Selected Poems

by David Harsent

This selection of poems, made by the author, brings together work from his four individual collections published thus far: "A Violent Country" (1969), "After Dark" (1973), "Dreams of the Dead" (1977) and "Mister Punch" (1984). The new poems "The Windhound", "The Analysand" and "Playback" are also included. David Harsent has been the recipient of a number of awards including an Eric Gregory Award, a Cheltenham Festival Prize, a Camden Prize, an Arts Council Poetry Bursary and a Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1989

About the author

David Harsent is an English poet and TV scriptwriter. Harsent also writes crime fiction novels under the pseudonyms David Lawrence, David Pascoe and Jack Curtis. He has published eleven collections of poetry which have won several literary prizes and awards. Legion won the Forward Prize for best collection 2005 and was shortlisted for both the T.S. Eliot and Whitbread Awards.

He lives with his wife, the actress Julia Watson and their daughter in London.

Reviews

[Adam J. M. Eagleton]

Harsent is among the greatest living poets. If you want to witness beautiful, powerful, endlessly undulating and effortlessly compelling poetry, then read this book without hesitation.

[Benjamin]

I'm not one for poetry. But, I read one of Harsent's poems in The New Yorker and was floored. I hope the rest are just as good.

[Cooch]

The poems are best read in their original volumes.

Although some of these poems stand well on their own, you get the feeling that they loose something when removed from their original context where they fit together to form strange stories.

[Andy Crawley]

Very good indeed. But not my taste!