Angels Over Elsinore: Collected Verse, 2003-2008

by Clive James

Well-known for his prose, as well as his TV appearances, Clive James has also established a name for himself in the world of poetry. His previous collections, Other Passports and The Book of My Enemy, were critically acclaimed and accomplished, yet simultaneously accessible and entertaining - and his new book promises more of the same. Bringing together poems written over the last five years, Angels over Elsinore is impressive not only in terms of its execution, but also in terms of its scope and versatility.

Genres: Poetry

102 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

An expatriate Australian broadcast personality and author of cultural criticism, memoir, fiction, travelogue and poetry. Translator of Dante.

Reviews

[Jeremy Walton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice short collection
Besides his literary criticism, novels, autobiography, lyrics and TV work, Clive James has also produced an impressive amount of poetry. It's a field in which he's been toiling for some time, making use of a variety of forms: thus, his previous collection, The Book of My Enemy , contains examples of every style from short, jewel-like, pieces to parodies, lengthy verse letters and mock epics. Since its publication in 2003, he's been putting out new poems on his website, and this new collection contains almost everything he's produced in that period. It's a much slimmer volume than "The Book Of My Enemy", partly because it covers a briefer period, but mainly because he's concentrating here on shorter forms.

Since I find the shorter pieces easier to read, this is a step in the right direction. Apart from that quantitative observation, I don't really know enough about poetry to comment authoritatively - though a review on the dust jacket notes that "The poems here have skip, insights, timing and agreeable passion" (which looks a bit clumsy to me, but the reviewer is doubtless more familiar with poetry than I am). However, I greatly enjoyed reading them, and appreciated the way in which many of them use apparently unpromising ideas (a statement from Donald Rumsfeld, the genitals of the blue whale, a painting) as their inspiration, and make them into something interesting. One of my favourites here is "Museum of the Unmoving Image", a conceit that turns a survey of trite figures of speech into an appeal for renewed vividness. But the most popular is likely to be "Windows Is Shutting Down", which is about - well, just look at that title, and try and guess what a poet could extract from a message which we've seen thousands of times without ever really noticing it.

Originally reviewed 8 January 2009

[Stefan Grieve · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some good poems I liked here, like one describing a walk, ('Sunday Morning Walk') and my favourite of the collection, a reflection of childhood, ending with the great lines 'Now we are old and the memories returning... Are like the last stars that fade before the morning' ('When we were Kids') and several ones about Greek mythology.
There is a strong theme of death in his works, not surprising as it hovered over him around these times of writing, with him contemplating it's dark emptiness or going to peoples funerals. These are more pessimistic and gloomy then anything, but do have there poetry to them.
But then there are others I found a bit off, Like one I found tasteless about a suicide bomber going to heaven ('The Australian Suicide Bomber's Heavenly Reward') and overly crude, like one about a whales 'wedding tackle' ('Bigger then a Man') which in fact, there are many overtly crude references in some of the work, with either a poem featuring pigeon poo or a tree's sap looking like 'randy boys' have had their way with it.
There is also a mention of guardian columns being filled with 'mumbling drag queens' in one of the poems. Erm.
So I found it mixed, some I found inspired and others I found, well, less so. Not really angelic.

[Stephen Coates · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first book of poetry I’d read in a very long time and one poem that really touched me was on his last visit to his late father’s grave. Some others were clever but most didn’t really connect with me.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A witty, contemporary anthology of poems which contain a healthy dose of cynicism about our world. Some are moving, some are fun and others just pick out that which is plainly daft.