Orality, Form, and Lyric Unity: Poetics of Michael Donaghy and Don Paterson

Orality, Form, and Lyric Unity examines the poetic works of Michael Donaghy and Don Paterson and their advancement of a poetics of sound and sense. Observing Donaghy’s critical perspectives on orality, tradition, and memory, and Don Paterson’s systems of collective relation and “lyric unity”, this volume explores the intellectual curiosity of both poets from the classical to the contemporary, in relation to music, literature, philosophy, scientific thought, and the rituals and austerities of the transcendent. This text also explores the tensions occupying their work between craft and spontaneity, and between the intellect and intuition, that arise from a fundamental respect for form as the poet’s guiding principle. Orality, Form, and Lyric Unity exposes persuasive rhetoric and pursues a nuanced understanding of the enigmatic complexity of poetic language and its critical context. This volume interrogates valuable insights into form, language, and poetics, and clarifies and reframes these, with a focus on the creative process, for readers interested in poetry and the practical and critical perspectives of these poets.

Beverley Nadin was awarded a doctorate in Creative Writing by Newcastle University, UK, in 2019. Her poetry has won, among other prizes, second prize in the Poetry London competition and a commendation in the Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition. Her poems are published in journals and anthologies including PN Review, The Rialto, Magma, The North, and Long Poem Magazine. This will be her first critical publication. She has no current academic affiliation.