Scan barcode
A review by notwellread
Serious Concerns by Wendy Cope
5.0
I thought this was genius! It’s rare to see a collection of poetry where all the poems are great (usually you end up saying something along the lines of “I liked some poems, but not others” – this doesn’t make for a compelling review), but to my mind this is now only second to Ted Hughes’ [b:Crow|97553|Crow From the Life and Songs of the Crow (Faber Library)|Ted Hughes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1417654048s/97553.jpg|94172] in favourite collections of poetry. The poems are all extremely witty, relevant, and often biting and brutal on top.
Obviously Wendy Cope is a comedic poet, but I was pleasantly surprised by how vicious it was at times (and I think it would annoy a lot of men! I feel one would get some cries of ‘misandry’ if one posted Bloody Men and Men and their Boring Arguments etc. on Twitter), and that she was confrontational enough to respond in poetic form to reviewers’ comments on her work directly within the text. I particularly loved the Houseman poem (called Another Unfortunate Choice) since I felt I could relate (!), and I’ve already memorised a few, including this one.
Apparently she drinks a lot too.
Obviously Wendy Cope is a comedic poet, but I was pleasantly surprised by how vicious it was at times (and I think it would annoy a lot of men! I feel one would get some cries of ‘misandry’ if one posted Bloody Men and Men and their Boring Arguments etc. on Twitter), and that she was confrontational enough to respond in poetic form to reviewers’ comments on her work directly within the text. I particularly loved the Houseman poem (called Another Unfortunate Choice) since I felt I could relate (!), and I’ve already memorised a few, including this one.
Apparently she drinks a lot too.