Richard Murphy, Jon Silkin, Nathaniel Tarn

Penguin Modern Poets, Series I #7

by Richard; Silkin Murphy

Genres: Poetry

111 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[JMJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Richard Murphy: His poetry was engaging. I liked the strange links between Ireland and South Africa. I preferred the first of his poems in this collection about the Cleggan Bay disaster.

Jon Silkin: Flat, uninspiring poetry that didn’t really seem to have much depth to me. I didn’t appreciate subject, form or style particularly.

Nathaniel Tarn: The poems were rather monotonous and for some reason every second sentences seemed to be about whales?

[J Grimsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the other poets in this series a mixed bag. I enjoyed Richard Murphy with his Irish and colonial background. I found Jon Silkin more difficult but I must read more. Nathanial Tarn's first poem I really liked (Ely Cathedral) but them I got a bit lost and although I have read all the Bible I found his biblical references hard to follow

[Philip Coulter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard Murphy - fine, Irish, often historical.
Jon Silkin - uneven. Felt very personal, sometimes dark, sometimes cryptic.
Nathaniel Tarn - also uneven. Tbh I struggled to follow a lot of it, but I'm sure to return to it in future.

[Richard Clay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Murphy's the one who I'll want to go back to from this collection. His description is vivid and emotive. Silkin and Tarn are more of the usual poetry-as-crossword-puzzle one expects from this series.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

nathaniel tarn’s poetry is beautiful but the rest…

[Gareth Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I particularly enjoyed Richard Murphy’s nature-infused poems. However, I found Silkin’s work rather impenetrable and only warmed to some of the themes and images in Nathaniel Tarn’s selection.