Portraits of Poets

This collection pairs full-page photographs of mid-twentieth-century poets from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales with one poem by each sitter. The subjects were chosen from writers born in the first four decades of the century and still publishing. Typical names include Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, John Betjeman, and Stephen Spender, among several dozen others. The poems are short lyrics on love, landscape, memory, and public speech rather than long narratives. Facsimile signatures sit with the portraits. The book is a gallery of faces and single texts, not a critical history and not a picture book without verse.

Bound in black cloth lettered in silver, photographic cover-label. Pale brown endleaves. Brown slipcase.