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Six Poets: Hardy to Larkin

An Anthology by Alan Bennett
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In Six Poets: Hardy to Larkin, Alan Bennett curates a personal anthology of over seventy poems by six celebrated poets: Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, John Betjeman, W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice and Philip Larkin. Bennett offers insightful commentary, blending anecdotes, sharp appraisals and brief biographical notes in a conversational style. The collection spans both well-known works and hidden gems, making it accessible to beginners while enriching for experts. Bennett’s reflections reveal his candid and witty engagement with each poet, providing readers with profound portraits through his unique voice.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers interested in British poetry and literary criticism, as well as those seeking an approachable anthology that combines verse with engaging commentary by a respected writer.

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Six Poets is Alan Bennett's selection of English verse by his favourite poets - from Hardy to Larkin - accompanied by his own enlivening commentary.

Six Poets is Alan Bennett's selection of English verse by his favourite poets - from Hardy to Larkin - accompanied by his own enlivening commentary.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Writers like to elude their public, lead them a bit of a dance. They take them down untrodden paths, land them in unknown country where they have to ask for directions.

In this personal anthology, Alan Bennett has chosen over seventy poems by six well-loved poets, discussing the writers and their verse in his customary conversational style through anecdote, shrewd appraisal and spare but telling biographical detail. Ranging from hidden treasures to famous poems, this is a collection for the beginner and the expert alike. Speaking with candour about his own reactions to the work, Alan Bennett creates profound and witty portraits of Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, John Betjeman, W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice and Philip Larkin, all the more enjoyable for being in his own particular voice.

Anybody writing poetry in the thirties had somehow to come to terms with Auden. Auden, you see, had got a head start on the other poets. He'd got into the thirties first, like someone taking over the digs.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780571321100

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 October 2015

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Faber & Faber

Edition: Main

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 13.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 189g

Pages: 224

About the Author

Alan Bennett has been one of our leading dramatists since Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s. His television series Talking Heads has become a modern-day classic. The History Boys won numerous awards both at the National Theatre, London, and on Broadway. Also at the NT: The Habit of Art, People and Cocktail Sticks. He received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay for The Madness of King George, and appeared with Dame Maggie Smith in a radio adaptation of his The Lady in the Van (soon to be a feature film). His collection of prose Untold Stories won the PEN/Ackerley Prize for autobiography. Fiction includes The Uncommon Reader and Smut: Two Unseemly Stories. His most recent publication is Six Poets: Hardy to Larkin.

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