Out of Danger (1994) was Fenton's first collection of poems in ten years, and the poems in it renew and amplify the qualities of unflinching observation and freewheeling verbal play that made his earlier Children in Exile so distinctive and distinguished. The poems in this book's title sequence address the dangers of love, and the love of danger; Fenton proposes that in love, politics, and poetry alike the truth is "something you say at your peril" and yet "something you shouldn't contain." Part II of the book, "Out of the East," is a series of ironical fight songs about political violence-- in Manila, the Middle East, Tiananmen Square, and elsewhere. Part III, "Maski Paps," reveals again Fenton's celebrated talents for light-verse nonsense. And in "The Manila Manifesto" he turns his gifts loose upon the world of poetry itself in ways that will both enrage and delight. Out of Danger is refined and daring, jocular and deeply challenging.
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"Mr. Fenton has already written four or five of the poems future anthologists will squabble over. Out of Danger has moments of Villon, and moments where Gilbert and Sullivan are trying to overthrow Queen Victoria."--William Logan, The New York Times Book Review
"Ever since he precociously arrived on the scene in the early 1970s, barely 20, Fenton has had a voice-- a range of voices, a good pair of ears, an alert and often disconcerting knack of suddenly doing something different...Fenton has few imitators. He is sui generis, veering in [this] book from the most naked, exposed love lyrics (look at 'Serious,' 'Out of Danger') to hypnotic, cunningly crazy flights of rhetoric ('Out of the East,' 'The Ballad of the Imam and the Shah'). I feel that Fenton, with each impulse towards a new poem, has to make it new. He listens attentively to the voices in his head and, when the moment comes, it comes. And the whole dazzling performance works because the craft, the techniques have been tuned and turned and made ready. This is a wonderful book."--Anthony Thwaite, The Sunday Telegraph (London)
"Here is a strong, fresh, pleasant wind blowing away the convoluted miasmas of most of his contemporaries, and the wind carries much clearer, cleaner, more complex and intensely memorable messages than the miasmas do."--Hilary Corke, The Spectator
"Ever since he precociously arrived on the scene in the early 1970s, barely 20, Fenton has had a voice-- a range of voices, a good pair of ears, an alert and often disconcerting knack of suddenly doing something different...Fenton has few imitators. He is sui generis, veering in [this] book from the most naked, exposed love lyrics (look at 'Serious,' 'Out of Danger') to hypnotic, cunningly crazy flights of rhetoric ('Out of the East,' 'The Ballad of the Imam and the Shah'). I feel that Fenton, with each impulse towards a new poem, has to make it new. He listens attentively to the voices in his head and, when the moment comes, it comes. And the whole dazzling performance works because the craft, the techniques have been tuned and turned and made ready. This is a wonderful book."--Anthony Thwaite, The Sunday Telegraph (London)
"Here is a strong, fresh, pleasant wind blowing away the convoluted miasmas of most of his contemporaries, and the wind carries much clearer, cleaner, more complex and intensely memorable messages than the miasmas do."--Hilary Corke, The Spectator
About the Author
The celebrated British poet and literary critic James Fenton has been a foreign correspondent and a theater critic and has also written about the history of gardens.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Hinterhof,
By Jeffrey Montagna "Tags" (Albany, NY United States) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Out of Danger: Poems (Paperback)
Bought this book of poems for a hard copy of Hinterhof. My wife and I used it as a reading at our wedding and it was beautiful.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
i expected better,
By adead_poet@hotmail.com "adead_poet@hotmail.com" (Beaumont, tx USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)
This review is from: Out of Danger: Poems (Paperback)
After all the hype, after all the wonderful things I had heard about James Fenton, I was expecting a great collection of poetry when I picked up Out of Danger. Boy was I disappointed. Fenton spent too much time trying to be political or to vague in his writing. There were a couple of bright spots in the collection. The title poem is one of the best he has ever written and there is another poem, "In Paris With You" which isn't a great poem, but it is a charming one that I think you'll find as wonderful as I do.
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14
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- A Lovesome Thing: A Novel by Prue Leith on page 315, and Back Matter
- The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew Narrate the Palestinian Village by Susan Slyomovics in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- One Hundred Years of Poetry for Children by Michael Harrison in Back Matter
- Literary Companion to the Festivals: A Poetic Gathering to Accompany Liturgical Celebrations of Commemorations and Festivals by Mark Pryce in Back Matter
- Good Poems for Hard Times by Garrison Keillor in Back Matter
See all 14 books citing this book
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