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Serious Concerns

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His chief desire was to express himself and his own truth – and therefore life and humanity.” – Walter de la Mare on Edward Thomas The United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. Four collections of her adult poetry have been published, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis in 1986, Serious Concerns in 1992, If I Don't Know in 2001, and Family Values in 2011. She has also edited several anthologies of comic verse and was a judge of the 2007 Man Booker Prize. In terms of popularity, it is clear what fans prefer. Serious Concerns stands as Cope's most popular book, even thirty years later. In a top-ten list of "must read" Cope poems, [16] every one of the top five are from either Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis or Serious Concerns. There's no doubt that these poems are what resonates with readers. However, Cope herself disagrees with the concept of a "Wendy Cope anthem", and doesn't believe her poetry could be categorized in this way. Cope's progression and growth, along with her willingness to discuss difficult subjects in her writing, is distinct and unquestionably commendable. Some fans are displeased with the changes and prefer that initial lighthearted approach, but one of the best comic poets from the past fifty years has every authority to develop her style and not to be confined by expectations created by her accomplishments". [15]

Serious Concerns by Wendy Cope | Goodreads Serious Concerns by Wendy Cope | Goodreads

In 1987 she received a Cholmondeley Award for poetry and in 1995 the American Academy of Arts and Letters Michael Braude Award for light verse. In 2007 she was one of the judges for the Man Booker Prize.The poems here reflect her increasing celebrity, with a few responding directly to critics. After a review in the Spectator commented – with magisterial condescension – that she writes primarily ‘to amuse’, Cope tossed off this: Three haiku from Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis, where they are presented as being written by the (fictional) Tulse Hill poet Jason Strugnell, were set by the composer Colin Matthews in 1990 as Strugnell's Haiku. [12] Wendy Cope: 'We like being married but we should have had a choice' ". The Guardian. 14 February 2014 . Retrieved 16 February 2017. If one compares this with the first four lines of ‘The Waste Land’, it is possible to see the divergences and why the parody is effective:

Serious Concerns - Wendy Cope Serious Concerns - Wendy Cope

In some of her best poems, Wendy Cope likes to take a word or phrase and then try to think up multiple funny rhymes for it – and here, ‘My heart has made its mind up’ leads to lines ending with ‘lined up’ and ‘signed up’, in a humorous Valentine’s Day poem about unrequited – and probably unsolicited – love. The humour and knowingness is, at times, offset with poignancy: this can be seen in poems such as ‘Tich Miller’ and ‘Lonely Hearts’. These two poems demonstrate an awareness of the outsider, which is in keeping with the undeclared premise of being accessible to a wider readership. a b Lewis, Helen (3 December 2011). "Wendy Cope interview: "I can't die until I've sorted out the filing cabinets" ". New Statesman . Retrieved 23 November 2016. This is a seemingly simple poem in everyday colloquial language, but it explores some serious themes. These include aging, life phases, time passing, but most importantly identity.In this collection, Cope also draws on an alter ego for the Strugnell poems. Strugnell’s version of a poetic voice is used to mix the elevated with the everyday and the outcome is comic. Christopher Reid’s review for the London Review of Books (17 April 1986) explains how the use of this persona adds a further layer to the wit: As remarked above, Wendy Cope can move us as well as amuse us. And although she is known for writing about the everyday, she has also occasionally engaged with more momentous events.

Serious Concerns (Faber Poetry): Cope, Wendy: 9780571352333 Serious Concerns (Faber Poetry): Cope, Wendy: 9780571352333

In Kate Kellaway’s review of Cope's third collection, If I Don’t Know (2001), she argues it is ‘constructed around helplessness in the face of beauty’ ( The Observer, 3 June 2001). Sutcliffe points out uncritically that there is an aspect of happiness, contentment even, that has infiltrated this work and this has not been so evident in the previous two books. He cites ‘Being Boring’ to exemplify this ( The Independent, 7 June 2001): In 2008 Cope's poem "After The Lunch" was used as the lyric of the song "Waterloo Bridge" by jazz composer and musician Jools Holland and singer Louise Marshall. [13] Progression of style [ edit ] Wendy Cope was educated at Farringtons School, Chislehurst, London and then, after finishing university at St Hilda's College, Oxford, she worked for 15 years as a primary school teacher in London. We publish a Literature Newsletter when we have news and features on UK and international literature, plus opportunities for the industry to share. I found this modern poem in one of the didactic handouts my classics and medieval literature professor gives us. I loved it because it's so true! This poem is soooo characteristic of the period in one's life when one is trying to choose amongst the suitors, and what happens when the person chooses the wrong suitor and is forced to get off the bus.

The author of this article, Dr Oliver Tearle, is a literary critic and lecturer in English at Loughborough University. He is the author of, among others, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History and The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem. Since my earlier recording for the archive in 2005, I have published one new collection of poems, Family Values (2011), and am close to completing the next. Some of the poems in this new recording are from the book; others are as yet uncollected. Mr Strugnell’ is a particularly fine example of Cope’s ability to capture the style of another poet: here, she takes on Philip Larkin’s ‘Mr Bleaney’ while filtering that poem through the personality of the hapless Strugnell. Strugnell, it probably doesn’t need saying, is no Larkin – but he may well be a latter-day Bleaney … Elsewhere she seems to have been going through a more challenging time in her personal life, with many poems revolving around break-ups and general frustration with men, although her alertness to humour prevents her ever from slipping into cynicism. (This is indeed one of the uses of humour in life, as writers like Wendy Cope can teach you.)

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