W. S. Graham and Lyric Self-Consciousness (Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics)

By: Sam Buchan-Watts

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Synopsis: This monograph considers the formal vitality of lyric in the face of anxieties about linguistic agency across the corpus of the British poet, W. S. Graham. A sophisticated modernist lyric originates, the book argues, in Graham’s rendering of self-consciousness at different strata across space, sound, image and form – as distinct from a more general lyric subject or ego. By listening closely to the poems, the book seeks to identify the self-sufficiency of Graham’s lyrics, and their ability to account for themselves theoretically on their own terms. Archival material – including worksheets, manuscripts and notebooks – is used to examine Graham's visual and spatial conception of verse and his ambivalent relation to verse form. Graham’s propositions are considered in the context of broader theoretical debates about modern lyric and a slipstream of mid-century poets (namely William Empson and Veronica Forrest-Thomson). The book concludes with a sustained analysis of Denise Riley's long-term engagement with Graham’s poetry, which suggests how Graham’s generative approaches to lyric can be further politicised.