Dialect does it
Blake Morrison, 5 December 1985
No Mate for the Magpie
by Frances Molloy.
Virago, 170 pp., £7.95, April 1985,0 86068 594 2 Show More
by Frances Molloy.
Virago, 170 pp., £7.95, April 1985,
Hard Lines 2
edited by Ian Dury, Pete Townshend, Alan Bleasdale and Fanny Dubes.
Faber, 95 pp., £2.50, June 1985,0 571 13542 0 Show More
edited by Ian Dury, Pete Townshend, Alan Bleasdale and Fanny Dubes.
Faber, 95 pp., £2.50, June 1985,
No Holds Barred: The Raving Beauties choose new poems by women
edited by Anna Carteret, Fanny Viner and Sue Jones-Davies.
Women’s Press, 130 pp., £2.95, June 1985,0 7043 3963 3 Show More
edited by Anna Carteret, Fanny Viner and Sue Jones-Davies.
Women’s Press, 130 pp., £2.95, June 1985,
Skevington’s Daughter
by Oliver Reynolds.
Faber, 88 pp., £8.95, September 1985,0 571 13697 4 Show More
by Oliver Reynolds.
Faber, 88 pp., £8.95, September 1985,
Trio 4
by Andrew Elliott, Leon McAuley and Ciaran O’Driscoll.
Blackstaff, 69 pp., £3.95, May 1985,0 85640 333 4 Show More
by Andrew Elliott, Leon McAuley and Ciaran O’Driscoll.
Blackstaff, 69 pp., £3.95, May 1985,
The Dread Affair: Collected Poems
by Benjamin Zephaniah.
Arena, 112 pp., £2.95, August 1985,9780099392507 Show More
by Benjamin Zephaniah.
Arena, 112 pp., £2.95, August 1985,
True Confessions and New Clichés
by Liz Lochhead.
Polygon, 135 pp., £3.95, July 1985,0 904919 90 0 Show More
by Liz Lochhead.
Polygon, 135 pp., £3.95, July 1985,
Wild Places: Poems in Three Leids
by William Neill.
Luath, 200 pp., £5, September 1985,0 946487 11 1 Show More
by William Neill.
Luath, 200 pp., £5, September 1985,
“... Poetry written in dialect seems to be undergoing a resurgence. Tony Harrison has made extensive use of Northern idioms. Tom Paulin has been busy raiding Ulster (and, I suspect, Scottish) dictionaries. Craig Raine has produced a manifesto, ‘Babylonish Dialects’, on dialect’s behalf. And several of the books under review here – by Scots, Welshmen and British West Indians – cannot be read without the glossaries which they thoughtfully provide ... ”
