Selected Poems

Listen to what they did. Don't listen to what they said. What was written in blood Has been set up in lead. Â--from Â"Blood and LeadÂ" The leading poet of his generation, James Fenton has over the course of his career built a body of work breathtaking in its range and sensibility. From the passionate political poems that launched him into fame to the intimate illuminations of loveÂ--and loss of loveÂ--in his later work, Fenton's poetry has always been marked by formal daring, wit, and an abiding empathy for the victims of war and political oppression. With selections from all of his published work sinceThe Memory of War, the entire text of his librettoThe Love Bomb, and new, previously uncollected poems,Selected Poemsis an imaginative and formal tour de force.

James Fenton was born in Lincoln, England, in 1949. His volumes of poetry include Terminal Moraine, The Memory of War, Children in Exile, and Out of Danger. He was Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1994 to 1999.