 | |
| Author | Don Paterson |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Published | 27 June 2006 |
| Publisher | Graywolf Press |
| Pages | 88 pp |
| Awards | T. S. Eliot Prize (2003) Whitbread Poetry Award (2003) |
| ISBN | 978-1555974473 |
Landing Light is Scottish author Don Paterson's third collection of poems. After its publication in 2003 by Faber & Faber, it was awarded both the Whitbread Poetry Award and the T. S. Eliot Prize. [1]
In Landing Light, Don Paterson dedicates poems such as "The Thread" and "Walking with Russell" to his sons, Russell and Jamie. Within these poems, he shares his admiration for their eagerness to live and portrays parenthood as his rescue from hopelessness. He also dedicates a poem to his newly-wed friends. [1]
Landing Light is an 88 page book consisting of 38 free verse poems that range from 1 paragraph to 10 pages in length (i.e. "The Alexandrian Library, Part III"). The book contains multi-sectional narratives that turn memento mori [ further explanation needed ] and are painted with dark humor. In some of the poems, Paterson expresses appreciation for simple, yet meaningful moments in his life whilst struggling with his feelings and identity. For example, in "The Wreck" Paterson provides an affectionate and honest reflection of an intense breakup he had experienced before: "But what lovers we were, what lovers / even when it was all over- / the deadweight, bull-black wines we swung / toward each other rang and rang // like bells of blood, our own great hearts." [2] Another example is "My Love", a poem explaining that lovers do not actually love one another, they only love the feeling of loving each other. He continues the poem to introspectively justify the idea with a trail of analyzations. [3]
Sarah Crown has stated that whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually, each poem in Landing Light illustrates forms of death. The "light" in the title is an indication of the possibility of redemption, even in times of darkness. [4] According to Matthew Reynolds, "The Landing", one of two poems related to the title of the book, positions the protagonist in between the 'complex upper light' and 'the darker flight / that fell back to the dead'. The protagonist is in search for someone/something only to find that the quarry is himself. [5]
Upon release, Landing Light was generally well-received among the British press. [6]
| Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | T. S. Eliot Prize | — | Won | |
| Whitbread Award | Poetry | Won |
Thomas Stearns Eliot was a poet, essayist and playwright. He is considered to be one of the 20th century's greatest poets, as well as a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry. His use of language, writing style, and verse structure reinvigorated English poetry. He is also noted for his critical essays, which often re-evaluated long-held cultural beliefs.
Dame Carol Ann Duffy is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, and her term expired in 2019. She was the first female poet laureate, the first Scottish-born poet and the first openly lesbian poet to hold the Poet Laureate position.
"Dover Beach" is a lyric poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold. It was first published in 1867 in the collection New Poems; however, surviving notes indicate its composition may have begun as early as 1849. The most likely date is 1851.
William Sydney Graham was a Scottish poet, who was often associated with Dylan Thomas and the neo-romantic group of poets. Graham's poetry was mostly overlooked in his lifetime; however, partly thanks to the support of Harold Pinter, his work was eventually acknowledged. He was represented in the second edition of the Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse and the Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry.
Donald Paterson is a Scottish poet, writer and musician. His work has won several awards, including the Forward Poetry Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He was recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2009.
Wendy Cope is a contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire, with her husband, the poet Lachlan Mackinnon.
Lionel Pigot Johnson was an English poet, essayist, and critic.
Vernon Phillips Watkins was a Welsh poet and translator. He was a close friend of fellow poet Dylan Thomas, who described him as "the most profound and greatly accomplished Welshman writing poems in English".
Jo Shapcott is an English poet, editor and lecturer who has won the National Poetry Competition, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Costa Book of the Year Award, a Forward Prizes for Poetry and the Cholmondeley Award.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
John Burnside FRSL FRSE was a Scottish writer. He was one of four poets to have won the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Poetry Prize for one book. In Burnside's case it was for his 2011 collection, Black Cat Bone. In 2023, he won the David Cohen Prize.
Matthew Francis is a British poet, editor of W. S. Graham's New Collected Poems, and a professor at the Aberystwyth University. In 2004, Francis was included on the Poetry Book Society's list of the 20 best modern poets as selected by a panel chaired by poet laureate Andrew Motion.
Robert Nye FRSL was an English poet and author. His bestselling novel Falstaff, published in 1976, was described by Michael Ratcliffe as "one of the most ambitious and seductive novels of the decade", and went on to win both The Hawthornden Prize and Guardian Fiction Prize. The novel was also included in Anthony Burgess's 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 (1984).
Michael Donaghy was a New York City poet and musician, who lived in London from 1985.
Book of Matches is a poetry book written by Simon Armitage, first published in 1993 by Faber and Faber. It was admired by critics and has been used in English literature examinations.
Michael Ogilvie Imlah, better known as Mick Imlah, was a Scottish poet and editor.
Matthew Gerard Sweeney was an Irish poet. His work has been translated into Dutch, Italian, Hebrew, Japanese, Latvian, Mexican Spanish, Romanian, Slovakian and German.
Robert Ian Duhig is a British-Irish poet. In 2014, he was chair of the judging panel for the T. S. Eliot Prize awards.
Rain is a collection of poetry by the Scottish poet Don Paterson. It was published in 2009 by Faber and Faber and won the Forward poetry prize for best poetry collection of the same year.
Magnetic Field: The Marsden Poems is a 2020 collection of poems by the English poet Simon Armitage. All 50 of the poems, written throughout his career, relate to places in his home village of Marsden, West Yorkshire. The book contains maps of the village, showing where each poem is situated. Armitage is a professor of poetry, and became Poet Laureate in 2019. He states that he found that he had been using Marsden to chart the effects of problems with the British economy and the sense of marginalisation that he felt.