A Chorus of Ears

Originally delivered as a series of lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, in A Chorus of Ears Denise Riley meditates upon the emphasis we place upon the persona of the poet, relegating their actual poetry to a second-order importance. Prize culture and the primacy of the poet – as opposed to the poem – transform criticism into a beauty contest, constraining our ability to meet the lyric on its own terms.

What, Riley asks, might be discovered about the purpose of poetry, its originary point within our language and more yet besides, when we liberate it from the persona of the author? In allowing the poem to speak, what might we hear?

‘One of the most eloquent thinkers about our life in language’ – The Sunday Times