[New-Poetry] Carol Ann Duffy gets the laurels

[Judy Prince]

For next UK Laureate, someone to watch:  Jen Hadfield, 31 years old,
Cheshire-born.
She won the 2009 TS Eliot Prize for Poetry.

Sarah Crown's brief clear review in *The Guardian* 25 March 2006, shows
Hadfield's fine work:

*"Almanacs*, by Jen Hadfield (Bloodaxe, £7.95)

Jen Hadfield revels in language, wielding words with a verve and zest
reminiscent of Dylan Thomas. Nouns are recast as verbs and adverbs (a train
"pitches boatly / on the rails"); alliteration, as in the description of a
dancing girl "threshing in a sheaf of smoke, lanky and lovely as a
bootlace", is rife. There's barely a poem that does not contain a
treasurably offbeat image; pictures of a night "cankered with trees" or the
way "In sun the moor turns harlequin and whisky sours" are worth savouring.

In the central narrative sequence, "Lorelei's Lore", the larger-than-life
characters - wayward, puckish Skerryman, vagrant Ghosty - leap and cavort
through a dynamic north Scottish landscape. Seasons and weather are
constantly on the move, and the vitality of the "racing sky / patched and
manic" is translated into the poems, sending them dancing and snapping
across the page. On occasion Hadfield's energy spills over into
breathlessness, and her surge of adjectives and imagery, while gorgeous, can
at points feel ungoverned. But ultimately, the vivid exuberance of her
language wins you over. This is a refreshing and distinctive debut
collection, full of promise."
------------------------------------------------------------

Best,

Judy

2009/5/1 Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com>

> From: "Bob Grumman" <bobgrumman at nut-n-but.net>
>
>  So, Robin, what living poet of all those eligible for the post would you
>> deem towering?
>>
>
> Derek Walcott
> Edwin Morgan
>
> Robin Hamilton
>
>
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