Selected Poems [Paperback]

Listen to what they did.
Don't listen to what they said.
What was written in blood
Has been set up in lead.
from Blood and Lead

The leading poet of his generation, James Fenton has over the course of his career built a body of work breathtaking in its range and sensibility. From the passionate political poems that launched him into fame to the intimate illuminations of loveand loss of lovein his later work, Fenton's poetry has always been marked by formal daring, wit, and an abiding empathy for the victims of war and political oppression. With selections from all of his published work sinceThe Memory of War, the entire text of his librettoThe Love Bomb, and new, previously uncollected poems,Selected Poemsis an imaginative and formal tour de force.

Author's Note

I. FromThe Memory of WarandChildren in Exile
Wind
A German Requiem
Cambodia
In a Notebook
Dead Soldiers
Lines for Translation into Any Language
Children in Exile
God, A Poem
The Skip

II. FromOut of Danger
Beauty, Danger and Dismay
Out of Danger
Serious
The Ideal
Hinterhof
The Possibility
The Mistake
I'll Explain
In Paris with You
The Milkfish Gatherers
Jerusalem
For Andrew Wood
Out of the East
Blood and Lead
The Ballad of the Imam and the Shah
I Saw a Child
Tiananmen
The Ballad of the Shrieking Man
Fireflies of the Sea
Cut-Throat Christ
Gabriel
The Ballad of the Birds
I Know What I'm Missing
Here Come the Drum Majorettes!
The Orange Dove of Fiji
The Exchange
An Indistinct Inscription Near Kom Ombo

III.The Love Bomb

IV.Recent Work
Memorial
Yellow Tulips
Martine's Song
Everything in Your Window Is a Sign
Was That Your Idea of Love?
The Alibi
I Kept That Gun
Down to the Twigs and Seeds
Never Let Me See You Suffer

[Fenton] writeslc<