Shadow and Bone: Poems 1981 - 1988 - Softcover

Levi, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 085646211X ISBN 13: 9780856462115

Publisher: Anvil Pr Poetry Ltd, 1989

Synopsis

`Shadow and Bone' is Peter Levi's first collection of poems since `Private Ground' (1981), apart from two small books of `lamentations' - formal elegies for friends - `The Echoing Green' and `Shakespeare's Birthday'. It is a rich and diverse collection, varied in subject and verse-forms. There are sequences about railway posters and America, poems for friends and fellow scholars or poets, poems about marriage and the natural world, epigrams, a magnificent long poem on the meaning of Christmas, and meditative lyrics.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Levi, who died in 2000, was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford University in 1984. Until 1977 he was a Jesuit priest. He was a classicist whose writing includes three uncategorizable books - on modern Greece, Afghanistan, and the English landscape - as well as translations, critical and scholarly works, and a thriller. But he was first and foremost a poet.

Review

5.20 And 5.21,
The Air Was Dark And Misty Before Five
Alexander Considers The West
All That Country Is In The Eye Of Death
America Of Fantasy And Loss,
At Early Light This Country Is Cobwebbed
At Evening In His Sky-blue Kitchen Chair
At This Time The Moist Thrush Utters His Loud
Austin, Texas
The Barley Field Due To Be Harvested
The Big Wind Blew Him Over On His Arse,
The Body Is More Resonant Than The Soul
The Cat Rolls On Her Back In The Shadow
Cattle Of Many Colours Are Grazing
The Colonel Looks At The Water
The Copper Beeches Cast Vermillion Shade
The Crude Breath Of The Cattle Of Daybreak
The Dawn At Midsummer, Perfectly Still
Death Is The Silence After Music:
A Deep Snow-bank, A Nine-inch Icicle
The End Of The Day Has Been Clear As Water
Fall
Fear The Terrible Suddenness Of Love,
Fire, Hail, Snow, Ice, Spirit Of Storms
For Dom
For Fram And Candia
For Martin Robertson
For Matthew
For St Catherine's College, 1987
From The Terrace
The Fuming Of The Engine Is The Soul
A Gale Of Wind Shakes Rooks Out Of The Trees,
Gin And Failure Feed The Abrasive Mood.
God Has Gone Down And Heaven Is Empty
He Considers The Closing Day
He Has Three Wounds In His Body Of Stone
Her Rivers Shall Be Inebriated
His Long-winged Soul Was Flying Out Of Him
His Sheep Lie About Stinking In Shadows
How Cold The Wine Is In The Grey Houses
I Can Transform Myself Into A Stone
I Have Become Melancholy And Mild
I Lived In Slippers, The Weather Was Fine
I Prefer Old-fashioned Countries
I Think Our Life Is A Lake Of Darkness
Immortality Heaving In The Mist
In Cloudy Glasses The Soul Sees Herself
In Memory Of Philip Larkin
In Nineteen One I Might Have Been
In Nineteen-thirties Gardens Children Shout
In Salt Quarries And Caverns Of The Blood
In Sleep The Soul Recovers Her Nature:
In The Days When We Have Vanished
Is There Music In Stars Or Seraphim?
It Is So Dark Now Under The Trees
It Is So Loud, The Roar Of History,
The Lakes At Blenheim
The Last Light Has Fallen On The Old Wall
Le Vent Se Leve, Il Faut Tenter De Vivre
Life Is Failure. Life Is Failure To Live
Like Moss On Timber Humid Fire Will Creep
The Long Continuous Roaring And Whining
A Long Day, Heavy As A Canopy
Maybe The Soul Is Simple Breath, A Life
Memory, The Cascades Of Memory
Most Of Your Life Your Soul Like An Old Dog
Mr Levi Considers Whistler's Mural
Mules In A String Climbing Towards A Spring.
The Muse Of North Oxford Out As Far As The Pear Tree
Nadia Boulanger Looks At Monteverdi
North Wind, The End Of June, Flowers Rusted
Note On Twelfth Night
Notes About Pastoral Poetry
Now I Need Rain: Head Like A Hot Stone
The Nut Shrivels, But The World Is Alive
O Most Sweet Sleep, And Then To Be Wakened
The Old Man In His Braces Chewed A Pipe
The Organ Groans And Alleluiah Dawns,
Paper Face And Hand Yellow As A Leaf:
Passion Will Melt The Edges Of The Moon
Poets Are Obstinate. In Art, He Said
Poets Have Had No Influence On Life
The Praises Of God Are Abundant And Irregular
The Rector Wrote His Sermon In
Robert Lowell Looks At The Cherwell
A Rook Of Velvet In A Sky Of Blue
Roses Ripen Like Apples But More Brief
Seven Old Railway Posters
Shadow In Willows And Shade Under Them
Shall We Be Joined Together In Our Death
The Soul Is Candle-light Guttering Down
Soul Is The Truth As You Breathe It Away
Souls In Rivers Of Butterflies That Stream
The Souls Of Men Scarcely Exist Although
The Sphere Of Earth Wandering Through Heaven
Spring Is In The Senses, Not In The Mind
The Sun
Sunrise Is The Cold Priestess Of The Sun
There Is No Water Colder Than Death Is
There Is Something Shortsighted About Stars
They Are Whipped By The Wasps Of Breakfast Time,
This Is A Country Without Revelation
Those That Have Screwed The Most Out Of Their Life
Time Spent In Pleasures Will Dissolve In Air
Together For Ever.
Under The Chiselled Hair The Head Is Crisp,
Under The Rubbish Of Old Lilac Leaf
The Universe Is Leaking Away Light
Unlit, Apple-smelling, Rose-blanketed
The Walnut Tree Is A Fountain Of Leaf
Watery Architecture, Ruined Voice
Wave After Wave Exploring Through Heaven
What Is It In The Misty Sun-dazzle?
What The Rose Said
When Christmas And The Dark Days Are Over
When Leaf Is Green And Glitters In The Light
When Souls Are Twinned Like Angels In The Wind
When The Wind Smelling Of Burnt Straw Pulls Out
When We Have Wandered In Elysium
Wood Of The Boat In The Skin Of The Sea
The Year Dies Weeping, I Write By Lamplight;
Yellowing Dark, The Melting Of The Moon
-- Table of Poems from Poem FinderŪ

`His is certainly one of the most authentic and original, perhaps one of the few major talents of his generation.' --John Heath-Stubbs

About this edition

• Publisher: Anvil Pr Poetry Ltd
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 085646211X
• ISBN 13: 9780856462115
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 120