Delivering the News: Volume 47 (Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series) - Softcover

O'Grady, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0773556354 ISBN 13: 9780773556355

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019

Synopsis

War, Pestilence, Famine, Death. Was I deaf / to the headline roar of my unwieldy load? Engaging with the inevitability of change and flux, Thomas O'Grady's poems grapple with themes of death and rebirth, of loss and resiliency, of ebb and flow within nature and within individual lives and romantic and domestic relationships. Bookended by the springtime of “Controlled Burn” and its mirror, the wistfully autumnal “Magritte,” the collection follows multiple arcs within and across poems and longer sequences. Part I, "Seeing Red," grounds the poems in the rural landscapes, shorescapes, and streetscapes of the poet's childhood on Prince Edward Island, leading O'Grady home as he returns to “the heartening blaze / of red that frames the doors, // the eaves, the corner trim / of every outlying / Island barn and shed.” Part II, “The Wide World,” comprises poems prompted by more cosmopolitan landscapes, both literal and figurative, and inspired by the graphic arts, jazz music, classical mythology, and other writers. A later sequence of eight poems reflects O'Grady's Irish heritage within the social fabric of PEI. Through precise and steadying language, Delivering the News reflects the capacity of poetry both to acknowledge and to mitigate life's mutability.

About this title

From the Author

Thomas O'Grady is the author of What Really Matters. He grew up on Prince Edward Island.

About this edition

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0773556354
• ISBN 13: 9780773556355
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 112