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Summary
Winner of the 2014 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry
‘A writer we should treasure.’ Charlotte Runcie, Daily Telegraph
‘With every book [Harsent’s] stature as a truly significant writer becomes more undeniable.’ Fiona Sampson, Independent
The poems in David Harsent’s new collection, whether single poems, dramatic sequences, or poems that ‘belong to one another’, share a dark territory and a sometimes haunting, sometimes steely, lyrical tone. Throughout the book – in the stark biography of ‘Songs from the Same Earth’, the troubling fractured narrative of ‘A Dream Book’, the harrowing lines of connection in four poems each titled ‘Fire’, or the cheek-by-jowl shudder of ‘Sang the Rat’ – Harsent writes, as always, with passion and a sureness of touch.
DavidHarsent
David Harsent has published thirteen collections of poetry. Legion won the 2005 Forward Prize for Poetry. Night (2011), a Poetry Book Society Choice, was shortlisted for the Costa, Forward and T. S. Eliot poetry prizes and won the Griffin International Poetry Prize. Fire Songs (2014) won the T. S. Eliot Prize. His most recent collection, Skin, was published in 2024.
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Our Poem of the Week is ‘Footsteps’ by David Harsent, from his new collection, Skin.