03 July 2005

Putting on Ayres

OK, yes, I freely admit I'm no judge of poetry. I've never been able to write the stuff, and although I'm capable of enjoying reading it it's a class of writing I've never been able to critique intelligently either.

But honestly... how is this not just doggerel? Apart from a couple of turns of phrase which show the author hasn't simply gone for the most unimaginative cliché that came to mind, I can't see anything whatsoever to recommend it. I was particularly unimpressed by the quatrain rhyming "hostility" / "tea" and "lava" / "forever". It reads like it should be sharing space with Doreen Wentworth in the Milton Keynes Citizen.

...whereas it seems that in fact the poet in question has had three collections published by Chatto and Windus, and been shortlisted for a Whitbread Prize. So, er, possibly I should just shut up.

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