David Holbrook Selected Poems 19611978 Author:David Holbrook David Holbrook's `Selected Poems' brings back into print much of his earlier poetry from collections published during the 1960s, together with recent and uncollected poems which complement those contained in his most recent volume, `Chance of a Lifetime' (1978). Reviewing `Chance of a Lifetime', Peter Porter wrote that the book's chief attrac... more »tion `is its good nature, its celebration of the middle ground of humanity', and Christopher Hope wrote of his `touchingly explicit love poems, family poems which are extraordinarily difficult to write well without becoming mawkish, carried off with a grace and geniality which are due to a thorough-going openness before experience and a brave perception of the flickering potential for moments of true being... This gives his verse its unusual dignity, its celebratory air...' (London Magazine) The gift for this kind of intimate, direct poetry is rare; few English poets since Lawrence have written of ordinary life with such candour and spontaneity.« less