Photo de l'auteur

Alice Oswald

Auteur de Memorial

19+ oeuvres 1,134 utilisateurs 18 critiques 4 Favoris

A propos de l'auteur

Alice Oswald has won the Eric Gregory Award, the Arts Foundation Award for Poetry, the Forward Prize, the Ted Hughes Award, and the T. S. Eliot Prize. She lives in Devon, England.

Comprend les noms: Alice Oswald

Crédit image: Photo: © Kate Mount http://www.katemountphotography.co.uk/

Œuvres de Alice Oswald

Memorial (2011) — Auteur — 301 exemplaires
Dart (2002) 221 exemplaires
Falling awake (2016) 163 exemplaires
Woods etc. (2005) 126 exemplaires
The Thing in the Gap-stone Stile (1996) 70 exemplaires
Nobody (2018) 64 exemplaires
Weeds and Wild Flowers (2009) 62 exemplaires
A Sleepwalk on the Severn (2009) 40 exemplaires
The Thunder Mutters: 101 Poems for the Planet (2005) — Directeur de publication — 22 exemplaires
Thomas Wyatt. Edited by Alice Oswald (Poet to Poet) (2008) — Directeur de publication — 14 exemplaires
Gigantic Cinema: A Weather Anthology (2020) — Directeur de publication — 7 exemplaires
Archipelago: A Reader (2021) 4 exemplaires
Tree Ghosts 1 exemplaire
Ingen : dikt (2021) 1 exemplaire
Abide (2021) 1 exemplaire

Oeuvres associées

Women on Nature (2021) — Contributeur — 21 exemplaires
Modern Women Poets (2005) — Contributeur — 13 exemplaires
Red: The Waterstones Anthology (2012) — Contributeur — 5 exemplaires

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Nom canonique
Oswald, Alice
Date de naissance
1966
Sexe
female
Nationalité
UK
Pays (pour la carte)
UK
Lieux de résidence
Devon, England, UK
Études
Oxford University (New College)
Professions
gardener
poet
Relations
Oswald, Peter (husband)
Beatty, Laura (sister)
Prix et distinctions
Ted Hughes Award (2010)

Membres

Critiques

Like a stone
Stands by a grave and says nothing

Review of the W.W. Norton Company paperback edition (2013) of the original Faber & Faber hardcover (2011)

This is an extraordinarily beautiful meditation and elegy on death, loss and the fleeting nature of life. Although ostensibly a "version" of Homer's Iliad, it is Alice Oswald's poetic similes that follow each listing of a death or deaths from the Greek epic which are the affecting and haunting chorus to each passing.

Oswald starts off by listing all 200 names of the dead from The Iliad, from Protesilaus through to Hector. She then begins to intone each again, with some excerpts relating to their deaths in the epic and then following them with her similes, each of those latter repeated twice. In my ignorance I thought the repeats were a typo at first, and then realized the beauty of repeating them and letting their imagery sink in.
Like leaves
Sometimes they light their green flames
And are fed by the earth
And sometimes it snuffs them out

Like leaves
Sometimes they light their green flames
And are fed by the earth
And sometimes it snuffs them out
Like moonlight
Or the light of a bonfire
Burning on the cliffs
When sailors get blown along
Homesick over the sea
They notice that far-off fire
And think of their wives

Like moonlight
Or the light of a bonfire
Burning on the cliffs
When sailors get blown along
Homesick over the sea
They notice that far-off fire
And think of their wives
Like when god throws a star
And everyone looks up
To see that ship of sparks
And then it's gone

Like when god throws a star
And everyone looks up
To see that ship of sparks
And then it's gone

Reading this during the current pandemic and the extent of the worldwide loss of life due to that disease made me think of the mythological Trojan War as a metaphor for any sort of long term unjust forms of death and I became more focused on Oswald's choruses than the Iliad sections.

The poem is followed by an excellent Afterword by Eaven Boland in this 2013 Norton paperback edition.

I've been a long term fan of Christopher Logue's Homer in War Music (2015), but I have to confess that Alice Oswald has become my new fave Iliad adaptation.

My thanks to Liisa & family for this kind gift.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
alanteder | 8 autres critiques | Jun 4, 2021 |
I did not expect to be so moved.

Quite a horrific but beautiful account of war.
 
Signalé
mjhunt | 8 autres critiques | Jan 22, 2021 |
Gorgeously descriptive.
The play/poem structure is really fun.
 
Signalé
mjhunt | 1 autre critique | Jan 22, 2021 |
Like leaves who could write a history of leaves
The wind blows their ghosts to the ground
And the spring breathes new leaf into the woods
Thousands of names thousands of leaves
When you remember them remember this
Dead bodies are their lineage
Which matter no more than the leaves
 
Signalé
drbrand | 8 autres critiques | Jan 13, 2021 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
19
Aussi par
4
Membres
1,134
Popularité
#22,631
Évaluation
3.9
Critiques
18
ISBN
58
Langues
2
Favoris
4

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