By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Since his debut collection, Zoom!, appeared in 1989 when he was still in his mid-twenties, Simon Armitage has become one of the most feted, read, and studied contemporary English poets. His work combines wry colloquialism and humour with frequent poignancy, treating such perennial subjects as death, violence, and lost love with directness and wit.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Everything about ‘Poem’ by Simon Armitage is understated. It opens with a casual ‘And’ (‘And if it snowed’), as if merely a continuation of something already in progress. It has an ‘anti-title’ which refuses to comment on the content of the poem that follows. (Armitage is fond of using such titles.) Its lines are all end-stopped with a full stop, suggesting a flatness of expression.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Simon Armitage, who was born in Yorkshire in 1963, is one of the most popular and widely studied living English poets. His poem ‘A Vision’ was first published in his 2006 collection Tyrannosaurus Rex versus the Corduroy Kid. Below we offer some thoughts on the poem, by way of textual analysis.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The contemporary British poet Simon Armitage allowed his poem ‘Chainsaw versus the Pampas Grass’ to be published online on the Oxford Today site, so we hope he wouldn’t mind our offering a few words about this poem, by way of tentative analysis.