Table Of ContentCancer Poetry
Also by Iain Twiddy
PASTORAL ELEGY IN CONTEMPORARY BRITISH AND IRISH POETRY
Cancer Poetry
Iain Twiddy
© Iain Twiddy 2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-36199-8
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First published 2015 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-55539-0 ISBN 978-1-137-36200-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137362001
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Twiddy, Iain.
Cancer poetry / Iain Twiddy, Hokkaido University, Japan.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Cancer patients in literature. 2. Cancer in literature. 3. English
poetry—20th century—History and criticism. 4. American poetry—20th
century—History and criticism. 5. Cancer patients’ writings, English—
History and criticism. 6. Cancer patients’ writings, American—History and
criticism. I. Title.
PR605.C26T95 2015
821.009'3561—dc23 2015018345
Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Cancer Poetry: An Introduction 1
Incidence and oncology 4
Cancer treatment 7
The language of cancer 9
Poetic approaches to cancer 17
1 Spousal Cancer: The Flowering of Grief 27
Donald Hall: Without 28
Donald Hall: The Painted Bed 35
Christopher Reid: A Scattering 40
Douglas Dunn: Elegies 47
2 Parental Cancer: The Functions of Repression 54
Sharon Olds: The Father 57
Anne Sexton’s maternal elegies 64
Paul Muldoon: ‘Yarrow’ 69
Michael Longley’s paternal elegies 74
3 Locating Breast Cancer 79
Julia Darling 81
Audre Lorde 84
Alicia Suskin Ostriker 89
Marilyn Hacker 93
4 Surviving Cancer 101
Jo Shapcott: Of Mutability 102
Rae Armantrout: Versed 109
Christian Wiman: Every Riven Thing 115
5 Terminal Words: Conversing with Cancer 124
Edwin Morgan: ‘Gorgo and Beau’ 125
Philip Hodgins: Leukaemia poetry 130
6 Paul Muldoon: Cancer and the Ethics of
Representation 144
Terrorism and Censorship in ‘Horse Latitudes’ 146
v
vi Contents
‘Hedge School’ and ethical metaphor 156
‘Turkey Buzzards’: metaphorical support 158
7 Fierce Verse: Cancer and Imaginative Redress 163
Gwyneth Lewis: A Hospital Odyssey 166
Tony Harrison: ‘Four Poems for Jonathan Silver in
His Sickness’ 172
Paul Muldoon: ‘Incantata’ 175
Paul Muldoon: Maggot 179
8 Remission 189
Notes and References 199
Bibliography 222
Index 228
Acknowledgements
Work on this book was enabled by a generous grant from the Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Many thanks to the team at
Palgrave Macmillan, especially Paula Kennedy and Peter Cary, for com-
missioning and overseeing this project. Thanks also to Jon Darwin, for
hospitality during research trips, and to Matthew Boswell, for decades
of advice and inspiration.
This book was written with Laura Blackledge, Alan Lane, Marian
Robson, Susan Twiddy and Helen Walsh dearly in mind. It is dedicated
to Edward.
Grateful acknowledgement to reprint material is made to the editor
of New Hibernia Review, in which an earlier version of Chapter 6
appeared.
The author acknowledges permission to quote from the following
works:
Excerpts from Poems 1960–2000 (2000) by Fleur Adcock, A Hospital
Odyssey (2010) by Gwyneth Lewis, and Collected Poems 1: Poems 1970–
1984 (1995) by Peter Reading by kind permission of Bloodaxe.
Excerpts from On the Night Watch (2010) and Until Before After (2010)
by Ciaran Carson and Collected Poems (2007) by Michael Longley by
permission of Wake Forest University Press.
Excerpts from On the Night Watch (2009) by Ciaran Carson by kind
permission of the author and The Gallery Press, Loughcrew, Oldcastle,
County Meath, Ireland.
Excerpts from Until Before After (2010) by Ciaran Carson by kind
permission of the author and The Gallery Press, Loughcrew, Oldcastle,
County Meath, Ireland.
Excerpts from Teratologies: A Cultural Study of Cancer (2007) by Jackie
Stacey by kind permission of the author.
Excerpts from Sudden Collapses in Public Places (2003) and Apology for
Absence (2004) by Julia Darling by kind permission of the Julia Darling
Estate.
Excerpts from Rae Armantrout, ‘Later’, ‘Own’, ‘Together’, ‘Translation’,
Pass’, ‘The Racket’, ‘Apartment’, and ‘Fact’ from Versed © 2009 by Rae
vii
viii Acknowledgements
Armantrout. Reprinted by kind permission of Wesleyan University
Press.
Excerpts from A Scattering (2009) by Christopher Reid by permission
of Areté.
Excerpts from Mortality by Christopher Hitchens. Copyright © 2010
by Christopher Hitchens. By permission of Grand Central Publishing.
All rights reserved.
Excerpts from The Little Space: Poems Selected and New, 1968–1998, by
Alicia Suskin Ostriker, © 1998, are used by permission of the University
of Pittsburgh Press.
Excerpts from The Painted Bed: Poems by Donald Hall. Copyright ©
2002 by Donald Hall. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from Without: Poems by Donald Hall. Copyright © 1998 by
Donald Hall. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from Collected Poems (2005) by Patrick Kavanagh by kind
permission of the Jonathan Williams Literary Agency.
Excerpts from Selected Poems (1997) by Philip Hodgins by kind permis-
sion of Janet Shaw.
Excerpts from Sightlines (2012) by Kathleen Jamie by kind permission
of the author.
Excerpts from Frissure (2013) by Brigid Collins and Kathleen Jamie by
kind permission of Kathleen Jamie.
Excerpts from “After the Diagnosis,” “Darkcharms,” “The Mole,”
and “When the Time’s Toxins” from EVERY RIVEN THING by
Christian Wiman. Copyright © 2011 by Christian Wiman. Excerpts
from “Baginburn,” “Beersheeba,” “Beijing,” “Berwick-upon-Tweed,”
“Blackwater Fort,” “Blaye,” “Bronkhorstspruit,” “Burma,” “Hedge
School,” “Sillyhow Stride,” and “Turkey Buzzards,” from HORSE
LATITUDES by Paul Muldoon. Copyright © 2006 by Paul Muldoon.
Excerpts from “A Hare at Aldergrove,” “Balls,” “Moryson’s Fancy,”
and “When the Pie Was Opened” from MAGGOT by Paul Muldoon.
Copyright © 2010 by Paul Muldoon. Excerpts from “Incantata,”
“Profumo,” “The Sightseers,” and “Yarrow” from POEMS: 1968–1998 by
Paul Muldoon. Copyright © 2001 by Paul Muldoon.
Excerpts from ‘Like I Was Your Girlfriend’ by Martin Malone by kind
permission of the author.
Excerpts from A Book of Lives (2007) by Edwin Morgan by permission
of Carcanet.
Acknowledgements ix
Author’s note
It will be evident in the text where it was not possible for excerpts from
poems to be reproduced for the purpose of analysis. The author asks for
the reader’s understanding of this restriction.
