.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jonathan Cape (March 28, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0224097547
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0224097543
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.24 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 1.5 x 8.7 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 28 ratings

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Michael Symmons Roberts

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
28 global ratings

Top review from the United States

Shakespeare Scholar
5.0 out of 5 stars especially the ones encouraged to fly high like Icarus. An informative book that is a delight ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2017
Verified Purchase
More about lives than deaths, and a witty demonstration that there is nothing fair about the lives of poets, especially the ones encouraged to fly high like Icarus. An informative book that is a delight to read.
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Top reviews from other countries

shabir
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Reviewed in India on November 20, 2021
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Great book ...
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Bruce Meyer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on September 16, 2017
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Excellent
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P. Lloyd
5.0 out of 5 stars What an amazing book, the best I've ever read on poetry
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2017
Verified Purchase
What an amazing book, the best I've ever read on poetry, a journey across countries and minds. I expected to find Plath and Sexton but discovered so much more, I learnt so much. I just wanted the beautiful writing and mind opening to go and on .. sad when it ended but this book has led me on to so many new and wonderful poetic adventures - thank both for putting this together
4 people found this helpful
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Jo Ruiz
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2018
Verified Purchase
Impressive travel book and literary essay suffused with twilit melancholy. From the death of Chatterton to the demise of the old timer Robert Frost. If you like poetry this book will never let you down.
One person found this helpful
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Orwell
4.0 out of 5 stars Well worth a read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2018
Verified Purchase
Really enjoyed this (if enjoy is the correct word) well worth reading especially for glimpses of poets you may not have heard of and also for details on poets you thought you knew about. Not miserable at all but diverting, lively and thoughtful.
One person found this helpful
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