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John Ormond: Collected Poems Rian Evans

John Ormond: Collected Poems By Rian Evans

John Ormond: Collected Poems by Rian Evans


$31.99
Condition - Very Good
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Summary

The Collected Poems of John Ormond, an influential Welsh poet from the 1960s to the 1980s, whose widely admired work appeared in journals and magazines around the world.

John Ormond: Collected Poems Summary

John Ormond: Collected Poems by Rian Evans

John Ormond (1923-1990) is one of the remarkable generation of poets born in south Wales in the early 1920s which includes Dannie Abse and Leslie Norris. A journalist on Picture Post during its heyday in the 1940s, he was a friend of fellow Swansea writers Dylan Thomas and Vernon Watkins, both of whom were key influences on a poetry of consistently high standards. A significant number of his poems, many of them elegiac, probe his Welsh roots, demonstrating an abiding concern with family and locality. Others focus on particular aspects of the natural world, seeking to capture their elusive quiddities. Stylistically, they vary from the extremely plain to the highly-wrought; are witty and ironic, paradoxical and conceited. Typically unsentimental, shapely and meticulously crafted, his are the poems of a sensibility which delights in explorations, probes complex themes and problematical areas of feeling, and refuses to settle for easy answers. In addition to his writing Ormond had a distinguished career with BBC Wales as a director and producer of documentary films, which include studies of Welsh painters and writers such as Ceri Richards, Kyffin Williams, Dylan Thomas, Alun Lewis and R.S. Thomas. The insight and visual awareness which mark his films also inform his poetry, a selection of which was published in the Penguin Modern Poets series. This Collected Poems draws together all of Ormond's work, including unpublished material. It includes an Introduction by the editor, Michael Collins, notes and commentary of the poems re their geneses, backgrounds, allusions and meanings, and a bibliography of Ormond's prose writing, films and writing about him. An index of titles and first lines completes this essential book.

John Ormond: Collected Poems Reviews

John Ormond's poems about people are infallibly accurate and compassionate under the surface of humour. His eye for detail is immensely zestful, he is technically adept and varied, and is prepared to try a different, more ambitious manner, and can bring it off. A poet full of individuality. - Alan Brownjohn 'the real thing...' - Dannie Abse

About Rian Evans

Rian Evans is a classical music journalist for the Guardian, having also been a journalist at the BBC. She is the daughter of John Ormond and has used her insight to add to the editing of the Collected Poems. The book includes a valuable Introduction by poet and critic Patrick McGuinness.

Additional information

GOR007399610
9781854115218
1854115219
John Ormond: Collected Poems by Rian Evans
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Poetry Wales Press
20150501
208
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - John Ormond: Collected Poems