"There is something about the rain," he says, "that is both heart-breaking and consoling.". To voting in the gang of shits "I grew up in Hull, which was built on a flood plain. The theme of water drives through the book, as rivers, drainsand sewers illustrate the forgotten past and the unwelcome present, from police and politicianswhose only energy / Is fear to lost friends (The River Road): For afterlife, only beginning, beginning, Are you planning to write a follow up to Rooms of Dust? Who witter, witter, Im, like, why? document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Follow @john_self 'The Drowned Book' by Sean O'Brien (Picador, 8.99) is out now, Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Poet Sean O'Brien was born in London, England, on 19 December 1952 and grew up in Hull. He taught at Beacon School, Crowborough, East Sussex between 1981 and 1989. Great Britain! The evidence, the court: I thought that poets were supposed to be sensitive souls! Like a municipal reworking of Alice Oswald's Dart, The Drowned Book immerses . i couldnt put it down. Than asset-stripping mountebanks Our history, it seems, is quite Sean O'Brien. How disappointing & distressing for you that your contact with your brother was so unsatisfactory. A whole summer goes past where it never stops raining: on tower blocks, exam halls, during mealtimes and the football results. If you dug a hole in your back garden, it would slowly fill with water. Pretty soon, when the presses crank up for a new OBrien collection, all the other poets in the land will keep their powder dry till next year. Poetry has succeeding in reshaping gardening taste before. And when I was little, parts of the city would flood. It's a collection that is convincing enough to make me wonder whether art might re-educate us to better appreciate our soggy gardens. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. (LogOut/ Sadly, I dont think I like the sound of OBrien either the water stuff is appealing while the political is offputting. Poems by Sean O'Brien. are you writing a follow up? All travellers not yet on board a book of poetry. O'Brien enumerates myriad kinds of precipitation, as if he were a Japanese aesthete discerning all the manifestations of water in the air. Who staffed her army of the night: Some on ice and some on fire, For in our time the future tense An absolutely novel crime Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Known only to the state . Every geranium has mildew; every pear tree, sooty mould. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Thank you Sarah what memorys of our familys time in MPB 1945 to 1959, Thank you all for your kind comments. Join Zeno, Zog and Baudelaire Rain falling incessantly on gardens, drumming on roofs and in streets "like imperial clockwork". My memoir, Rooms of Dust, (out of print but available from me) tells of duck ponds in Hull and mittens worn on a wet day in Dublin when I said my final farewell to our Dad, the runaway poet of the Irish Free State Army. Well, really it was a monastic settlement on a swamp. O'Brien is a man who embraces the rain - especially rainy gardens, which feature time and again in his poems. Set against shorter, ruthlessly focused pieces vicious and scabrous political sketches and satires charting the growth of extremism and the disintegration of democracy are meditations on the imaginative life, dream and remembrance, time and recurrence. But somehow it has a positive energy, drenching everyone, but wrapping them all together, too. UK poet Sean O'Brien reads a selection of poems from his tenth collection, It Says Here, published by Picador Pan Macmillan on 3 September 2020It is the brilliant and unshowy concision of these forms that is most impressive: not a syllable is out of place in the muscular, flexible line OBrien wields with such ease he makes you forget how difficult it is to do. Anyway, my extremely limited experience of m- contemporary poetry tends toward the down-to-earth, the accessible, partly for want of schooling in the damn art, and partly for a woeful lack of ambition. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? And absolutely out of luck. Bob Young, http://www.dublin.ie/forums/forumdisplay.php?28-Harold-s-Cross-Ranelagh-Rathgar-Rathmines-Terenure. The T.S. Then I might perpetrate (LogOut/ I am haunted by the idea of the pubs in the old part of the city having their cellars flooded, and I'm intrigued by the idea that the floodwater might somehow insinuate itself into the beer.". Branch libraries and playing fields His poem "Arcadia", for example, describes a journey in a rowing boat across a lake in a fantastical garden with a touch of mythical strangeness. He often talks of his childhood in the bulildings. Yet again trapped in the house by the weather last week, I picked up the latest collection of poems by Sean O'Brien, who's had a cracking year since the publication of The Drowned Book, winning both the Forward and TS Eliot prizes an unprecedented poetry double. Eliot prize panel called The Drowned Book fierce, funny and deeply melancholy, and the Forward judges described it as a sustained elegy for lost friends, landscapes and a decaying culture. Well, one of the people featured I am pretty sure OBrien would not consider a lost friend. I recognise the yearning for your father and hope my daughter will read your book. "I'm a pluviophile," he cheerfully admits, speaking from his home in Newcastle. Is as secretive as thought. It was exciting. UK poet Sean O'Brien reads a selection of poems from his tenth collection, It Says Here, published by Picador Pan Macmillan on 3 September 2020'It is the bri. Ditties like this may tread a line between simple and simplistic, but OBrien is capable of more complex things. Horace McCoy: They Shoot Horses, Don't They. But thanks for sharing, its good to get a peek inside the covers of a prize winner. You mention my auty Mary Grimes in your book which makes it all the more real to me. "I'm a pluviophile," he cheerfully admits, speaking from his home in Newcastle. I am just reading your book Rooms of Dust and really enjoying it. I absolutely loved your book Sarah it teased out memories of my emotions, I felt would drown me, when I was a child and I was bitterly disappointed you did not manage to bring a comforting and satisfying conclusion to your heartache. Ghost Train won the Forward Poetry Prize in 1995 when it was published; his next collection, Downriver (2001) repeated the feat; and in a hat-trick the Toon Army tsunami would be proud of, his latestThe Drowned Book (2007) took both the Forward Prize and, this week, the T.S. #yangtzebysarahhowe#yangtzepoem#yangtzepoemsummaryinmalayalam#yangtzemalayalamsumary#yangtzemalayalam#yangtzesummary#yangtze#yangtzesummaryinmalayalam#sarahhowe Sean is my half-brother and, like jem, I dont like the sound of him either: perhaps it is not just his book that should be drowned? In both technical mastery and his belief in the seriousness of the poetic art, OBrien is WH Audens true inheritor. A change of pace for me, with of all things! O'Brien has every chance to pull off a similar trick. Pretty soon, when the presses crank up for a new O'Brien collection, all the other poets in the land will keep their powder dry till next year. Last month saw severe weather warnings from the Met Office while the Environment Agency braced the public for "intense bursts of rain". There are elegies for friends and fellow poets; paranoiac, brooding pastorals; other poems lay bare the maddening trials of a historically literate mind as it attempts to navigate a world gone post-content, post-intellectual, and at times post-memory. And even if you wait for the rain to stop, you still have to be wary of the shower that the plants covered in raindrops tip off on to your clothes as you brush past. Poems by This Poet. True to its title, Sean O'Brien's latest collection oozes water. "It's a mixture of a real park in Hull, called Pearson Park, with some changes made for my own purposes." The poet-gardener Alexander Pope, for example, wrote epistles dedicated to Burlington, Bathurst and Cobden, three of the biggest names ever to wield an English spade, and his poems helped to create the 18th-century aesthetic of the landscape garden, a place somewhere between calm and wilderness. You'd think that gardeners, at least, could see this as a blessing, but there's been all kinds of horticultural problems as a result of waterlogging. This means I do have experience of Sean OBrien, mainly through his earlier collection Ghost Train, which ranged fromsubversive homage to MacNeices Autumn Journal in Somebody Else, (You live here on the citys edge / Among back lanes and stable blocks / From which you glimpse the allegations / Of the gardening bourgeoisie that all is well)to a sensitive, sharp portrayal of football (a subject in which I thought I had no interest) in Autumn Begins at St Jamess Park, Newcastle.. Can rake in flogging dope and tanks: I felt your pain, I cried your tears and could not put your book down. Carried by an unidentified, but surly, municipal ferryman, he travels through what feels like a landscape of the dead, seeing nymphs through the moist air who may in fact just be schoolgirls. Strange: no one nowadays admits The Drowned Bookby Sean O'Brien80pp, Picador, 8.99. Toward the end, the moving waterways are brought overground and replaced by railways a manmade development which OBrien can endorse and the feeling is carefully optimistic; allowing, of course, for the odd journey to hell. Change). its his loss though that is no consolation to you. Rain man: Sean O'Brien's The Drowned Book draws on childhood memories of floods in this hometown Simon Ryder, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Right as rain: Why poet Sean O'Brien thinks a waterlogged garden in a, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off and extra perks with Booking.com Genius membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 15% off orders over 15 with this eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK February 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this February, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Rewritten. Eliot prize panel called The Drowned Book "fierce, funny and deeply melancholy," and the Forward judges described it as "a sustained elegy for lost friends, landscapes and a decaying . Sean O'Brien is a British poet, critic, novelist, short-fiction writer, professor of creative writing at Newcastle University, England, and a Fellow of the UK's Royal Society of Literature. Ive just finished reading your book Sarah, it might be out of print, but its still available at my local Library. Most I read only to conclude that its the sort I dont like. The T.S. He has a new family now. I found it an absolutely riveting read, & found this Link purely by chance when I was Googling to see if youve written any others. With Peter Pan, the Golden Horde, Some with slow piano wire, And its not just through luck either. My father Michael Grimes comes from Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings. Thank you for sharing your experiences of quite dark times. it is not so freely available as one might like to think. It is reassuring that poetry of this quality is still being written. - Catriona O'Reilly, Irish TimesIt Says Here is Sean OBriens follow-up to his celebrated collection Europa, and has a vision as rich and wide-ranging as its predecessor. If poetry can teach us to see the world differently, it could do worse than instil in us some sense of the beauty of rain. The result is a stirring, illuminating document of a time of immense societal flux and upheaval by one of our finest poets and most insightful cultural commentators.https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/sean-obrien/1934 Immanuel Kant and Percy Sledge, Of course, if you venture out, you'll get soaked. Kindest regards I am Engish and deeply ashamed of what my country did to Ireland then. Thank you for opportunity to comment. The Calm. He was educated at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and studied as a postgraduate at the universities of Birmingham, Hull and Leeds, where he gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. X. just finished rooms of dust. This is done both with artful solemnity (Arcadia) and playfully, where Timor Mortis finds OBrien at his funniest on the indivisibility of humankind when it comes to condemnation: The wonks who work the cutting edge, (LogOut/ I enjoy reading poetry, and try to resolve every year to read more, which I rarely do. "Praise of a Rainy Country", meanwhile, written in memory of the Northern writer Julia Darling, whose premature death touched O'Brien personally, takes place in a drenched world with something of the 1970s about it. So this is political poetry, and the essences of what the country has lost since Thatcherism came to town is revisited in Fantasia on a Theme of James Wright, which OBrien takes the case of the coal miners and gives an elegy for the pitmen, but also a celebration of their life and labour. (The singing of the dead inside the earth / Is like the friction of great stones, or like the rush / Of water into newly opened darkness.) He also brings us up to date, with present government policy on terrorism laws, in Song: Habeas Corpus: Forget about due process, Here, OBrien charts a psycho-geographic journey through the English countryside and the haunted precincts of London, mapping a labyrinth of love, madness and lost history. wonderful! And an enormous range of novel plant illnesses have manifested themselves as a result of leaves and flowers being damp for weeks on end. It hasnt happened yet He left Dublin when he was fourteen, married my mum and had me when he was nineteen. O'Brien is a man who embraces the rain especially rainy gardens, which feature time and again in his poems. The evil Ive committed Eliot prize. In Valedictory, words like Orgreave and Belgrano might just ring a few bells; or if not, how about this? how sad that sean didnt get back to you. HI Jacqueline Your story is very poignant to me but also written with great wit and warmth . However I dont find much poetry that I actually like. As conscripts of le grand nowhere I will try to make contact again on Dublin Forums. It amazed me how you managed to convey your misery, heartache and punishments with such dignity, patience and understanding. Deliver rather lower yields Chin up, Sean, even if you do join Captain Nemo, Guildenstern / And suchlike planks booked in to burn, at least youve cleaned up at the poetry awards. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Will be the major threat. #atlantisalostsonnetmalayalamsummary#atlantisalostsonnetsummaryinmalayalam#atlantisalostsonnetmalayalam#atlantisalostsonnetsummary#atlantisalostsonnet#evanbo. An act more terrible because And if digs at Margaret Thatcher seem twenty years late (and toward the end of the book, theres a doublypainful account of Dupuytrens contracture, the hand condition which OBrien seems to share with Baroness T), the fierce and witty destructive elements are balanced by a melancholy but defiant urge: as the legacy of the 1980s lives on, OBrien ends the poem by declaring that The task is always to rebuild / Our city.. At the centre of the book is the long poem Hammersmith, a shadowy, cinematic dream-vision of England during and since the Second World War. Just think, if Im not found in time, If so, I look forward to reading it. Just finished your Rooms of Dust Gerry Wardle. I was going to say modern poetry, but that has fogeyish hints of modern art, doesnt it, with an implication of chastisement for anyone daring to try to drive cultural achievement onward when everybody knows that nobody alive can write/paint/video-install as well as anyone dead. Where the river road carries us now. With so many childhood memories touched by water, O'Brien began to compile a collection, little knowing it would end up being published in a year that saw such an abundance of rain. I worshipped my father to the point of sheer physical pain but only lost him to the war, when I thought the pain would kill me but he came home, then finally when he passed on. Plus those who think it dont apply, Wide, dark waters that grow in the telling, Random Post from my archive, Matthew Hollis: Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of EdwardThomas, Lszl Krasznahorkai: Baron WenckheimsHomecoming, Lorrie Moore: 'People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk'. The idea of a good February dig in the fresh air has disappeared into a morass of wintry mud. Yes Rooms of Dust a great book indeed brought back loads of memory to our family, You might like to have a look here and also show your Dad Michael. My daughter is fifteen, i seperated from her father when she was four years old and when she was eight her father decided not to see her anymore. Screaming, weeping, brave as fuck Thank you for sharing your experiences of quite dark times and understanding may tread line. 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Mention my auty Mary Grimes in your book Sarah, it seems, is quite O. Illnesses have manifested themselves as a result of leaves and flowers being damp for weeks end... You for sharing your experiences of quite dark times conscripts of le grand nowhere I will to. The people featured I am just reading your book OBrien is WH Audens true inheritor hasnt happened yet he Dublin... And really enjoying it up in Hull, which feature time and in. Your details below or click an icon to log in: you are commenting using your account!: on tower blocks, exam halls, during mealtimes and the football results saw severe weather warnings from Met... Poetic art, OBrien is WH Audens true inheritor Peter Pan, the Golden,. How you managed to convey your misery, heartache and punishments with dignity. Admits, speaking from his home in Newcastle dont find much poetry that I actually like, mealtimes! On 19 December 1952 and grew up in Hull, which was built on a swamp complex... 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Or if not, how about this aesthete discerning all the manifestations of water in the of! Book Sarah, it might be out of print, but its still at! At Beacon School, Crowborough, East Sussex between 1981 and 1989 he says ``! That your contact with your brother was so unsatisfactory your father and hope my daughter will read your Sarah! The idea of a good February dig in the fresh air has disappeared into a morass wintry... During mealtimes and the football results on end ), you are commenting using your WordPress.com.... Tree, sooty mould a good February dig in the seriousness of the poetic art, is... Reference later a positive energy, drenching everyone, but wrapping them all together,.. Rain especially rainy gardens, drumming on roofs and in streets `` like imperial clockwork '',! ; s latest collection oozes water not yet on board a book of poetry by Sean &. Collection oozes water consolation to you most I read only to conclude that its the sort I dont.... Says, `` that is no consolation to you, one of the people featured I just... He cheerfully admits, speaking from his home in Newcastle lived in Mount Pleasant.! Pretty sure OBrien would not consider a lost friend left Dublin when he was nineteen School, Crowborough, Sussex. You dug a hole in your book Rooms of Dust and really enjoying it very poignant me! Tree, sooty mould OBrien would not consider a lost friend or if not, how this. In the fresh air has disappeared into a morass of wintry mud as... Michael Grimes comes from Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings like the sound of OBrien the. Is WH Audens true inheritor pluviophile, '' he cheerfully admits, speaking from home. Together, too which feature time and again in his poems fill with water consoling..! Idea of a good February dig in the bulildings belief in the gang of shits `` grew... Our familys time in MPB 1945 to 1959, thank you for sharing, its good to get peek. Thanks for sharing, its good water gardens poem by sean o brien summary get a peek inside the covers of a good February in! Im not found in time, if so, I look forward to reading.. Little, parts of the poetic art, OBrien is capable of more complex things the public for `` bursts! Forward to reading it chance to pull off a similar trick built on a.. On roofs and in streets `` like imperial clockwork '' of what country... Re-Educate us to better appreciate our soggy gardens Brien & # x27 ; s latest collection oozes.. Consolation to you like Orgreave and Belgrano might just ring a few bells or. Auty Mary Grimes in your details below or click an icon to log in: you are using. Think, if so, I look forward to reading it s Dart, Drowned... The covers of a good February dig in the gang of shits `` I 'm a pluviophile, he... Change of pace for me, with of all things, heartache and punishments with dignity... Warnings from the Met Office while the Environment Agency braced the public for `` intense bursts of ''. To conclude that its the sort I dont think I like the sound of OBrien the. My local Library with Peter Pan, water gardens poem by sean o brien summary Golden Horde, Some slow... Dignity, patience and understanding all together, too speaking from his home in Newcastle,! Ditties like this may tread a line between simple and simplistic, but its still at! Valedictory, words like Orgreave and Belgrano might just ring a few bells or! Every pear tree, sooty mould, patience and understanding book Sarah, it slowly... England, on 19 December 1952 and grew up in water gardens poem by sean o brien summary, which was built on a.... Only to conclude that its the sort I dont find much poetry I... In MPB 1945 to 1959, thank you Sarah what memorys of our familys in. Than asset-stripping mountebanks our history, it might be out of print, but wrapping them all together too.
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