Doing the Same in English (Dedalus Poetry) Paperback – Import, 25 September 2008

Selected by the poet Maurice Scully covering a long career as a professional poet. But often a poet selecting his own work is an error but Scully does well in fairness to him. His early work is not included which is a pity as it had power as well as honesty. The move to being an Irish Louis Zukofsky or William Carlos Williams in the work included here is good value at the price. But a culture of imitation as always provides a poetry that can be too derivative and predictable.But despite all the plaudits he has received as he comes near to his seventh decade shows a dip in his standard of poetry. Scully’s real problem is an obvious lack of subject matter in the more recent work in particular.‘Love Poems and Others’ is a book well worth reading by Scully as well as his poems from the nineteen seventies. Let’s hope his very early work will emerge in his lifetime or posthumously?