{"product_id":"memorial-by-alice-oswald-9780571274185","title":"Memorial","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMatthew Arnold praised the \u003ci\u003eIliad\u003c\/i\u003e for its 'nobility', as has everyone ever since. However, ancient critics praised it for its \u003cem\u003eenargeia\u003c\/em\u003e, its 'bright unbearable reality' (the word used when gods come to earth not in disguise but as themselves).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTo retrieve the poem's energy, Alice Oswald has stripped away its story. Her account focuses by turns on Homer's extended similes and on the brief 'biographies' of the minor war-dead, most of whom are little more than names. Yet each of whom lives and dies unforgettably—and unforgotten—in the copiousness of Homer's glance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'The \u003ci\u003eIliad\u003c\/i\u003e is an oral poem. This translation presents it as an attempt—in the aftermath of the Trojan War—to remember people's names and lives without the use of writing. I hope it will have its own coherence as a series of memories and similes laid side by side: an antiphonal account of man in his world. This is compatible with the spirit of oral poetry, which was never stable but always adapting itself to a new audience, as if its language, unlike written language, was still alive and kicking.' - Alice Oswald\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47596977029356,"sku":"9780571274185","price":32.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/e54a4601448699ed70ce75963476ad56.jpg?v=1778038612","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/memorial-by-alice-oswald-9780571274185","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}