Matthew Francis's latest collection celebrates the richness of nature and of our responses to it. The pleasures of summer are emblazoned in the colourful wings and evocative names of butterflies, while a nocturnal encounter with an earwig becomes a joyous incantation to the 'witchy-beetle, forkin-robin' of dialect. Francis's love of history, embodied in his acclaimed
Mandeville and
The Mabinogi, gives rise to a sequence based on Robert Hooke's microscopic observations. There are tributes to the poets Basho, Dafydd ap Gwilym and W. S. Graham, to fireworks, apple varieties and hot toddies. And, in a moving elegy for a friend killed in a parachute accident, Francis shows us a vertiginous vision of a world where even the dead 'sleep on the wing'.
Adventurous and illuminating, Matthew Francis's poetry collection is full of flight, air and possibility - now in paperback.About the AuthorMatthew Francis is the author of five Faber collections, most recently
The Mabinogi (2017). He has twice been shortlisted for the Forward Prize, and in 2004 was chosen as one of the Next Generation poets. He lives in West Wales and is Professor in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University.
Book InformationISBN 9780571358625
Author Matthew FrancisFormat Paperback
Page Count 80
Imprint Faber & FaberPublisher Faber & Faber
Weight(grams) 105g
Dimensions(mm) 200mm * 130mm * 10mm