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- Herausgeber: Carcanet Poetry
- Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011
Sophie Hannah's sharp pen dissects modern life and relationships with insouciant honesty and ruthless wit, and her love poems evoke timeless feelings with a shrewd simplicity that deepens her range. An edge of desolation, tenderness - an occasional flash of cruelty - and an ebullient delight in language make this a book of bittersweet pleasures. Pessimism for Beginners includes an extract from the opening chapter of Sophie Hannah's second psychological thriller, Hurting Distance, published by Hodder &Stoughton, described by the Times as 'a superbly creepy, twisty thriller about obsessive love, psychological torture and the darkest chambers of the human heart'. In poetry and prose, Sophie Hannah is compellingly readable.
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SOPHIE HANNAH
Pessimism for Beginners
For Wendy, with love
Acknowledgements
Some of these poems first appeared in the following publications: the Daily Telegraph, PN Review, the Times Literary Supplement, PoetryReview, Critical Quarterly, the Boho Press Stroke Association anthology, Selected Poems by Sophie Hannah (Penguin 2006), The Liberal, In the Red, New Welsh Review, Bath Chronicle, Aireings.
Some of the poems in this collection were commissioned by and first broadcast on the Radio 4 programmes Word on the Street, Woman’s Hour and Front Row. ‘The Plan’ was commissioned by NESTA Futurelab. ‘Limited’ was commissioned by O2, ‘One Little Wish’ by Ragdoll Television, ‘Nothing to Hide’ by the Bath Literature Festival, and ‘Let’s Put the Past in Front of Us’ by the Manhae Foundation in Korea.
Contents
Title Page
I
On Her Tiredness
Mary Questions the Health Visitor
‘No Ball Games etc’
Round Robin
Discipline
The Plan
Letterland
Fifteen per cent of goodbye…
Deferred Gratification
Silly Mummy
One Little Wish
Astronomical
Pessimism for Beginners
II
Something and Nothing
Telling Strangers
How I Feel Now
Living Without You
From a Stranger
Exorcise
Friday 13th February 2004
The Onus
Manifest
Imaginary Friend
My Ideal Man
Send
III
The Cutting Dead
White Feathers
Peace Offering
In the Chill
After the Axe
The Way It Has to Be
Nothing to Hide
Let’s Put the Past in Front of Us
The Barring Arm
Homewrecker
Don’t Say I Said
Rubbish at Adultery
Anyone Can Draw a Line
Progress
Limited
from Chapter 1 of Hurting Distance
About the Author
Also by Sophie Hannah from Carcanet Press
Copyright
I
On Her Tiredness
after ‘On His Blindness’ by John Milton
When I consider how my night is spent,
Either awake or waiting to be woken
From my leased sleep, and never an unbroken
Ten solid hours, I wonder: was I meant
For gigs like this? Somebody should invent
Sleep substitutes, maybe a sleep gift token.
Suddenly it’s as if a voice has spoken,
As if this next advice were heaven-sent:
‘It’s not essential to be sleep-deprived.
Everyone has her limit; you’ve reached yours.
To struggle on would not be right or fair.
The Lord is quite impressed that you’ve survived
This long. Invest some cash in a good cause:
They also serve who hire a Swiss au pair.’
