Orpheus - Softcover

Theo Dorgan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1910251305 ISBN 13: 9781910251300

Publisher: Dedalus Press, 2018

Synopsis

From self-imposed distance ("I stand back from the streetlight at her school gate") to a distance that cannot be bridged in a single lifetime, the poems in Theo Dorgan's extraordinary new collection tell the story of Orpheus, the musician-poet, from artistic awakening through to the cost of remaining faithful to his calling.

In a book presented in two halves, and composed throughout in sapphics in English, one of the most challenging of poetic forms Dorgan's contemporary Orpheus is part-drifter, part-troubadour, part-lover, recognising deeper patterns in his behaviour, but always of this place and time. In the book s second half, the locus shifts farther out into mythic space with a parallel narrative from the Greek world that both mirrors and interweaves with the first half's here-and-now.

Together they offer a fresh, adventurous and unexpected take on a foundational mythic figure.

About this title

About the Author:

Theo Dorgan is one of the best known Irish poets of his generation. Born in Cork in 1953, he is the author of many collections of poems including Greek (2010) and Nine Bright Shiners (2014) which won the Irish Times Poetry Now Award. His prose publications include Sailing for Home (2004) and Time on the Ocean: A Voyage from Cape Horn to Cape Town (2010). He is a former Director of Poetry Ireland and is a frequent radio and television broadcaster in Ireland. His awards include the O Shaughnessy Prize for Irish Poetry in 2010 and the Listowel Prize in 1992. He is a member of Aosdána, the Irish affiliation of writers and artists.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dedalus Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1910251305
• ISBN 13: 9781910251300
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 82