First of the Last Chances
eBook - ePub

First of the Last Chances

  1. 64 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

First of the Last Chances

About this book

Best-selling poet Sophie Hannah returns with a wonderful collection of poems that explore and celebrate strong feelings: love, hate, anger, hope - and which strip away the veils of hypocrisy and pretence from all aspects of everyday life. From relationships to the world of work, motherhood and marriage, Sophie Hannah tells it how it is in her own inimitable style. Funny and moving, these poems combine traditional form and rhyme with a contemporary take on modern life that simultaneously raises a smile and provides thoughts to linger over. This collection also include A Woman's Life and Loves, eight poems set to music by the composer Gabriel Jackson that form a song cycle originally concieved as a contemporary and feminist response to the Schumann song cycle. Sophie Hannah's first book was greeted with amazement. The Poetry Review declared, 'Shall I put it in capitals? SOPHIE HANNAH IS A GENIUS.' Each subsequent collection has been formally more inventive, thematically more complex, yet each has met with a similar welcome, and she has become that rare thing, a popular and best-selling poet.

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Yes, you can access First of the Last Chances by Sophie Hannah in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Poetry. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Carcanet Poetry
Year
2011
Print ISBN
9781857546262
eBook ISBN
9781847778734
Topic
Literature
Subtopic
Poetry
Index
Literature

A Woman’s Life and Loves

The next eight poems have been set to music by the composer Gabriel Jackson, and form a song cycle that was originally conceived as a contemporary response to the Schumann song cycle Frauenliebe und Leben.

View

I am not lonely. I pretend
that I am here alone.
I do not see your shuttered face
or hear your monotone
but stare instead at roads and fields
and bridges and the sky
and feel the sun’s rays on my face.
However hard you try
to substitute your view for mine,
I see the things I see
and am no longer here with you
though you are here with me.

Equals

Each of my false apologies
I retrospectively withdraw.
Yes, there have been discrepancies
Between my conduct and the law.
I have done worse, I have done less
Than promises would have me do,
And as I cheat, as I transgress
I do not give a thought to you.
I sensed that you deserved it then
But took the blame and looked contrite
Before I did the same again,
Thinking the wrong was mine by right
And I enjoyed the risks I took,
The tricks I played, the daily scam.
I have done nothing by the book.
When I professed to give a damn
My smiles, my tears, my words were fake.
Cut me in half; the core was bad
And when you made your big mistake
I can’t deny that I was glad
To see, so newly justified
By your descent from fair and true,
The times I lied and lied and lied,
As if I knew. As if I knew.

Postcard

The chances are that by the time you get
This postcard, I’ll be home. I will have phoned,
Arranged to meet you and we will have met.
(That day, the day with nothing ruined yet,
No hasty lust or lingering regret,
Decisions and admissions all postponed,
Will be the best we have.) I will have toned
Down what I feel to pleasantries and owned
Up to no thoughts of you beyond the set
Formula: I admire your work. I bet
You will have done the same.
Grateful for this
Chance to stay friends and keep our present lives,
We will arrange another date and miss
Another chance before this card arrives.

Match

Love has not made us good.
We still do a...

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. Table of Contents
  6. Long for This World
  7. You Won’t Find a Bath in Leeds
  8. Out of This World
  9. Wells-Next-the-Sea
  10. Six of One
  11. Seasonal Dilemma
  12. Second-hand Advice for a Friend
  13. Dark Mechanic Mills
  14. Martins Heron Heart
  15. Tide to Land
  16. The Shadow Tree
  17. He is Now a Country Member
  18. Silk Librarian
  19. God’s Eleventh Rule
  20. Where to Look
  21. Brief Encounter
  22. The Cycle
  23. Black River
  24. The Cancellation
  25. The Guest Speaker
  26. Everyone in the Changing Room
  27. Your Funeral
  28. Away-day
  29. Mother-to-be
  30. Now and Then
  31. Healing Powers
  32. Homeopathy
  33. Your Turn Next
  34. To a Certain Person
  35. 0208
  36. Leave
  37. Ante-Natal
  38. On Westminster Bridge
  39. Ballade of the Rift
  40. Wedding Poem
  41. Royal Wedding Poem
  42. GODISNOWHERE (Now Read Again)
  43. Metaphysical Villanelle
  44. Squirrel’s the Word
  45. First of the Last Chances
  46. A Woman’s Life and Loves
  47. About the Author
  48. Also by Sophie Hannah
  49. Copyright