This substantial book features poems from the five decades of John
Powell Ward's career.
It opens with early, uncollected pieces - some of which were
experimental and concrete - moves on to the traditionally styled poems
of the 70s and 80s and then towards a late flowering in the 90s, which
features a startling shift in style and a new focus on letters and the
alphabet.
His wider concerns: history, the human peril to the natural world,
tragic public events (such as the King's Cross Fire), are played out
across a formal grid of beautiful complexity. These strikingly original,
ambitious poems are both profoundly moving and technically adroit. This
volume offers the reader a wide selection from the author's six
published books, along with several new poems.
"In no other time but our own, perhaps, would a poet feel obliged to
wrap up his moralizing in such delicate phraseology, or make such a
backdoor affair of his faith. Ward, however, manages brilliantly,
combining an uncompromising integrity with a contemporary flair for
understatement... One is left with the impression of having been told
the truth cleanly and with warmth."
The Times Literary Supplement
"A major contribution to late twentieth century poetry."
Bulletin of the Welsh Academy
John Powell Ward was born in Suffolk and educated at the
Universities of Toronto, Cambridge and Wales. Editor of Poetry Wales
from 1975 to 1980, he is the author of critical works on Wordsworth and
R.S. Thomas among others, and editor of the Border Lines series. He has
also published several volumes of poetry.
