Collected Poems of Denis Devlin [Hardcover]

Denis Devlin (Author), J. C. C. Mays (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1989

In 1934 Samuel Beckett named Denis Devlin and Brian Coffey as "without question the most interesting of the youngest generation of Irish poets". When the first edition of the present volume appeared in 1989 (in what would prove to be the year of Beckett's death), he signalled his appreciation with a brief message which concluded: "Amends at last." Yet in recent years Devlin's visibility has again faded. Though often cited as one of the great modernist and modernising influences on Irish poetry, his substantial body of work is both under-read and perhaps as often mis-read. As JCC Mays points out in his Introduction, Devlin's writing "has attracted readers who have taken it to stand for a kind which anticipates the ambitions of writing now, and which is cognate with the beginnings of post-modernism in other traditions. In Ireland, he has been taken as an exemplary poet of a kind at variance with the dominant antimodernist tradition and a kind of rallying-point." Of the relative popularity of his work during his years in Washington in the diplomatic service, Mays writes: "Even so, the reputation he enjoyed rested partly upon misunderstanding." Twenty years on from its original publication, this reissue affords contemporary readers the opportunity to re-evaluate a complex, often challenging body of work, while the Introductory essay by JCC Mays, since retired as Professor of Modern English and American Literature at University College Dublin, remains exemplary for its depth of learning, insight and even-handedness.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 365 pages
• Publisher: Wake Forest Univ Pr (December 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916390373
• ISBN-13: 978-0916390372
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,541,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Stunning, May 9, 2000

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Melayne Web (In Transit between New Zealand and the States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collected Poems of Denis Devlin (Hardcover)

I had the pleasure of discovering Denis Devlin a few years ago when a friend emailed me his beautiful "Renewal by Her Element". I was stunned! As a lyricist myself, it is rare for me to so moved by poetry or music; to the point of tears. While reading his work, I felt alive and numb at the same time. I could hear the music of his thoughts and see the images of his emotions. I wanted to know this man, his life, his innermost thoughts. He is romantic and daring, vulnerable and abrupt, honest and mysterious. Collected Poems of Denis Devlin will take you where ever you want to go, and bring you hurtling back agan. Where ever you want to escape to, or which ever obstacles you wish to face, Denis Devil will take you along for the ride.