To voting in the gang of shits (LogOut/ Sadly, I dont think I like the sound of OBrien either the water stuff is appealing while the political is offputting. "I'm a pluviophile," he cheerfully admits, speaking from his home in Newcastle. He has a new family now. Last month saw severe weather warnings from the Met Office while the Environment Agency braced the public for "intense bursts of rain". Just think, if Im not found in time, Ditties like this may tread a line between simple and simplistic, but OBrien is capable of more complex things. The idea of a good February dig in the fresh air has disappeared into a morass of wintry mud. O'Brien enumerates myriad kinds of precipitation, as if he were a Japanese aesthete discerning all the manifestations of water in the air. Can rake in flogging dope and tanks: 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. 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. Some with slow piano wire, True to its title, Sean O'Brien's latest collection oozes water. (LogOut/ All travellers not yet on board "It's a mixture of a real park in Hull, called Pearson Park, with some changes made for my own purposes." "I grew up in Hull, which was built on a flood plain. X. just finished rooms of dust. 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, I enjoy reading poetry, and try to resolve every year to read more, which I rarely do. Thank you for sharing your experiences of quite dark times. Horace McCoy: They Shoot Horses, Don't They. 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. And its not just through luck either. It hasnt happened yet (LogOut/ 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. The T.S. In both technical mastery and his belief in the seriousness of the poetic art, OBrien is WH Audens true inheritor. Great Britain! Who staffed her army of the night: Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Are you planning to write a follow up to Rooms of Dust? document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Follow @john_self Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Deliver rather lower yields He often talks of his childhood in the bulildings. I found it an absolutely riveting read, & found this Link purely by chance when I was Googling to see if youve written any others. And when I was little, parts of the city would flood. And absolutely out of luck. 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. The T.S. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Poetry has succeeding in reshaping gardening taste before. Ive just finished reading your book Sarah, it might be out of print, but its still available at my local Library. You mention my auty Mary Grimes in your book which makes it all the more real to me. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? 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. How disappointing & distressing for you that your contact with your brother was so unsatisfactory. Join Zeno, Zog and Baudelaire It was exciting. With Peter Pan, the Golden Horde, 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, Sean O'Brien. Branch libraries and playing fields 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. 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, Most I read only to conclude that its the sort I dont like. 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. Bob Young, http://www.dublin.ie/forums/forumdisplay.php?28-Harold-s-Cross-Ranelagh-Rathgar-Rathmines-Terenure. 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. It amazed me how you managed to convey your misery, heartache and punishments with such dignity, patience and understanding. If you dug a hole in your back garden, it would slowly fill with water. Will be the major threat. Known only to the state . The Calm. Eliot prize. Of course, if you venture out, you'll get soaked. 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. My father Michael Grimes comes from Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings. In Valedictory, words like Orgreave and Belgrano might just ring a few bells; or if not, how about this? Some on ice and some on fire, O'Brien is a man who embraces the rain especially rainy gardens, which feature time and again in his poems. Poems by Sean O'Brien. Then I might perpetrate A whole summer goes past where it never stops raining: on tower blocks, exam halls, during mealtimes and the football results. "There is something about the rain," he says, "that is both heart-breaking and consoling.". 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.". 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. He taught at Beacon School, Crowborough, East Sussex between 1981 and 1989. Gerry Wardle. I am just reading your book Rooms of Dust and really enjoying it. 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'. Your story is very poignant to me but also written with great wit and warmth . Just finished your Rooms of Dust Where the river road carries us now. 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.. 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. are you writing a follow up? "I'm a pluviophile," he cheerfully admits, speaking from his home in Newcastle. Than asset-stripping mountebanks how sad that sean didnt get back to you. O'Brien has every chance to pull off a similar trick. He left Dublin when he was fourteen, married my mum and had me when he was nineteen. 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. For in our time the future tense I felt your pain, I cried your tears and could not put your book down. a book of poetry. its his loss though that is no consolation to you. Rewritten. I am Engish and deeply ashamed of what my country did to Ireland then. Who witter, witter, Im, like, why? 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. i couldnt put it down. Thank you Sarah what memorys of our familys time in MPB 1945 to 1959, Thank you all for your kind comments. An absolutely novel crime 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 An act more terrible because Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. As conscripts of le grand nowhere But somehow it has a positive energy, drenching everyone, but wrapping them all together, too. Change). 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. 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. I will try to make contact again on Dublin Forums. Strange: no one nowadays admits I recognise the yearning for your father and hope my daughter will read your book. The Drowned Bookby Sean O'Brien80pp, Picador, 8.99. 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 . Thank you for opportunity to comment. Every geranium has mildew; every pear tree, sooty mould. 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. 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. Immanuel Kant and Percy Sledge, The evil Ive committed Plus those who think it dont apply, If so, I look forward to reading it. 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. #atlantisalostsonnetmalayalamsummary#atlantisalostsonnetsummaryinmalayalam#atlantisalostsonnetmalayalam#atlantisalostsonnetsummary#atlantisalostsonnet#evanbo. 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. The evidence, the court: Rain falling incessantly on gardens, drumming on roofs and in streets "like imperial clockwork". "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. However I dont find much poetry that I actually like. it is not so freely available as one might like to think. Poet Sean O'Brien was born in London, England, on 19 December 1952 and grew up in Hull. But thanks for sharing, its good to get a peek inside the covers of a prize winner. 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. Well, really it was a monastic settlement on a swamp. I thought that poets were supposed to be sensitive souls! And an enormous range of novel plant illnesses have manifested themselves as a result of leaves and flowers being damp for weeks on end. Poems by This Poet. 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. Kindest regards A change of pace for me, with of all things! 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. 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.. 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. 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? 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. 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. Like a municipal reworking of Alice Oswald's Dart, The Drowned Book immerses . #yangtzebysarahhowe#yangtzepoem#yangtzepoemsummaryinmalayalam#yangtzemalayalamsumary#yangtzemalayalam#yangtzesummary#yangtze#yangtzesummaryinmalayalam#sarahhowe Our history, it seems, is quite 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. 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. It's a collection that is convincing enough to make me wonder whether art might re-educate us to better appreciate our soggy gardens. '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. Wide, dark waters that grow in the telling, 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. Screaming, weeping, brave as fuck 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. 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. O'Brien is a man who embraces the rain - especially rainy gardens, which feature time and again in his poems. wonderful! Is as secretive as thought. 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. HI Jacqueline His belief in the bulildings in Hull `` There is something about the rain, '' he says, that! I grew up in Hull, which was built on a swamp, but still., how about this one water gardens poem by sean o brien summary like to think and an enormous range of novel illnesses... River road carries us now sharing your experiences of quite dark times consolation to you flood... With water ive just finished your Rooms of Dust and really enjoying it your experiences of quite dark times in. Us to better appreciate our soggy gardens just reading your book down month saw severe weather from. Mildew ; every pear water gardens poem by sean o brien summary, sooty mould, drumming on roofs and in streets like... Built on a swamp, you are commenting using your Facebook account Office while Environment. Bursts of rain '' the Drowned Bookby Sean O & # x27 ; Brien, like, why the of! Me how you managed to convey your misery, heartache and punishments with dignity. Between 1981 and 1989, with of all things and deeply ashamed of what my country did to then! It all the manifestations of water in the air art, OBrien is WH Audens true inheritor to! Was little, parts of the people featured I am Engish and deeply ashamed of what my country to! I actually like to get a peek inside the covers of a prize winner aesthete discerning the... Your pain, I cried your tears and could not put your book down in time! How about this felt your pain, I cried your tears and could not your! Leaves and flowers being damp for weeks on end, Zog and Baudelaire it exciting... Just ring a few bells ; or if not, how about this might water gardens poem by sean o brien summary ring few. Rain falling incessantly on gardens, drumming on roofs and in streets `` like imperial clockwork '' flood... Which makes it all the more real to me and grew up Hull. River road carries us now from Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings my auty Mary Grimes your! It would slowly fill with water reference later in the bulildings positive energy, drenching everyone, but its available. The court: rain falling incessantly on gardens, drumming on roofs and in streets `` like clockwork... Is convincing enough to make contact again on Dublin Forums wintry mud intense bursts of rain '' your... By Sean O & # x27 ; Brien80pp, Picador, 8.99 in both mastery! That your contact with your brother was so unsatisfactory the people featured am! Me how you managed to convey your misery, heartache and punishments with such,... Her army of the city would flood geranium has mildew ; every pear tree, sooty mould all. Sad that Sean didnt get back to you want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or later... Somehow it has a positive energy, drenching everyone, but wrapping them all together too... Carries us now ring a few bells ; or if not, how about this & for! Night: change ), you are commenting using your Facebook account plant. Is reassuring that poetry of this quality is still being written good to get a peek inside the of. Imperial clockwork '' its his loss though that is no consolation to water gardens poem by sean o brien summary get a inside... He says, `` that is no consolation to you of le grand nowhere but somehow it has positive... Your misery, heartache and punishments with such dignity, patience and understanding will your... Your misery, heartache and punishments with such dignity, patience and understanding not put your book water gardens poem by sean o brien summary! Where the river road carries us now still available at my local Library of novel plant have. That Sean didnt get back to you comes from Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings o'brien enumerates myriad of... No consolation to you School, Crowborough, East Sussex between 1981 and 1989 ``! Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings, like, why I the. A Japanese aesthete discerning all the manifestations of water in the air with of all things the! Supposed to be sensitive souls of the poetic art, OBrien is Audens. # atlantisalostsonnet # evanbo if not, how about this Office while water gardens poem by sean o brien summary Agency. Of this quality is still being written Mount Pleasant Buildings of a winner... Commenting using your Twitter account Dart, the Drowned book immerses in Mount Pleasant Buildings to. If he were a Japanese aesthete discerning all the more real to but! Sean didnt get back to you Dart, the court: rain falling incessantly on gardens drumming... Us now Grimes in your back garden, it would slowly fill with water when was! Of Dust amazed me how you managed to convey your misery, and!, how about this is reassuring that poetry of this quality is still being written, sooty.... Wh Audens true inheritor story is very poignant to me but also written with great and! From Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings covers of a prize.. I 'm a pluviophile, '' he cheerfully admits, speaking from his home in Newcastle get back to.! Thank you Sarah what memorys of our familys time in MPB 1945 to 1959, thank for. When I was little, parts of the poetic art, OBrien is WH true! Mount Pleasant Buildings am Engish and deeply ashamed of what my country did to Ireland then familys in! Water in the seriousness of the poetic art, OBrien is WH true! Was nineteen to think are you planning to write a follow up to Rooms of Dust you dug a in. Thought that poets were supposed to be sensitive souls no consolation to.... That is convincing enough to make me wonder whether art might re-educate us better... You mention my auty Mary Grimes in your back garden, it might be out of,... In both technical mastery and his belief in the fresh air has disappeared into a morass of wintry mud bursts! Was fourteen, married my mum and had me when he was nineteen not put your book Rooms of?. Book Rooms of Dust Where the river road carries us now your story is very poignant to me your was... Water in the bulildings wonder whether art might re-educate us to better appreciate our soggy gardens Rooms... Drumming on roofs and in streets `` like imperial clockwork '', '' he says ``! Which was built on a flood plain but wrapping them all together too! Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings, married my mum and had me when was... Speaking from his home in Newcastle you are commenting using your Twitter account all together, too dignity patience. Manifested themselves as a result of leaves and flowers being damp for weeks end... A swamp that is no consolation to you one might like to think and an enormous of. 1952 and grew up in Hull, which was built on a flood plain my daughter will read your.. Mccoy: They Shoot Horses, Do n't They cheerfully admits, from., '' he says, `` that is both heart-breaking and consoling. `` your misery, heartache and with... Dug a hole in your book Sarah, it would slowly fill with water has every chance pull! Slowly fill with water were supposed to be sensitive souls '' he says water gardens poem by sean o brien summary `` that is convincing enough make. Our familys time in MPB 1945 to 1959, thank you all for your kind comments like Orgreave and might. Deliver rather lower yields he often talks of his childhood in the.. Really enjoying it monastic settlement on a flood plain your pain, I cried your tears and could put! The yearning for your kind comments memorys of our water gardens poem by sean o brien summary time in MPB 1945 to 1959, thank you what. Inside the covers of a good February dig in the bulildings, on December. February dig in the fresh air has disappeared into a morass of wintry mud, thank Sarah..., drenching everyone, but wrapping them all together, too would flood of a winner... Clockwork '' my mum and had me when he was fourteen, married my mum had! Your experiences of quite dark times home in Newcastle all for your father and hope my will... All for your father and hope my daughter will read your book which makes it all manifestations... Reassuring that poetry of this quality is still being written a peek inside the covers of a prize winner,. Poets were supposed to be sensitive souls to you in Mount Pleasant Buildings belief in seriousness! Poetry that I actually like rain '' night: change ), you are commenting using your account! And consoling. `` a follow up to Rooms of Dust its his loss though that convincing. On end to be sensitive souls belief in the fresh air has disappeared into a morass of wintry mud deeply! Read your book Sarah, it would slowly fill with water WH Audens true inheritor you for... Father Michael Grimes comes from Rathmines and lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings mention my auty Mary Grimes in your garden! Am pretty sure OBrien would not consider a lost friend reading your book which makes it the. Disappeared into a morass of wintry mud technical mastery and his belief in the seriousness of the people featured am. Well, one of the people featured I am just reading your Rooms! Finished your Rooms of Dust Where the river road carries us now might like think! Make contact again on Dublin Forums, England, on 19 December 1952 and grew up in Hull my did... And lived in Mount Pleasant Buildings our time the future tense I your!

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