The House of Clay

Peter McDonald was born and grew up in Belfast. He won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry and an Eric Gregory Award. A University teacher, he is currently Christopher Tower Student and Tutor in Poetry in the English Language at Christ Church, Oxford. A prominent critic of modern and contemporary poetry, he has published a book on Louis MacNeice, a study of Northern Irish poetry entitled Mistaken Identities, and, most recently, Serious Poetry: Form and Authority from Yeats to Hill. He has edited MacNeice's Selected Plays, and is also the editor of the forthcoming new edition of MacNeice's Collected Poems.

Contents San Domenico 9 The hand 11 As seen 13 Cetacea 15 Clearout 17 The gnat 19 Literal 21 War diary 22 The moth 23 The other world 24 Strongman 25 Spoils 27 The overcoat 28 A schoolboy 30 Windows 31 Three rivers 32 The pattern 35 Syrian 37 The fob-watch 38 Against the fear of death 40 Mar Sarkis 41 In heaven 42 Inventory 44 The anniversary 45 Forecast 46 Flex 47 The walk 48 Quis separabit 49 Late morning 50 The pieces 51 The street called Straight 56 Arithmetic 57 Vigilantes 58 Ode 59 44A 60 The bees 62 Coda 66 Notes 69