'Wondrous . . . one of the great poets of our time' – New Statesman
A Chorus of Ears is a series of essays on voice, lyric and the persona of the poet from one of the greatest living English poets. Originally delivered as a lecture series at Trinity College, Cambridge, in A Chorus of Ears Denise Riley meditates upon the emphasis we place upon the persona of the poet, relegating their actual poetry to a second-order importance. Prize culture and the primacy of the poet – as opposed to the poem – transform criticism into a beauty contest, constraining our ability to meet the lyric on its own terms.
What, Riley asks, might be discovered about the purpose of poetry, its originary point within our language and more yet besides, when we liberate it from the persona of the author? In allowing the poem to speak, what might we hear?
'One of the most eloquent thinkers about our life in language' – The Sunday Times Essays on voice, lyric and the persona of the poet from one of the greatest living English poets. Denise Riley is a critically acclaimed writer of both philosophy and poetry. She is currently Professor of the History of Ideas and of Poetry at UEA. Her visiting positions have included A.D. White Professor at Cornell University, Writer in Residence at the Tate Gallery in London, and Visiting Fellow at Birkbeck College in the University of London. She has taught philosophy, art history, poetics, and creative writing. She is the author of Say Something Back, Timed Lived, Without Its Flow and A Chorus of Ears. She lives in London. Her strengths are so varied: notice one quality you admire, and another follows hard behind. Riley is an enormously gifted writer She's one of the best poets around A terrific talent One of the most eloquent thinkers about our life in language She's a poet whose work . . . never fails to convince new readers with its intelligence, wit and emotion Wondrous . . . one of the great poets of our time
