Book by Hamburger, Michael

Since 1941 Michael Hamburger has created a distinctive body of work. Collected Poems 1941-1994 reflects more than half a century's dedication to poetry and a consistent engagement with both the natural and the human world. Michael Hamburger was born in Berlin in 1924, and came to Britain as a child. He has taught widely in America and Britain and is the outstanding contemporary translator and critic of German literature. His awards include the German Federal Republic's Goethe Medal in 1986 for services to German literature. Anvil publishes his critical work The Truth of Poetry and several of his translations, including editions of Goethe , H�lderlin , Rilke and Poems of Paul Celan , which received the EC's European Translation Prize in 1990. His poem-sequence Late appeared in 1997.

Solitude, exile, dreams, nature, love, war, death, patriotism, freedom, and the past form the themes of this selection of poetry

"Michael Hamburger's fifth collection since the publication of Collected Poems 1941-1994 gathers his poems written during 2004-2006, a productive period in which he has set aside translation work to concentrate on his own poetry. His intimate knowledge of the English landscape and wildlife underpins his meditations on mortality and the passing of time in these subtle and compelling poems"--Publisher.

This volume gathers a collection of Hamburger's shorter poems written since his Collected Poems in 1994. It includes strong and sinuous poems which are alert to the intersections of past and present, of continuity and change.

Product Description During the 1980s Michael Hamburger published both collected and selected editions of his poetry, but `Roots in the Air' is his first collection of new poems to appear for a decade. "Memorably disquieting" was one reviewer's verdict on his last collection, a response which the poems in this book will evoke in many readers. His work is profoundly engaged with both the natural and human world, its concerns are felt not fashioned, and his verse has a natural ease and personal rhythms which make it both distinctive and approachable. About the Author Michael Hamburger was born in Berlin in 1924, and came to Britain as a child. His `Collected Poems' appeared in 1984. He has published several critical books, including `The Truth of Poetry' and numerous translations, among them versions of Hölderlin, Rilke, Hofmannsthal and Celan. In 1990 he was awarded the EC's first European Translation Prize for `Poems of Paul Celan'.

Momentous did they seem? Not now, so still / They are, are, are, are, are, the things I see / And will be when they're lost, obliterated, / The model passed away, On this old empty vase glazed patterns dance, / Above it fixed wings beat, the migrants' flight. / Good morning, present, absent ones, good night. (from Ave Atque Vale (p. 84).

Michael Hamburger's latest collection of poems will appeal to both new and existing readers. Other collections by this author include 'Intersections' and 'Late'

LITERATURE, CRITICISM, MEMOIRS, LETTERS / POETRY