Oxford Poetry: Oxford Poetry 1949

Oxford Poetry 1949

From Fairie to the Somme: 1910-1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923
Into the Waste Land: 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932
New Age: 1936 1937
War and Movement: 1942-1943 1946:No 1 1946:No 2 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952
The Fantasy: 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1959 1960
"Fortnightly": 1970:No 1 1970:No 2 1970:No 3
Magazine: I.1 I.2 I.3 II.1 II.2 II.3 III.1 III.2 III.3 IV.1 IV.2 IV.3
Fin de siècle: V.1 V.2 V.3 VI.1 VI.2 VI.3 VII.1 VII.2 VII.3 VIII.1 VIII.2 VIII.3 IX.1 IX.2
Rebound: X.1 X.2 X.3 XI.1

Back to Oxford Poetry 1948 * Forward to Oxford Poetry 1950 * Home

Published by Blackwell's 59pp
edited by Kingsley Amis, James Michie
with Foreword

In its last years with Blackwell's, OP experimented unhappily with various colour-schemes, and this one has red lettering on a light blue cover. The chapter "James Michie" of Amis's "Memoirs" briefly relates the editing of OP 1949: Amis suggested to Michie that "we could try just going into [Blackwell's] bookshop and asking" for the job, and so it proved. In the perennial complaint of OP editors, they wrote in their preface that "the typical furniture of the mass of poems [submitted] was not, as we soon came to wish it would be, the telegraph-pole and the rifle, but the amethyst and the syrup; the typical subject not the rehearsed response, but the beautiful rapture; the typical rhyme not of 'lackey' and 'lucky', but of 'bliss' and 'kiss'. All the efforts of the poets of the 'thirties had failed to throw the Georgian lumber out of the window. It is no consolation to think that bad poetry has always been written; it is the particular kind of badness which is depressing..."

Kingsley Amis: Foreword; Backgrounds;

Oliver Bayley: The Deserter; The Coming Morning; The Hop-Pickers;

C. E. B. Brett: "A prince once walked the sunlit streets of Rouen";

C. D. Cecil: On the Beach;

Michael Croft: Poem; A Private Sorrow;

Geoffrey Dutton: Alpenblumen; The Dead: A French Cemetery;

Peter Gammond: Autumn Elegy; Story of my Death;

Patrick Gardiner: Purbeck;

Mickey Hall: "My wells are never deep enough, it seems"; "We must be eagles, swift-pinioned thinkers";

W. J. Harvey: Elegy for Sidney Keyes;

Jack Hobbs: River; Napoleonism;

"Barbara James": "One morning I woke earlier than he";

Elizabeth Jennings: Weathercock; Estrangement; The Lucky; Modern Poet; Winter Love; Time;

Anthony Lodge: Loneliness;

Adrian Marston: Lagos: 1450; "See Poat the tobacconist airing his morning hymn";

"John Maskell": The Dark Pond;

Roderick McAdams: Channel in Summer;

James Michie: Foreword; "King Midas had a golden finger"; "Eye, dodging in your green Element"; "Cherish your girls and keep your women gentle";

E. G. Midgley: Islands;

P. A. T. O'Donnell: On Howth Cliffs; On Hearing a Scottish Choir;

Gillian Owen: Carillon;

G. B. Payman: Through the Morning Mist;

J. R. Pim: Calendar; Morning by the Lake;

M. B. Scragg: "Now that my hand is moving"; "The mild air contains me, a tower of flesh";

Michael Shanks: The Preacher;

Joseph Irving Wardle, as J. I. Wardle: Letter;

Peter Weitzman: The Discovery of Love; Juan;



			Oxford Poetry 1949 From Fairie to the Somme: 1910-1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 Into the Waste Land: 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 New Age: 1936 1937 War and Movement: 1942-1943 1946:No 1 1946:No 2 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 The Fantasy: 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1959 1960 "Fortnightly": 1970:No 1 1970:No 2 1970:No 3 Magazine: I.1 I.2 I.3 II.1 II.2 II.3 III.1 III.2 III.3 IV.1 IV.2 IV.3 Fin de siècle: V.1 V.2 V.3 VI.1 VI.2 VI.3 VII.1 VII.2 VII.3 VIII.1 VIII.2 VIII.3 IX.1 IX.2 Rebound: X.1 X.2 X.3 XI.1 Back to Oxford Poetry 1948 * Forward to Oxford Poetry 1950 * Home Published by Blackwell's 59pp edited by Kingsley Amis, James Michie with Foreword In its last years with Blackwell's, OP experimented unhappily with various colour-schemes, and this one has red lettering on a light blue cover. The chapter "James Michie" of Amis's "Memoirs" briefly relates the editing of OP 1949: Amis suggested to Michie that "we could try just going into [Blackwell's] bookshop and asking" for the job, and so it proved. In the perennial complaint of OP editors, they wrote in their preface that "the typical furniture of the mass of poems [submitted] was not, as we soon came to wish it would be, the telegraph-pole and the rifle, but the amethyst and the syrup; the typical subject not the rehearsed response, but the beautiful rapture; the typical rhyme not of 'lackey' and 'lucky', but of 'bliss' and 'kiss'. All the efforts of the poets of the 'thirties had failed to throw the Georgian lumber out of the window. It is no consolation to think that bad poetry has always been written; it is the particular kind of badness which is depressing..." Contents Kingsley Amis: Foreword; Backgrounds; Oliver Bayley: The Deserter; The Coming Morning; The Hop-Pickers; C. E. B. Brett: "A prince once walked the sunlit streets of Rouen"; C. D. Cecil: On the Beach; Michael Croft: Poem; A Private Sorrow; Geoffrey Dutton: Alpenblumen; The Dead: A French Cemetery; Peter Gammond: Autumn Elegy; Story of my Death; Patrick Gardiner: Purbeck; Mickey Hall: "My wells are never deep enough, it seems"; "We must be eagles, swift-pinioned thinkers"; W. J. Harvey: Elegy for Sidney Keyes; Jack Hobbs: River; Napoleonism; "Barbara James": "One morning I woke earlier than he"; Elizabeth Jennings: Weathercock; Estrangement; The Lucky; Modern Poet; Winter Love; Time; Anthony Lodge: Loneliness; Adrian Marston: Lagos: 1450; "See Poat the tobacconist airing his morning hymn"; "John Maskell": The Dark Pond; Roderick McAdams: Channel in Summer; James Michie: Foreword; "King Midas had a golden finger"; "Eye, dodging in your green Element"; "Cherish your girls and keep your women gentle"; E. G. Midgley: Islands; P. A. T. O'Donnell: On Howth Cliffs; On Hearing a Scottish Choir; Gillian Owen: Carillon; G. B. Payman: Through the Morning Mist; J. R. Pim: Calendar; Morning by the Lake; M. B. Scragg: "Now that my hand is moving"; "The mild air contains me, a tower of flesh"; Michael Shanks: The Preacher; Joseph Irving Wardle, as J. I. Wardle: Letter; Peter Weitzman: The Discovery of Love; Juan; Copyright Oxford Poetry 2000. Pictured above: Detail from "Parnassus" by Nicholas Poussin

Oxford Poetry 1949

Contents