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Selected Poems 1964-1983
A selection of poems from: Terry Street (1969), The happier life (1972), Love or nothing (1974), Barbarians (1979), St. Kilda's parliament (1981), and Elegies (1985).
- GenresPoetry
262 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
About the author
Douglas Dunn
88 books17 followersDouglas Eaglesham Dunn is a Scottish poet, academic and critic.
He was a Professor of English at the University of St Andrews from 1991, becoming Director of the University's Scottish Studies Centre in 1993 until his retirement in September 2008. He is now an Honorary Professor at St Andrews, still undertaking postgraduate supervision in the School of English. He was a member of the Scottish Arts Council (1992–1994). He holds an honorary doctorate (LL.D., law) from the University of Dundee, an honorary doctorate (D.Litt., literature) from the University of Hull and St Andrews. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1981, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2003. Terry Street, Dunn's first collection of poems, appeared in 1969 and received a Scottish Arts Council Book Award as well as a Somerset Maugham Award.
He was a Professor of English at the University of St Andrews from 1991, becoming Director of the University's Scottish Studies Centre in 1993 until his retirement in September 2008. He is now an Honorary Professor at St Andrews, still undertaking postgraduate supervision in the School of English. He was a member of the Scottish Arts Council (1992–1994). He holds an honorary doctorate (LL.D., law) from the University of Dundee, an honorary doctorate (D.Litt., literature) from the University of Hull and St Andrews. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1981, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2003. Terry Street, Dunn's first collection of poems, appeared in 1969 and received a Scottish Arts Council Book Award as well as a Somerset Maugham Award.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 28, 2016
Context helps immensely, and for readers coming fresh to Douglas Dunn, it's helpful to read his biography on the Scottish Poetry Library website. Dunn's work is intensely personal and there are many allusions and references that passed me by.
The first four volumes (Terry Street, The Happier Life, Love or Nothing and Barbarians) deal with vexed questions of class, nationality, identity and poverty. Dunn wrestles with being a Scotsman in England, being an intellectual from a working-class home and being an observer into the lives of the poor who surround him in the backstreets of Hull. The companion poems of The Competition and Boys with Coats are particularly striking. St Kilda's Parliament adopts a more lyrical and varied tone ("A granary of whispers rinsed in dew" - The Harp of Renfrewshire). Europa, I found to be a difficult selection. Elegies, is heartbreaking, beautiful and rightly the most well known of his collections. Read Courting (which I had at my wedding) with Anniversaries.
At times I found Dunn to be overly verbose with too much of a fondness of lengthy Latin words (pulchritude, longanimous etc.) but despite this, he can also be emotionally very direct and many poems demand re-reading.
The first four volumes (Terry Street, The Happier Life, Love or Nothing and Barbarians) deal with vexed questions of class, nationality, identity and poverty. Dunn wrestles with being a Scotsman in England, being an intellectual from a working-class home and being an observer into the lives of the poor who surround him in the backstreets of Hull. The companion poems of The Competition and Boys with Coats are particularly striking. St Kilda's Parliament adopts a more lyrical and varied tone ("A granary of whispers rinsed in dew" - The Harp of Renfrewshire). Europa, I found to be a difficult selection. Elegies, is heartbreaking, beautiful and rightly the most well known of his collections. Read Courting (which I had at my wedding) with Anniversaries.
At times I found Dunn to be overly verbose with too much of a fondness of lengthy Latin words (pulchritude, longanimous etc.) but despite this, he can also be emotionally very direct and many poems demand re-reading.
January 14, 2014
My dear friend Allyson, who teaches Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh, gave me this book for my birthday years ago (Dunn teaches at St. Andrews). What a treat! My favorite part about this book is that it freezes moments in time and place: cataloging culture in Scotland over a period of two decades.
Some of my favorite moments here:
"Here they come, the agents of rot."
"Recalcitrant motorbikes;
Dog-shit under frost."
"If you turn your back on it, people are only noises."
"The cat out cold in its afternoon coma."
"God so loved the world
He puked every time he looked at it."
"I could play the bad eras like a concertina."
Some of my favorite moments here:
"Here they come, the agents of rot."
"Recalcitrant motorbikes;
Dog-shit under frost."
"If you turn your back on it, people are only noises."
"The cat out cold in its afternoon coma."
"God so loved the world
He puked every time he looked at it."
"I could play the bad eras like a concertina."
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews