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Poetry

Pretending not to Sleep

Pamphlet: (The Review, 1964)
[Published as part of The Review no. 13]
Pretending Not to Sleep by Ian Hamilton
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)
Poetry Introduction 1, with poems by Ian Hamilton, Douglas Dunn, David Harsent, and others
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 Visit by Ian Hamilton
'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)
Anniversary & Vigil (Broadside) by Ian Hamilton

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)
The Young British Poets, edited by Jeremy Robson

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
Returning: Poems by Ian Hamilton
Poems:

Vigil
Ghosts
Retreat
Critique
Poet
Bedtime Story
Friends
In Dreams
Anniversary
Rose
Returning
Remember this

 
Fifty Poems

Book: (London: Faber, 1988)
Fifty Poems by Ian Hamilton
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
Steps: Poems by Ian Hamilton
Poems:

The Garden
Again
At Evening
Soliloquy
Steps
Fever
Resolve
Dream Song
Responsibilities
Biography

 
Sixty Poems

Book: (London: Faber, 1998)
Sixty Poems by Ian Hamilton
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
Fifteen Poems by Ian Hamilton, selected 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
Collected Poems by Ian Hamilton, edited 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.

 
 
Last update: 9 June 2012
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