Selected Poems

Bill Manhire, by trade a medievalist and by vocation a poet,has - like those writers who invented and developed English poetry - helped to make something charged and original out of his landscapes (including Antarctica) and his language. He was New Zealand's first Poet Laureate and is one of its most popular and entertaining writers. This book traces his evolution over more than four decades, from The Elaboration (1972) through to The Victims of Lightning (2010) and new poems. It is the story of a love affair with the planet: 'The world is a constant amazement, / always on the move'.

'Manhire can be a beautifully elemental poet... whose bright, innocent quality of perception (what he himself has called "whimsy") has had a liberating effect on New Zealand poetry.' -- Jeremy Noel-Tod, Culture, The Sunday Times 'Turning the pages of Lifted, no reader can fail to be surprised and delighted by the variety of voices and tones... Manhire shows his ability to look unflinchingly into the heart of things. His poems make us feel as if we are really there.' - Billy Collins

Bill Manhire was born in Invercargill in 1946. He was his country's inaugural Poet Laureate and has won the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry four times. He has published many books of poetry and several works of fiction, including the short story collection South Pacific (Carcanet, 1994). Manhire holds a chair at the Victoria University of Wellington, where he is founding director of its Institute of Modern Letters. In 2005 he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and named an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate. In 2007 he received the Prime Minister's Award for Poetry.

Bill Manhire, by trade a medievalist and by vocation a poet,has - like those writers who invented and developed English poetry - helped to make something charged and original out of his landscapes (including Antarctica) and his language. He was New Zealand's first Poet Laureate and is one of its most popular and entertaining writers. This book traces his evolution over more than four decades, from The Elaboration (1972) through to The Victims of Lightning (2010) and new poems. It is the story of a love affair with the planet: 'The world is a constant amazement, / always on the move'.

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