Unearthly Toys: Poems and Masks [Paperback]

Ned Denny'sUnearthly Toysare treacherous playthings, as rigorously structured as they are thematically unsettling, a 'rhapsody of rags gathered from several dung-hills, excrements of authors, toys and fopperies confusedly tumbled about' (as Robert Burton dubbed hisAnatomy of Melancholy).

 

The collection opens on a twilit, numinous world of exotic drugs, subterranean drums and visionary apprehension in which—to quote Twin Peaks, a recurrent leitmotif—'the woods are wondrous... but strange'. Interspersed with original poems in a variety of complex forms is a series of illuminated and darkly erotic 'remakes' of other poets' work, from the Old English classic "The Wanderer" to late Baudelaire via Goethe, Cavalcanti, Li Po, enigmatic troubadour lyrics, and the medieval abbess Hildegard von Bingen. Politics are never far away: modern man's severance from the earth, the sacred, and his own inner self has grave consequences.

"As among the most inventive translators of Dante – watch this space – Denny as a poet goes to Hell and back time after time, with immense verve and authority." —New Italian Studies

"Ned Denny is a gifted troubadour who has crossed the ages.Unearthly Toysis formidably learned and formally exacting, but his versions are vividly imaginative and original. This is a book of great beauty and conceptual power: extremely clever but also haunting, proving again that formal requirements such as sestinas can be as much of a liberation as a constraint." —Bernard O’Donoghue

Ned Dennywas born in London in 1975 and has worked as a postman, art critic, book reviewer, music journalist and gardener. His poems and remakes have appeared in publications includingPN Review,Poetry Review