A powerful exploration of life and death, illness and grace, wonder and beauty, in the posthumous collection from one of our greatest contemporary poets
'It's impossible not to love the world more when reading Burnside' GUARDIAN
'A master of language' HILARY MANTEL
John Burnside's last collection of new poems gathers around a single theme - mortality - and draws on his faltering health and earlier glances with death, creating a powerfully moving exploration of memory, forgetting and the seven ages.
Here, as always, there is a clear-eyed curiosity; a sense of wonder at the beleaguered natural world and its endless mutability - its hidden beauty, often suddenly disclosed - and a deep faith in its old gods. Burnside was always as much a spirit-guide as a poet, and here, in the Empire of Forgetting, we are never far from a fresh alertness to the world, to epiphany - a sudden, spiritual manifestation.
There is a sense, too, in these last poems, of a man having found a 'dwelling place' - a sense of rest and peace and settlement with the world. A state of grace.
'Among the best writers of his generation, fully voiced and perfectly pitched' ANDREW O'HAGAN
'A titan of literature' KATHLEEN JAMIE
| ISBN: | 9781787334557 |
| Publication date: | 7th August 2025 |
| Author: | John Burnside |
| Publisher: | Jonathan Cape an imprint of Vintage Publishing |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 64 pages |
| Genres: |
Poetry by individual poets Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss Modern and contemporary poetry (c 1900 onwards) |
A powerful exploration of life and death, illness and grace, wonder and beauty, in the posthumous collection from one of our greatest contemporary poets
'It's impossible not to love the world more when reading Burnside' GUARDIAN
'A master of language' HILARY MANTEL
John Burnside's last collection of new poems gathers around a single theme - mortality - and draws on his faltering health and earlier glances with death, creating a powerfully moving exploration of memory, forgetting and the seven ages.
Here, as always, there is a clear-eyed curiosity; a sense of wonder at the beleaguered natural world and its endless mutability - its hidden beauty, often suddenly disclosed - and a deep faith in its old gods. Burnside was always as much a spirit-guide as a poet, and here, in the Empire of Forgetting, we are never far from a fresh alertness to the world, to epiphany - a sudden, spiritual manifestation.
There is a sense, too, in these last poems, of a man having found a 'dwelling place' - a sense of rest and peace and settlement with the world. A state of grace.
'Among the best writers of his generation, fully voiced and perfectly pitched' ANDREW O'HAGAN
'A titan of literature' KATHLEEN JAMIE
The Empire of Forgetting features in the following genres: Poetry by individual poets, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Modern and contemporary poetry (c 1900 onwards)
The Empire of Forgetting is available in Paperback
The Empire of Forgetting was written by John Burnside and published by Jonathan Cape an imprint of Vintage Publishing
The Empire of Forgetting has 64 pages
£11.70