{"id":591,"date":"2010-03-18T14:23:33","date_gmt":"2010-03-18T14:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=591"},"modified":"2010-03-18T14:23:33","modified_gmt":"2010-03-18T14:23:33","slug":"ken-head-reviews-alan-brownjohn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/ken-head-reviews-alan-brownjohn\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Head reviews Alan Brownjohn"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/div>\n

Ludbrooke: An Introduction<\/span><\/o:p> by Alan Brownjohn<\/o:p><\/b><\/font>
The Poetry Trust, 2009 <\/b>www.thepoetrytrust.org<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/span><\/b> ISBN
\n978-0-9550910-2-0, Paperback \u00a35.00 (24pp)<\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

This attractively produced pamphlet
\nof 16 poems, published in a limited edition of 300 by The Poetry Trust<\/b>, precedes Ludbrooke & Others, <\/i>a collection of 60
\npoems forthcoming this year from Enitharmon
\nPress <\/b>(www.enitharmon.co.uk<\/a>) and currently
\nadvertised on their website.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/o:p>
<\/font><\/p>\n

Brownjohn is a poet whose career
\ncovers many decades. <\/span>His early work
\nwas published in such groundbreaking series as Penguin Modern Poets <\/i>(Vol. 14)
\n<\/i>and <\/i>Studio Vista\u2019s Pocket Poets Series
\n(Jazz Poems<\/i>). <\/span>A first Collected Poems 1952-1988<\/i> appeared in 1988.  <\/span>Hence, it isn\u2019t surprising that the
\nliterary editor of The Times Literary
\nSupplement<\/b> should describe \u201cAlan\u2019s late flowering with Ludbrooke<\/i> as one of the best things going on in poetry at the
\nmoment\u201d, or that Dennis O\u2019Driscoll, a self-confessed fan, should regard Ludbrooke<\/i> as \u201ca brilliantly wry
\ncreation, lovably roguish, yet deeply vulnerable, too.\u201d
<\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/o:p>My own view of the poems, each
\nthirteen lines long and so rondels rather than sonnets, is less
\nenthusiastic. <\/span>From the repetitive mock-formality
\nof the titles, all containing the pronoun \u201chis\u201d, His Classic Modesty<\/i>, His View
\nOf Lower Life<\/i>, His Suggestion<\/i>, and <\/span>reminiscent of minor eighteenth
\ncentury verse such as Alexander Pope\u2019s Of
\nHer Sighing<\/i> and Of Her Sickness<\/i>, the
\npoems have little to say beyond demonstrating Brownjohn\u2019s preoccupation with male
\negotism and its obverse, vulnerability. <\/span>They are less the witty, satirical observations of human social
\ninteraction of which his writing is capable, than depressing self-mockery. <\/span>Ludbrooke\u2019s life, like his cash flow,
\n\u201cvaries between a pose of fastidious care \/ and a pretence of letting it all
\nhang out\u201d. <\/span>In His Visit<\/i>, rather than blaming himself for a failed stay with
\nfriends, he concludes that \u201cHe just attracts appalling hosts\u201d. <\/span>Ludbrooke, as he admits in His Aspiration<\/i>, \u201csuffers \/ From an
\nMTD:  <\/span>Vanity \u2013 a Media-Transmitted
\nDisease\u201d. 
<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/o:p>There are exceptions, lines which
\nresonate beyond the poem in which they appear. <\/span>In His Autumn
\nCourtship<\/i>, for example, \u201cOn this dry day the leaves are scratching \/ Over  <\/span>Ludbrooke\u2019s balcony like small driven
\nbones\u201d, has some of the power of the opening of Gerontion<\/i> by T. S. Eliot: 
\n<\/span>\u201cHere I am, an old man in a dry month, \/ Being read to by a boy, waiting
\nfor rain.\u201d <\/span>Sadly, such quality is
\ntoo thinly spread to overcome a final sense of Ludbrooke as obsessively self-regarding,
\nembittered, friendless, a failure with women, a red-wine drinker sipping
\n\u201cresented herbal tea\u201d. <\/span>It might be
\nargued that poetry today has more pressing subjects with which to engage.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

…reviewed by Ken Head<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ludbrooke: An Introduction by Alan BrownjohnThe Poetry Trust, 2009 www.thepoetrytrust.org ISBN 978-0-9550910-2-0, Paperback \u00a35.00 (24pp) This attractively produced pamphlet of 16 poems, published in a limited edition of 300 by The Poetry Trust, precedes Ludbrooke & Others, a collection of 60 poems forthcoming this year from Enitharmon Press (www.enitharmon.co.uk) and currently advertised on their website.  […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}