The Unaccompanied: Poems

Synopsis

In The Unaccompanied, Armitage Gives Voice To The People Of Britain With A Haunting Grace. We Meet Characters Whose Sense Of Isolation Is Both Emotional And Political, Both Real And Metaphorical, From A Son Made To Groom The Garden Hedge As Punishment, To A Nurse Standing Alone At A Bus Stop As The Centuries Pass By, To A Latter-day Odysseus Looking For Enlightenment And Hope In The Shadowy Underworld Of A Cut-price Supermarket. We See The Changing Shape Of England Itself, Viewed From A Satellite 'like A Shipwreck's Carcass Raised On A Sea-crane's Hook, / Nothing But Keel, Beams, Spars, Down To Its Bare Bones.' In This Exquisite Collection, Armitage X-rays The Weary But Ironic Soul Of His Nation, With Its 'songs About Mills And Mines And A Great War, / Lines About Mermaids And Solid Gold Hills, / Songs From Broken Hymnbooks And Cheesy Films'--in Poems That Blend The Lyrical And The Vernacular, With His Trademark Eye For Detail And Biting Wit.--amazon.com. Last Snowman -- The Present -- Nurse At A Bus Stop -- Emergency -- Poundland -- Maundy Thursday -- The Empire -- The Review -- A Bed -- A Chair -- Tractors -- Miniatures -- Gravity -- 'tiny' -- Privet -- Prometheus -- Harmonium -- I Kicked A Mushroom -- The Keirin -- Snipe -- The Making Of The English Language -- An Inquiry Into The Nature And Causes Of The Wealth Of Nations -- The Ice Age -- The Subconscious -- Beach Wedding -- The Unthinkable -- Deor -- To-do List -- October -- Solitary -- Avalon -- The Claim -- The Holy Land -- Camera Obscura -- Kitchen Window -- Old Boy -- Poor Old Soul -- Portrait Of A Maharajah -- The Candlelighter -- The Cinderella Of Ferndale -- The Send-off -- Redwoods -- Glencoe -- Gymnasium -- Violins -- Burrow Mump -- At The Reading, The Poet Introduces His Poem -- The Poet Hosts His Annual Office Christmas Party -- The Kilogram -- Thank You For Waiting -- The Unaccompanied -- Homework. Simon Armitage.