Description
Set Thy Love in Order: New & Selected Poems gathers the work of some thirty years, taken from Stephen Romer's four previous collections, along with a substantial selection of new poems. The title is a Dantesque imperative as old as the Trecento: Ordina questo amore, O tu che m' ami - set thy love in order, o thou who lovest me. Romer's central theme is encapsulated by these words, and his prolonged and painstaking exploration of the 'intermittences of the heart', frequently carried out with a Francophile self-consciousness and rueful wit, constitute so many variations on the theme. Romer's New & Selected articulates the constant oscillation between love, loss and longing, and the religious desire for 'refuge' or 'higher things', and how powerfully these can come to rhythm the life of the mind and the emotions. His more recent work has included poems of love and mourning for his parents, and elegies for friends. Derek Mahon singled out Romer's first collection Idols for its 'emotional candour and intellectual clarity', and since then the poet has endeavoured to turn the light of the intellect (and the wit) on the frequently chaotic and contradictory material of the heart.
*Stephen is well known for his Faber anthology Twentieth-century French Poems, his reviews andessays*His fifth collection follows on the success of his acclaimed Yellow Studio and is - always - aboutlove*Shortlisted for the 2008 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, he has judged the Stephen Spender TranslationPrize*The Guardian includes Stephen among 'the finest poets of thwarted or impossible love'*For 25 years he has been Maitre de conferences at the University of Tours, France
About the Author
Stephen Romer was born in Hertfordshire in 1957 and read English at Cambridge. Since 1981 he has lived in France, where he is Maitre de Conferences at Tours University. He has held Visiting Fellowships at Oxford and Cambridge and has taught in the US. He has published four full collections, including Yellow Studio (2008), shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. He translates widely from the French, and has edited the Faber anthology Twentieth-Century French Poems. Recently he has published translations of Yves Bonnefoy's The Arriere-pays (2012) and an anthology French Decadent Tales (2013). His poetry is described in the British Council Writers Directory and in Poetry International, and he has recorded a selection for the Poetry Archive. He was elected FRSL in 2011.
Reviews
'Readers open to Romer's scrupulous, passionate music and the conversational intimacy of his address will gather rich rewards.' - Sean O'Brien, Culture; 'Stephen Romer is one of our finest poets of thwarted or impossible love ... Emotional vulnerability is tempered by a wit and formal control that are never obtrusive.' - Adam Thorpe, Guardian; 'Romer is one of our finest contemporary poets because he has made such a distinctive idiom out of such a complicated inheritance.' - Adam Phillips; 'Here is a poet haunted by history, war, and the poignancy of love passing ... He displays a seriousness which is seldom too weighty, and a compassion which never sinks into sentimentality.' - Elizabeth Jennings, Sunday Telegraph
Book Information
ISBN 9781784103767
Author Stephen Romer
Format Paperback
Page Count 168
Imprint Carcanet Press Ltd
Publisher Carcanet Press Ltd
*Stephen is well known for his Faber anthology Twentieth-century French Poems, his reviews andessays*His fifth collection follows on the success of his acclaimed Yellow Studio and is - always - aboutlove*Shortlisted for the 2008 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, he has judged the Stephen Spender TranslationPrize*The Guardian includes Stephen among 'the finest poets of thwarted or impossible love'*For 25 years he has been Maitre de conferences at the University of Tours, France
About the Author
Stephen Romer was born in Hertfordshire in 1957 and read English at Cambridge. Since 1981 he has lived in France, where he is Maitre de Conferences at Tours University. He has held Visiting Fellowships at Oxford and Cambridge and has taught in the US. He has published four full collections, including Yellow Studio (2008), shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. He translates widely from the French, and has edited the Faber anthology Twentieth-Century French Poems. Recently he has published translations of Yves Bonnefoy's The Arriere-pays (2012) and an anthology French Decadent Tales (2013). His poetry is described in the British Council Writers Directory and in Poetry International, and he has recorded a selection for the Poetry Archive. He was elected FRSL in 2011.
Reviews
'Readers open to Romer's scrupulous, passionate music and the conversational intimacy of his address will gather rich rewards.' - Sean O'Brien, Culture; 'Stephen Romer is one of our finest poets of thwarted or impossible love ... Emotional vulnerability is tempered by a wit and formal control that are never obtrusive.' - Adam Thorpe, Guardian; 'Romer is one of our finest contemporary poets because he has made such a distinctive idiom out of such a complicated inheritance.' - Adam Phillips; 'Here is a poet haunted by history, war, and the poignancy of love passing ... He displays a seriousness which is seldom too weighty, and a compassion which never sinks into sentimentality.' - Elizabeth Jennings, Sunday Telegraph
Book Information
ISBN 9781784103767
Author Stephen Romer
Format Paperback
Page Count 168
Imprint Carcanet Press Ltd
Publisher Carcanet Press Ltd
