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At Beckett’s Grave - Robin Durnford

At Beckett’s Grave

(Autor)

Buch | Softcover
120 Seiten
2025
McGill-Queen's University Press (Verlag)
978-0-2280-2564-1 (ISBN)
CHF 28,90 inkl. MwSt
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In poems of loss and hope, Robin Durnford dares to pause for a moment, finding meaning in the metaphor of the life and work of Irish playwright Samuel Beckett.
that moment / when nothing happens, you want it all to come / back to get you, even the hard stuff —

Our increasingly nihilistic age is marked by profound sorrow. We are grieving institutions, art forms, the natural world, our communities – even our very humanity. We are overwhelmed by lives lost to war, violence, genocide, poverty, natural disasters, and disease. We live with the knowledge that a random occurrence could bring an absurd end to any life at any time.

In At Beckett’s Grave Robin Durnford gazes at the granite slab marking the resting place of the Irish playwright. In the middle of the ornate tombstones of an overgrown cemetery in Paris, Durnford finds a powerful metaphor in Samuel Beckett – the artist, the exile, the anti-fascist who joined the French resistance. Beckett’s work – and the stark memory of his life – cuts through grandiose self-regard with a razor-sharp message: there is no final meaning. Yet we move forward, regardless.

It turns out that the pause — the stage direction central to so many of Beckett’s plays — may be the answer. Grief for an absent loved one never truly ends. Grief itself will never end. Yet, the poetic pause creates space for grief to breathe. During that lingering breath, abiding sorrow carves a path toward hope, one word, one poem, at a time.

Robin Durnford teaches English literature at John Abbott College and is the author of A Lovely Gutting.

ACT I

Newborn as Abstract Art 3

Lament 5

Existentialist 7

Whale Watching 8

Dag Gadol 9

Self-Musings 10

Break-Through 12

Fascist Literature 14

Slug 16

Squatters 18

Arctic Still Life 20

April Frieze 21

An End 22

Auberge du Mont 24

Fields of Blue 25

Quiet Muse 27

Another Anniversary 29

The Hole 31

Spook 34

Reflection 36

Watercolour 37

My Nature 40

Map of Islands 41

Claw 42

ACT II

Literature Is Like a Foreign Country 45

What the Sea Means 46

Ghost Town 47

Reading Jane Eyre as a Ghost 49

Lured 51

Sour Apples 53

The Rain 55

Firsts 56

By the Fire 57

Wave 59

The Meanest Flower 61

Clay 63

Siren Song 65

The Waves 66

Urn 67

Against Seasons 68

Against Mermaids 70

Skating at Parc La Fontaine 72

Old Girlfriends 73

Jackknife 74

Under the Milk 76

Sea Monster 78

Crab 80

Sparrow 83

Bell-cot 84

Split 85

Sardine 87

In the Metro at a Station 89

The Living On 91

End Game 93

Notes 97
Acknowledgments 101

Erscheinungsdatum
Reihe/Serie Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series
Zusatzinfo 1 illustration
Verlagsort Montreal
Sprache englisch
Maße 127 x 191 mm
Themenwelt Literatur Lyrik / Dramatik Lyrik / Gedichte
ISBN-10 0-2280-2564-8 / 0228025648
ISBN-13 978-0-2280-2564-1 / 9780228025641
Zustand Neuware
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