Sean O’Brien, It Says Here – review
I’d like to start by quoting the fine short poem ‘Names’ from O’Brien’s new book It Says Here. If just saying it aloud enchants you as much as it does me then this is a book you should buy:
Ravenspur, Ravensrodd, Ravenser Odd,
Salt-heavy bells heard only by God.
Drink to the lost and the longshore drift:
When there is nothing the names will be left.
It’s reminiscent of Geoffrey Hill’s ‘Merlin’ in its particular elegiac feeling and tune, but the names it refers to aren’t literary in the way those in Hill’s poem are (‘Arthur, Elaine, Mordred, they are all … Continue Reading