Books

  1. A Snail in My Prime: New and Selected Poems
    A Snail in My Prime: New and Selected Poems
  2. Anthology of 20th Century Poetry
    Anthology of 20th Century Poetry
  3. Poems
    Poems
  4. Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil
    Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil
  5. Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil
    Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil
  6. Memories of the Unknown
    Memories of the Unknown
  7. Cries of an Irish Caveman
    Cries of an Irish Caveman
  8. Sunris
    Sunris
  9. Morning in the Burned House (Virago Poetry)
    Morning in the Burned House (Virago Poetry)
  10. The Virago Book of War Poetry by Women
    The Virago Book of War Poetry by Women
  11. The Virago Book of Love Poetry
    The Virago Book of Love Poetry
  12. Virago Book of "Writing Women": Wild Cards (Writing Women)
    Virago Book of "Writing Women": Wild Cards (Writing Women)
  13. The Nerve
    The Nerve
  14. Rosemary for Remembrance
    Rosemary for Remembrance
  15. Of Love and War: New and Selected Poems
    Of Love and War: New and Selected Poems
  16. When Gazelles Leap: Reflections of Love - A Mythology
    When Gazelles Leap: Reflections of Love - A Mythology
  17. Mental Fight
    Mental Fight
  18. The Book of the Sea
    The Book of the Sea
  19. A Book of Hearts
    A Book of Hearts
  20. Friends for Life
    Friends for Life
  21. Wishing You the Best Birthday Ever (A Helen Exley Giftbook)
    Wishing You the Best Birthday Ever (A Helen Exley Giftbook)
  22. A Friend Is Forever
    A Friend Is Forever
  23. Thank You for Every Little Thing (Words for Life S.)
    Thank You for Every Little Thing (Words for Life S.)
  24. Earth Laughs in Flowers
    Earth Laughs in Flowers
  25. To a Very Special Brother (A Helen Exley Giftbook)
    To a Very Special Brother (A Helen Exley Giftbook)
A Snail in My Prime: New and Selected Poems (Poets, Penguin)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Deceptively casual surfaces, deeply disturbing depths
 A Snail in My Prime: New and Selected Poems (Poets, Penguin)
Paul Durcan
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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GeneralGeneral | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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  3. Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times

ASIN: 0140587209

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Deceptively casual surfaces, deeply disturbing depths.......2005-02-25

Reading this collection of mostly selected (by the author himself) and new--interspersed chronologically--poems by an author I'd long shied away from, suspecting him to be pandering to a self-satisfied crowd of smug know-it-alls, I was surprised. Once you get past the collar-grabbing effusiveness of many of the titles (they sound often like tabloid headlines or a hippie songwriter's snide put-downs), you realise the intensity of vision that goes into their making. Like many musicians, by the way, he's supposed to really make the messages come alive on stage. Not having had the opportunity, the page must suffice.

But the sense that Durcan needs an audience to energise his skills can be conveyed here nonetheless. Although I predict many of his earlier, context-specific poems on scandals and pontifications within Irish 70s-90s society will become dated for a newer readers from a more cynical, multicultural, and secular Ireland, still--Durcan's pairing of paintings with poems, his exposure of his own vulnerability within sexual, marital, and post-marital situations, and his delight in the female, the subversive, and the exotic all establish him as a major contributor to the resurgence of contemporary Irish culture.

A Snail in My Prime: New and Selected Poems
Average customer rating: Not rated
    		A Snail in My Prime: New and Selected Poems
    Paul Durcan
    Manufacturer: Vintage/Ebury (A Division of Random House Group)
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback
    ASIN: B000O8PGIE

    Books:

    1. Love Poems (Everyman's Pocket Poets)
    2. Collected Poems (Poetry Pleiade)
    3. Faint Harps and Silver Voices: Selected Translations (Poetry Pleiade)
    4. Two Ways Out of Whitman: American Essays
    5. A Survey of Modernist Poetry and a Pamphlet Against Anthologies
    6. The Wreck of the Hesperus (Phoenix 60p Paperbacks)
    7. A Snail in My Prime: New and Selected Poems
    8. Overlord: The Triumph of Light 1944-45: an Epic Poem: Books 7-9 Vol III
    9. The River's Voice: An Anthology of Poetry
    10. The Triumph of Pan

    Books