Synopses & Reviews
Wild and Wounded' collects Michael Hamburger's shorter poems since Intersections' (2000). It is published to mark the 80th birthday of one of Britain's leading poets of the last half-century. The dominant theme in these poems is the passing of time - whether referring to the injured swan in the collection's title poem, a tree surreptitiously dying', or the poet himself, comtemplating
... difficulties with grammar now, with tense,
With mood, with person, case - and, yes, the sense.
As illness, frailty, absence and obsolescence become more pressing to the poet, his poems, by contrast, achieve an enthralling robustness and vigour.
Michael Hamburger was born in Berlin in 1924, and came to Britain as a child. He has taught widely in America and Britain and is the outstanding contemporary translator and critic of German literature. His awards include the German Federal Republic's Goethe Medal in 1986 for services to German literature. Anvil publishes several of his translations, including editions of Goethe, Hölderlin, Rilke and Poems of Paul Celan', which received the EC's European Translation Prize in 1990. His Collected Poems 1941-1994' was published in 1995 by Anvil, who also publish his seminal critical work The Truth of Poetry'. His three subsequent volumes of poetry are Late', Intersections' and From a Diary of Non-Events'.
Synopsis
Wild and Woundedcollects Michael Hamburger's shorter poems since Intersections(2000). It was published in England in March 2004 to mark the 80th birthday of one of Britain's leading poets (and translators) of the last half-century. Like Hardy and Yeats-but like so few others-Hamburger continues in old age to write with the same clarity and power as throughout his poetic career of over 60 years.
Synopsis
Outstanding new collection by one of Britain's greatest post-War poets, to mark his 80th birthday.
About the Author
Michael Hamburger OBE was born in Berlin in 1924 and came to Britain as a child in 1933. He is a respected poet and the author of a seminal critical work, The Truth of Poetry, on modern poetry. He is also the outstanding translator of German poetry into English; as editor his work includes the anthology German Poetry 1910-75. His many awards include the Schlegel-Tieck Prize (1981), the German Federal Republic's Goethe Medal (1986) and the European Translation Prize (1990). His selections from the poetry of Goethe, Hölderlin, Rilke and Celan are all published by Anvil.