The Shout: Selected Poems

Armitage, Simon

ISBN 10: 0151011184 / ISBN 13: 9780151011186

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005

About this Item

Hardcover first printing. Fine in like Dust Jacket. Signed by the author on the title page. Dust jacket in protective cover and securely shipped in a box.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1726781717305

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Shout: Selected Poems
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0151011184
• ISBN 13: 9780151011186
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: jacket
• Signed: Signed by Author

About this title

Synopsis

Simon Armitage is one of Britain's most respected poets. He is considered Philip Larkin's successor in both the easy brilliance of his verse and the national acclaim he has received. His subjects have ranged from yardwork to politics, from the fidelity of dogs to the negotiations of lovers. A selection of poetry that is wry, unpretentious, and constantly inventive, The Shout collects Armitage's best work from the past three decades and includes many of his most recent poems.

Man with a Golf Ball Heart

They set about him with a knife and fork, I heard,
and spooned it out. Dunlop, dimpled, perfectly hard.
It bounced on stone but not on softer ground-they made
a note of that. They slit the skin-a leathery,
rubbery, eyelid thing-and further in, three miles
of gut or string, elastic. Inside that, a pouch
or sac of pearl-white balm or gloss, like Copydex.
It weighed in at the low end of the litmus test
but wouldn't burn, and tasted bitter, bad, resin
perhaps from a tree or plant. And it gave off gas
that caused them all to weep when they inspected it.

That heart had been an apple once, they reckoned. Green.
They had a scheme to plant an apple there again
beginning with a pip, but he rejected it.

About the Author

SIMON ARMITAGE has published ten collections of poetry, for which he has won numerous awards and prizes. The Shout is the first collection of his poems to be published in the United States. He lives in Holmfirth, England.