W. S. Graham and Lyric Self-Consciousness

This monograph considers the formal vitality of lyric in the face of anxieties about linguistic agency across the corpus of the British poet, W. S. Graham. A sophisticated modernist lyric originates, the book argues, in Graham’s rendering of self-consciousness at different strata across space, sound, image and form – as distinct from a more general lyric subject or ego. By listening closely to the poems, the book seeks to identify the self-sufficiency of Graham’s lyrics, and their ability t...