Pretending not to Sleep

Pamphlet: (The Review, 1964) [Published as part of The Review no. 13] Poems: Fears The Storm Windfalls The Recruits Trucks A Mother's Complaint Father, Dying Birthday Poem Metaphor Last Illness Last Respects Funeral Pretending not to Sleep Poem (To G.)

View an early draft of 'Father, Dying' (Courtesy of Matthew Hamilton)

Poetry Intoduction 1

Anthology: (Faber, London, 1969) Poems: Funeral Metaphor Birthday Poem Bequest Home Pretending Not to Sleep Poem (To G.) Night walk Trucks Absence Awakening Memorial   Aftermath Last Waltz Visit The Recruits The Storm Your Cry Windfalls Vow Last Illness Father, Dying A Mother's Complaint

The Visit

Book: (London: Faber, 1970) 'The poems in The Visit were written between 1962 and 1969 and are printed in roughly chronological order. They are all, at some level, autobiographical and they could all, I suppose, be described as dramatic lyrics. That is to say, the reader is offered only the intense, climactic moment of a drama-the prose part, the part which provides the background data, is left to the imagination. The book, as will readily be seen, falls into four sections or sequences, and yet I would hope that if it is to be read straight through it will be read as a kind of narrative.' -- Ian Hamilton from the Poetry Book Society Bulletin, no. 65 (Summer 1970) Poems: The Storm Pretending Not To Sleep Trucks The Recruits Windfalls Bequest Father, dying Birthday Poem Metaphor Last Illness Last Respects Funeral Epitaph Complaint Night Walk Poem Admission   Last Waltz Home Memorial The Visit The Vow Your Cry Awakening Aftermath Nature Words Old Photograph Neighbours Breaking Up Newscast Curfew Now and Then

Anniversary and Vigil

Broadside: (Poem of the Month Club, 1971) Broadside consisting of two poems published in a limited, signed edition for the Poem of the Month Club. Limitation unstated, but estimated at around 1000 copies. Printed on heavy Abbey Mills Greenfield watermarked paper. 11 x 15 inches.

The Young British Poets

Book: (Chatto and Windus, 1971 / St. Martin's Press, 1973) Edited by Jeremy Robson, this collection includes works by Taner Baybars, Keith Bosley, Stewart Conn, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Peter Dale, Douglas Dunn, John Fuller, Ian Hamilton, Tony Harrison, Seamus Heaney Douglas Hill, Glyn Hughes, A. C. Jacobs, Brian Jones, Angela Langfield, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, Dom Moraes, Robert Nye, Brian Patten, Jeremy Robson, Jon Stallworthy, and Hugo Williams. Includes a brief biographical introduction to each poet. Hamilton's poems include: Pretending Not to Sleep Trucks The Recruits Last Illness

Returning

Pamphlet: (London: Privately Printed, 1976) Limited to 150 copies Poems: Vigil Ghosts Retreat Critique Poet Bedtime Story Friends In Dreams Anniversary Rose Returning Remember this

Fifty Poems

Book: (London: Faber, 1988) Poems: Memorial The Storm Pretending not to Sleep Trucks The Recruits Windfalls Birthday Poem Metaphor Father, Dying Bequest Midwinter Last Respects Funeral Epitaph Complaint Night Walk Poem Admission Last Waltz Nature Home The Visit The Vow Your Cry Awakening   Aftermath Words Old Photograph Neighbours Breaking Up Newscast Curfew Now and Then Retreat Friends In Dreams Bedtime Story Poet Critique Ghosts Rose Anniversary Returning Remember This New Year Colours Familiars Larkinesque House Work The Forties

Steps

Pamphlet: (Cornwall: Cargo Press, 1997) Limited to 250 copies, signed by the author Poems: The Garden Again At Evening Soliloquy Steps Fever Resolve Dream Song Responsibilities Biography

Sixty Poems

Book: (London: Faber, 1998) Poems: Memorial The Storm Pretending not to Sleep Trucks The Recruits Windfalls Birthday Poem Metaphor Father, Dying Bequest Midwinter Last Respects Funeral Epitaph Complaint Night Walk Poem Admission Last Waltz Nature Home The Visit The Vow Your Cry Awakening Aftermath Words Old Photograph Neighbours Breaking Up   Newscast Curfew Now and Then Retreat Friends In Dreams Bedtime Story Poet Critique Ghosts Rose Anniversary Returning Remember This New Year Colours Familiars Larkinesque The Forties House Work The Garden Again At Evening Soliloquy Steps Fever Resolve Dream Song Responsibilities Biography

Fifteen Poems

Pamphlet: (Greville Press, 2004) Selected and Introduced by Hugo Williams Poems: The Storm Pretending Not to Sleep Metaphor Complaint The Vow Old Photograph Now and Then Returning Rose The Forties Again Steps Responsibilities Biograpy Almost Nothing

Collected Poems

Pamphlet: (Faber and Faber, 2009) Edited with an introduction by Alan Jenkins Synopsis from the Publisher: A professional man of letters -- critic, editor, biographer -- though never a professional poet, Ian Hamilton (1938-2001) referred to his poems as 'miraculous lyrical arrivals', and he bided their time with exemplary patience and humility. His widely praised first collection, The Visit, published by Faber in 1970, was incorporated into Fifty Poems in 1988, itself expanded to Sixty Poems in 1998. In a preface to the former collection, he wrote: 'Fifty poems in twenty-five years: not much to show for half a lifetime, you might think. And in certain moods, I would agree.' Readers of Hamilton's condensed and immaculate oeuvre have felt otherwise: the poems of his youth and middle years (there was to be no opportunity for a late flowering) acquired talismanic significance for his contemporaries, and their combination of terseness and emotional intensity continues to set an example to younger poets. Edited by Alan Jenkins, this authoritative Collected Poems contains all of the poetry that Ian Hamilton chose to publish, together with a small number of uncollected and unpublished poems; it also supplies an illuminating introduction, and succinctly helpful apparatus. The result is an edition whose thoroughness and tact are themselves a moving tribute, restoring to view one of the most disinctive bodies of work in twentieth-century English poetry. Purchase from Faber & Faber. Three previously unpublished poems and an essay by Alan Jenkins an Hamilton's work were published in the Times Literary Supplement, no. 5533, 17 April 2009: 22.