Monday, August 27, 2012

Wot No Philip Larkin?

After so long away, what else can I do but give you a list of all the British modernist poets you really should read before you die? (Note: it doesn't include Seamus Heaney or Simon Armitage.) In my ever so humble opinion, of course...


Lee Harwood,
Denise Riley,
Geraldine Monk,
Tony Lopez,
Carol Watts,
Maggie O'Sullivan,
Roy Fisher,
Allen Fisher,
Tom Raworth,
Robert Shepherd,
Frances Presley,
Gael Turnbull,
Edwin Morgan,
Harry Guest,
Kelvin Corcoran,
Nicholas Moore,
Douglas Oliver,
Lynette Roberts,
Mina Loy,
Barry MacSweeney,
Hamish Henderson,
Peter Riley,
John Riley,
David Jones,
Douglas Oliver,
Elaine Randel,
Wendy Mulford,
Dylan Thomas,
Peter Finch,
Christopher Middleton,
Ken Edwards,
Andrew Crozier,
Veronica Forrest-Thompson

and I can't think of any more for the time being. But that's just the basics, and only includes the ones I've personally got to grips with. So no JH Prynne (apart from Kitchen Poems and a few others.) I will continue to edit this list and increase it when my memory gets better...

I haven't included a lot of the younger poets and there's obviously names missing that ought to be there; but if you're going to pretend to be any kind of expert on British poetry and haven't read at 10 of these poets, then who are you kidding? Get to a library immediately.


1 comment:

Carrie Etter said...

Nice list!