Ebook: Collected Poems

Ken Smith (1938-2003) was a major voice in world poetry, his work and example inspiring a whole generation of younger British poets. His early books span a transition from a preoccupation with land and myth to his later engagement with urban Britain and the politics of radical disaffection. His Collected Poems brings together poetry from four decades, including all the work from two earlier retrospectives, The Poet Reclining: Selected Poems 1962-1980 (1982) and Shed: Poems 1980-2001 (2002), and from the posthumously published You Again: last poems et other words (2004), as well as additional poems from two early collections, The Pity (1967) and Work, distances / poems (1972). The book is introduced with essays by Roger Garfitt and Jon Glover. Publication coincides with the 40th anniversary of the publication of Bloodaxe's first title, Smith's Tristan Crazy (1978).