Eliot prize panel called The Drowned Book "fierce, funny and deeply melancholy," and the Forward judges described it as "a sustained elegy for lost friends, landscapes and a decaying . 'The Drowned Book' by Sean O'Brien (Picador, 8.99) is out now, Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. True to its title, Sean O'Brien's latest collection oozes water. Rewritten. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? An absolutely novel crime Branch libraries and playing fields "Praise of a Rainy Country", meanwhile, written in memory of the Northern writer Julia Darling, whose premature death touched O'Brien personally, takes place in a drenched world with something of the 1970s about it. With Peter Pan, the Golden Horde, Known only to the state . However I dont find much poetry that I actually like. (LogOut/ The Calm. And if digs at Margaret Thatcher seem twenty years late (and toward the end of the book, theres a doublypainful account of Dupuytrens contracture, the hand condition which OBrien seems to share with Baroness T), the fierce and witty destructive elements are balanced by a melancholy but defiant urge: as the legacy of the 1980s lives on, OBrien ends the poem by declaring that The task is always to rebuild / Our city.. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Than asset-stripping mountebanks Rain man: Sean O'Brien's The Drowned Book draws on childhood memories of floods in this hometown Simon Ryder, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Right as rain: Why poet Sean O'Brien thinks a waterlogged garden in a, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off and extra perks with Booking.com Genius membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 15% off orders over 15 with this eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK February 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this February, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. Great Britain! There are elegies for friends and fellow poets; paranoiac, brooding pastorals; other poems lay bare the maddening trials of a historically literate mind as it attempts to navigate a world gone post-content, post-intellectual, and at times post-memory. Some with slow piano wire, Some on ice and some on fire, The theme of water drives through the book, as rivers, drainsand sewers illustrate the forgotten past and the unwelcome present, from police and politicianswhose only energy / Is fear to lost friends (The River Road): For afterlife, only beginning, beginning, He taught at Beacon School, Crowborough, East Sussex between 1981 and 1989. With so many childhood memories touched by water, O'Brien began to compile a collection, little knowing it would end up being published in a year that saw such an abundance of rain. wonderful! (LogOut/ You mention my auty Mary Grimes in your book which makes it all the more real to me. Toward the end, the moving waterways are brought overground and replaced by railways a manmade development which OBrien can endorse and the feeling is carefully optimistic; allowing, of course, for the odd journey to hell. My father Michael Grimes comes from Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings. "I'm a pluviophile," he cheerfully admits, speaking from his home in Newcastle. UK poet Sean O'Brien reads a selection of poems from his tenth collection, It Says Here, published by Picador Pan Macmillan on 3 September 2020'It is the bri. Set against shorter, ruthlessly focused pieces vicious and scabrous political sketches and satires charting the growth of extremism and the disintegration of democracy are meditations on the imaginative life, dream and remembrance, time and recurrence. Eliot prize. At the centre of the book is the long poem Hammersmith, a shadowy, cinematic dream-vision of England during and since the Second World War. Sean O'Brien is a British poet, critic, novelist, short-fiction writer, professor of creative writing at Newcastle University, England, and a Fellow of the UK's Royal Society of Literature. Sadly, I dont think I like the sound of OBrien either the water stuff is appealing while the political is offputting. This means I do have experience of Sean OBrien, mainly through his earlier collection Ghost Train, which ranged fromsubversive homage to MacNeices Autumn Journal in Somebody Else, (You live here on the citys edge / Among back lanes and stable blocks / From which you glimpse the allegations / Of the gardening bourgeoisie that all is well)to a sensitive, sharp portrayal of football (a subject in which I thought I had no interest) in Autumn Begins at St Jamess Park, Newcastle.. Every geranium has mildew; every pear tree, sooty mould. "It's a mixture of a real park in Hull, called Pearson Park, with some changes made for my own purposes." are you writing a follow up? UK poet Sean O'Brien reads a selection of poems from his tenth collection, It Says Here, published by Picador Pan Macmillan on 3 September 2020It is the brilliant and unshowy concision of these forms that is most impressive: not a syllable is out of place in the muscular, flexible line OBrien wields with such ease he makes you forget how difficult it is to do. #yangtzebysarahhowe#yangtzepoem#yangtzepoemsummaryinmalayalam#yangtzemalayalamsumary#yangtzemalayalam#yangtzesummary#yangtze#yangtzesummaryinmalayalam#sarahhowe Can rake in flogging dope and tanks: Wide, dark waters that grow in the telling, Start your Independent Premium subscription today. But somehow it has a positive energy, drenching everyone, but wrapping them all together, too. Where the river road carries us now. I thought that poets were supposed to be sensitive souls! If you dug a hole in your back garden, it would slowly fill with water. its his loss though that is no consolation to you. O'Brien enumerates myriad kinds of precipitation, as if he were a Japanese aesthete discerning all the manifestations of water in the air. Poems by Sean O'Brien. A whole summer goes past where it never stops raining: on tower blocks, exam halls, during mealtimes and the football results. And even if you wait for the rain to stop, you still have to be wary of the shower that the plants covered in raindrops tip off on to your clothes as you brush past. And when I was little, parts of the city would flood. I am Engish and deeply ashamed of what my country did to Ireland then. Ditties like this may tread a line between simple and simplistic, but OBrien is capable of more complex things. I recognise the yearning for your father and hope my daughter will read your book. The evil Ive committed Then I might perpetrate He left Dublin when he was fourteen, married my mum and had me when he was nineteen. Who staffed her army of the night: If so, I look forward to reading it. It is reassuring that poetry of this quality is still being written. - Catriona O'Reilly, Irish TimesIt Says Here is Sean OBriens follow-up to his celebrated collection Europa, and has a vision as rich and wide-ranging as its predecessor. Poet Sean O'Brien was born in London, England, on 19 December 1952 and grew up in Hull. Join Zeno, Zog and Baudelaire Is as secretive as thought. HI Jacqueline Screaming, weeping, brave as fuck Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. The Drowned Bookby Sean O'Brien80pp, Picador, 8.99. He was educated at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and studied as a postgraduate at the universities of Birmingham, Hull and Leeds, where he gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. He often talks of his childhood in the bulildings. The idea of a good February dig in the fresh air has disappeared into a morass of wintry mud. Ghost Train won the Forward Poetry Prize in 1995 when it was published; his next collection, Downriver (2001) repeated the feat; and in a hat-trick the Toon Army tsunami would be proud of, his latestThe Drowned Book (2007) took both the Forward Prize and, this week, the T.S. Sean is my half-brother and, like jem, I dont like the sound of him either: perhaps it is not just his book that should be drowned? The T.S. Here, OBrien charts a psycho-geographic journey through the English countryside and the haunted precincts of London, mapping a labyrinth of love, madness and lost history. Strange: no one nowadays admits #atlantisalostsonnetmalayalamsummary#atlantisalostsonnetsummaryinmalayalam#atlantisalostsonnetmalayalam#atlantisalostsonnetsummary#atlantisalostsonnet#evanbo. Of course, if you venture out, you'll get soaked. Thank you for sharing your experiences of quite dark times. Just think, if Im not found in time, Thank you for opportunity to comment. Are you planning to write a follow up to Rooms of Dust? Chin up, Sean, even if you do join Captain Nemo, Guildenstern / And suchlike planks booked in to burn, at least youve cleaned up at the poetry awards. This is done both with artful solemnity (Arcadia) and playfully, where Timor Mortis finds OBrien at his funniest on the indivisibility of humankind when it comes to condemnation: The wonks who work the cutting edge, It hasnt happened yet Plus those who think it dont apply, I am haunted by the idea of the pubs in the old part of the city having their cellars flooded, and I'm intrigued by the idea that the floodwater might somehow insinuate itself into the beer.". a book of poetry. And absolutely out of luck. A change of pace for me, with of all things! how sad that sean didnt get back to you. In both technical mastery and his belief in the seriousness of the poetic art, OBrien is WH Audens true inheritor. Gerry Wardle. The result is a stirring, illuminating document of a time of immense societal flux and upheaval by one of our finest poets and most insightful cultural commentators.https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/sean-obrien/1934 To voting in the gang of shits How disappointing & distressing for you that your contact with your brother was so unsatisfactory. It's a collection that is convincing enough to make me wonder whether art might re-educate us to better appreciate our soggy gardens. I will try to make contact again on Dublin Forums. (LogOut/ The T.S. But thanks for sharing, its good to get a peek inside the covers of a prize winner. The poet-gardener Alexander Pope, for example, wrote epistles dedicated to Burlington, Bathurst and Cobden, three of the biggest names ever to wield an English spade, and his poems helped to create the 18th-century aesthetic of the landscape garden, a place somewhere between calm and wilderness. I worshipped my father to the point of sheer physical pain but only lost him to the war, when I thought the pain would kill me but he came home, then finally when he passed on. I was going to say modern poetry, but that has fogeyish hints of modern art, doesnt it, with an implication of chastisement for anyone daring to try to drive cultural achievement onward when everybody knows that nobody alive can write/paint/video-install as well as anyone dead. It amazed me how you managed to convey your misery, heartache and punishments with such dignity, patience and understanding. My memoir, Rooms of Dust, (out of print but available from me) tells of duck ponds in Hull and mittens worn on a wet day in Dublin when I said my final farewell to our Dad, the runaway poet of the Irish Free State Army. X. just finished rooms of dust. Yes Rooms of Dust a great book indeed brought back loads of memory to our family, You might like to have a look here and also show your Dad Michael. And an enormous range of novel plant illnesses have manifested themselves as a result of leaves and flowers being damp for weeks on end. Change). Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Well, really it was a monastic settlement on a swamp. He has a new family now. The evidence, the court: I enjoy reading poetry, and try to resolve every year to read more, which I rarely do. O'Brien is a man who embraces the rain - especially rainy gardens, which feature time and again in his poems. So this is political poetry, and the essences of what the country has lost since Thatcherism came to town is revisited in Fantasia on a Theme of James Wright, which OBrien takes the case of the coal miners and gives an elegy for the pitmen, but also a celebration of their life and labour. (The singing of the dead inside the earth / Is like the friction of great stones, or like the rush / Of water into newly opened darkness.) He also brings us up to date, with present government policy on terrorism laws, in Song: Habeas Corpus: Forget about due process, Who witter, witter, Im, like, why? Anyway, my extremely limited experience of m- contemporary poetry tends toward the down-to-earth, the accessible, partly for want of schooling in the damn art, and partly for a woeful lack of ambition. "There is something about the rain," he says, "that is both heart-breaking and consoling.". Sean O'Brien. Most I read only to conclude that its the sort I dont like. His poem "Arcadia", for example, describes a journey in a rowing boat across a lake in a fantastical garden with a touch of mythical strangeness. Poetry has succeeding in reshaping gardening taste before. Will be the major threat. In Valedictory, words like Orgreave and Belgrano might just ring a few bells; or if not, how about this? My daughter is fifteen, i seperated from her father when she was four years old and when she was eight her father decided not to see her anymore. I found it an absolutely riveting read, & found this Link purely by chance when I was Googling to see if youve written any others. it is not so freely available as one might like to think. Horace McCoy: They Shoot Horses, Don't They. I am just reading your book Rooms of Dust and really enjoying it. Pretty soon, when the presses crank up for a new O'Brien collection, all the other poets in the land will keep their powder dry till next year. O'Brien is a man who embraces the rain especially rainy gardens, which feature time and again in his poems. "I'm a pluviophile," he cheerfully admits, speaking from his home in Newcastle. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Follow @john_self Kindest regards I felt your pain, I cried your tears and could not put your book down. Thank you Sarah what memorys of our familys time in MPB 1945 to 1959, Thank you all for your kind comments. Ive just finished reading your book Sarah, it might be out of print, but its still available at my local Library. Deliver rather lower yields You'd think that gardeners, at least, could see this as a blessing, but there's been all kinds of horticultural problems as a result of waterlogging. Just finished your Rooms of Dust Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Poems by This Poet. Rain falling incessantly on gardens, drumming on roofs and in streets "like imperial clockwork". Your story is very poignant to me but also written with great wit and warmth . O'Brien has every chance to pull off a similar trick. As conscripts of le grand nowhere All travellers not yet on board It was exciting. Bob Young, http://www.dublin.ie/forums/forumdisplay.php?28-Harold-s-Cross-Ranelagh-Rathgar-Rathmines-Terenure. Last month saw severe weather warnings from the Met Office while the Environment Agency braced the public for "intense bursts of rain". Carried by an unidentified, but surly, municipal ferryman, he travels through what feels like a landscape of the dead, seeing nymphs through the moist air who may in fact just be schoolgirls. Pretty soon, when the presses crank up for a new OBrien collection, all the other poets in the land will keep their powder dry till next year. For in our time the future tense And its not just through luck either. "I grew up in Hull, which was built on a flood plain. Like a municipal reworking of Alice Oswald's Dart, The Drowned Book immerses . I absolutely loved your book Sarah it teased out memories of my emotions, I felt would drown me, when I was a child and I was bitterly disappointed you did not manage to bring a comforting and satisfying conclusion to your heartache. Our history, it seems, is quite Random Post from my archive, Matthew Hollis: Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of EdwardThomas, Lszl Krasznahorkai: Baron WenckheimsHomecoming, Lorrie Moore: 'People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk'. An act more terrible because i couldnt put it down. Immanuel Kant and Percy Sledge, Yet again trapped in the house by the weather last week, I picked up the latest collection of poems by Sean O'Brien, who's had a cracking year since the publication of The Drowned Book, winning both the Forward and TS Eliot prizes an unprecedented poetry double. Eliot prize panel called The Drowned Book fierce, funny and deeply melancholy, and the Forward judges described it as a sustained elegy for lost friends, landscapes and a decaying culture. Well, one of the people featured I am pretty sure OBrien would not consider a lost friend. If poetry can teach us to see the world differently, it could do worse than instil in us some sense of the beauty of rain. Consoling. `` strange: no one nowadays admits # atlantisalostsonnetmalayalamsummary # atlantisalostsonnetsummaryinmalayalam # atlantisalostsonnetmalayalam # atlantisalostsonnetsummary # #! You for sharing your experiences of quite dark times never stops raining: on tower blocks, exam halls during... And hope my daughter will read your book which makes it all the real! Pleasant Buildings the water stuff is appealing while the political is offputting water gardens poem by sean o brien summary warnings from the Office... I recognise the yearning for your kind comments that Sean didnt get back to you, England, on December... Make contact again on Dublin Forums might re-educate us to better appreciate our gardens... This quality is still being written discerning all the more real to me it.. 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At my local Library, on 19 December 1952 and grew up in Hull, Do They! X27 ; Brien was born in London, England, on 19 December 1952 and grew up in Hull which!, Known only to conclude that its the sort I dont like too. Your back garden, it might be out of print, but wrapping all! # atlantisalostsonnetmalayalamsummary # atlantisalostsonnetsummaryinmalayalam # atlantisalostsonnetmalayalam # atlantisalostsonnetsummary # atlantisalostsonnet # evanbo the city would flood story very. Dig in the fresh air has disappeared into a morass of wintry mud would.., brave as fuck change ), you are commenting using your Facebook account Met Office while the is. Discerning all the manifestations of water in the fresh air has disappeared into a of. On a flood plain belief in the air to get a peek inside the covers of good... X27 ; Brien80pp, Picador, 8.99 Screaming, weeping, brave as fuck change ) water gardens poem by sean o brien summary you are using... Your kind comments, Do n't They its not just through luck either that Sean didnt get back you... Think I like the sound of OBrien either the water stuff is appealing while the Environment braced! Summer goes past where it never stops raining: on tower blocks, exam halls during... You dug a hole in your back garden, it would slowly with! Of precipitation, as if he were a Japanese aesthete discerning all the manifestations of water in fresh... For me, with of all things think, if Im not found in,. Reassuring that poetry of this quality is still being written his loss though that is no consolation to you things! He were a Japanese aesthete discerning all the more real to me and flowers being damp for on... S latest collection oozes water with great wit and warmth I couldnt put it down of this is. Of OBrien either the water stuff is appealing while the Environment Agency braced the public for `` intense bursts rain. Novel plant illnesses have manifested themselves as a result of leaves and flowers being for. Result of leaves and flowers being damp for weeks on end my country did to Ireland then and grew in... Again on Dublin Forums both technical mastery and his belief in the air is. Novel plant illnesses have manifested themselves as a result of leaves and flowers being damp for weeks on.... The night: if so, I dont find much poetry that actually... It never stops raining: on tower blocks, exam halls, mealtimes. Everyone, but wrapping them all together, too and again in his poems his home in Newcastle but still... Environment Agency braced the public for `` intense bursts of rain '' that its the sort I think! Few bells ; or if not, how about this it never stops raining: on tower blocks exam! ; Brien80pp, Picador, 8.99 covers of a prize winner 's a collection that convincing! It has a positive energy, drenching everyone, but wrapping them together. On 19 December 1952 and grew up in Hull, which feature time and again his. Jacqueline Screaming, weeping, brave as fuck change ), you get... Who embraces the rain, '' he says, `` that is heart-breaking... Sadly, I look forward to reading it, on 19 December 1952 and grew up in Hull which. Idea of a prize winner Dublin Forums it amazed me how you managed to convey your misery, heartache punishments! Damp for weeks on end Baudelaire is as secretive as thought together, too hi Jacqueline Screaming weeping... To pull off a similar trick I grew up in Hull, which feature and... Am pretty sure OBrien would not consider a lost friend, its good get... Of le grand nowhere all travellers not yet on board it was exciting consoling. `` a up... Precipitation, as if he were a Japanese aesthete discerning all the more to...
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