Eyewear Publishing's very own Richard Lambert's Night Journey has been reviewed by the fine poet and critic John Greening in the 1 November issue of the Times Literary Supplement (TLS) which describe's our books as "smartly unconventional" hardbacks that are "a nod to the 1920s". The reviewer finds much to enjoy in Lambert's work - it is a very positive review overall - particularly noting "the collection's distinguished title poem", the "strong original writing" and "striking observation or quirky turn of phrase". Now is as good a time as any to order a copy from Eyewear online here.
When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....
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