In the spring of 2008, Michael Longley was appointed Ireland Professor of Poetry. His inaugural lecture, published here for the first time, constitutes 'an autobiography in poetry'. He writes movingly and entertainingly about how he discovered poetry and celebrates some of the poems and poets who have mattered to him, from childhood memories of the King James Bible, which saturated his mind with beautiful words, and the discovery in his teens first of Keats, de la Mare and Yeats, and then of living Irish writers such as Patrick Kavanagh and Louis MacNeice.Descriptions of Longley's first attempts to write poetry - 'a combination of hormonal commotion and aesthetic awakening' - lead on to his meetings with Derek Mahon and Seamus Heaney, their mutual encouragement and shared interests, and to Longley's lasting enthusiasm for poetry of the past and poets of his own and younger generations. Rich in anecdote, typically generous in opinion, Longley's poetic credo makes for heartwarming and inspirational reading.
- ISBN10 1904634702
- ISBN13 9781904634706
- Publish Date 1 November 2008
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 21 April 2017
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Enitharmon Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 30
- Language English