Blossomise
by Simon Armitage, Angela Harding (Illustrator)
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Description
Blossomise celebrates the ecstatic arrival of spring blossom just as it acknowledges, too, its melancholy disappearance. Full of spirited leaps of imagination and language, the twenty-one poems hopscotch between intense momentary haikus that honour the Japanese traditions of the blossom festival and stand-alone lyrical pieces that take in the stylistic tones of ballads, hymns, songs, prayers and nursery rhymes. From a crashed Ford Capri wrapped around the immovable trunk of a cherry tree, to show more saplings flourishing among skyscrapers and urban sprawl, the fizz and froth of the annual blossom display is explored here both as an exuberant emblem of the natural world and a nervous marker of our vulnerable climate. show lessTags
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A quick read of twenty or so poems commissioned by the National Trust from Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, on the theme of spring blossoms, embellished by Angela Harding's woodcut illustrations. Nothing to not like, if not exactly transporting. Will probably reward a re-read, and despite Harding's bio at the back being only 20% the length of Armitage's, it's really her contribution that lifts this from a low pick to a solid one 4🌸
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Author Information
80+ Works 3,658 Members
Simon Armitage has published ten volumes of poetry, including his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He lives in Yorkshire, England, is a professor of poetry at the University of Sheffield, and in 2010 was awarded the CBE for services to poetry.
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2024-03-07
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 821.92
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- Members
- 34
- Popularity
- 838,084
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.13)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1
