J.H. Prynne

J.H. Prynne. Courtesy Rate your Music.

Jeremy Halvard Prynne (born June 24, 1936) is an English poet closely associated with the British Poetry Revival.

Life

Prynne's early influences include Charles Olson and Donald Davie. His debut collection, Force of Circumstance, and other poems was published in 1962; Prynne has excluded it from his canon. His Poems (1982) collected all the work he wanted to keep in print up to the time of publication, beginning with Kitchen Poems(1968). An expanded and updated version appeared in 1999, with another, further updated, published in 2005. Prynne was a key figure in the Cambridge group of Revival poets and was a major contributor to The English Intelligencer.

In addition to his poetry, Prynne has published some critical and academic prose. A transcription of a 1971 lecture on Olson's Maximus Poems at Simon Fraser University has had wide circulation. His longer works include a monograph on Saussure, Stars, Tigers and the Shape of Words and self-published book-length commentaries on poems by Wordsworth (Field Notes: 'The Solitary Reaper' and others) and Shakespeare (They That Haue Powre to Hurt; A Specimen of a Commentary on Shake-speares Sonnets, 94). His essay on New Songs from a Jade Terrace, an anthology of early Chinese love poetry, was included in the 2nd edition of the book from Penguin, 1982. He has written poetry in classical Chinese under the name Pu Ling-en.

Prynne is a life fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. As of October 2005, he had retired from his posts teaching English Literature as a lecturer and University reader in English poetry for the University of Cambridge and as Director of Studies in English for Gonville and Caius College. He retired as Librarian of the College at the end of September 2006.

Publications

Poetry

• Force of Circumstance, and other poems London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962.
• Kitchen Poems. London: Cape Goliard, 1968; New York: Grossman, 1968.
• Day Light Songs. Pampisford, Cambridgeshire, UK: R. Books, 1968.
• Aristeas. London: Ferry Press, 1968.
• The White Stones. Lincoln, UK: Grosseteste Press, 1969.
• Fire Lizard. Barnet, Hertfordshire, UK: Blacksuede Boot Press, 1970.
• Brass. London: Ferry Press, 1971.
• Into the Day. Cambridge, UK: privately published (distributed through Ferry Press), 1972.
• A Night Square. London: Albion Village Press, 1973.
• Wound Response. Cambridge, UK: Street Editions, 1974.
• High Pink on Chrome. Cambridge, UK: privately published (distributed through Ferry Press), 1975.
• News of Warring Clans. London: Trigram Press, 1977.
• Down where changed. London: Ferry Press, 1979.
• Poems. Edinburgh & London: Agneau 2, 1982.
• The Oval Window. Cambridge, UK: privately published, 1983.
  • reprint of the 1983 text, (designed by Ian Friend). Brisbane: Brisbane City Council, 2002.
• Marzipan. [with Massepain (French translation of Marzipan) by B. Dubourg & Prynne]. Cambridge, UK: Poetical Histories, 2; printed and distributed by Peter Riley Books, 1986.
• Bands Around the Throat. Cambridge, UK: privately published (distributed through Ferry Press), 1987. Printed in two different impressions.
• Word Order. Kenilworth, UK: Prest Roots, 1989.
• Not-You. Cambridge, UK: Equipage, 1993.
• Her Weasels Wild Returning. Cambridge, UK: Equipage, 1994.
• For the Monogram. Cambridge, UK: Equipage, 1997.
• Red D Gypsum. Cambridge, MA: Barque Press, 1998.
• Pearls That Were. Cambridge, UK: privately printed (distributed through Equipage), 1999.
• Poems. South Fremantle, WA, Australia: Fremantle Arts Centre Press / Folio (Salt); Newcastle-on-Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1999.
• Triodes. Cambridge, MA: Barque Press, 1999.
• Unanswering Rational Shore. Glasgow: Object Permanence, 2001.
• Acrylic Tips. Cambridge, MA: Barque Press, 2002.
• Furtherance. [unaltered reprint of Red D Gypsum; Pearls That Were; Triodes; Unanswering Rational Shore]. Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 2004 [2003].
• Biting the Air. Cambridge: Equipage, 2003.
• Poems. North Fremantle, WA, Australia: Fremantle Arts Centre Press; Newcastle-on-Tyne: Bloodaxe, 2005.
• To Pollen. London: Barque Press, 2006 [2nd printing, 2009].
• Streak----Willing----Entourage / ‘Artesian’. London: Barque Press, 2009.
• Sub Songs. London: Barque Press, 2010.
• Kazoo Dreamboats; or, On what there is. Cambridge, UK: Critical Documents, 2011.

Non-fiction

• Stars, Tigers and the Shape of Words: The William Matthews lectures, 1992. London: Birkbeck College, 1993.
• They That Haue Powre to Hurt: A specimen of a commentary on Shake-speares sonnet 94. Cambridge, UK: privately published, 2001.
• An Introductory Sketch Outline of American Literature: Six double lectures, Guangzhou Daxue, Spring 2005. Guangzhou, China: Guangzhou University, 2005:
• Field Notes: ‘The Solitary Reaper’, and others. Cambridge, UK: privately published, 2007.
• George Herbert, ‘Love [III]: A discursive commentary. Cambridge, UK: privately published, 2011:.

Edited

• Georgia Straight: Writing 8 supplement. Vancouver: July 1971. (includes Prynne's poems "Of Sanguine Fire" and "The Blade Given Back").
• Original: Chinese language-poetry group (translated by Jeff Twitchell-Waas) as Parataxas 7. Brighton, UK: Parataxis Editions, 1994.
• Caius and Cockerell: The transformation of a library. Cambridge, UK: Gonville & Caius College, 1997.
• The May Anthology of Oxford and Cambridge Poetry, 1998 (with introduction by Prynne). Cambridge, UK, & Oxford, UK: Varsity/Cherwell, 1998.
• River Pearls (bilingual anthology; edited with O. Hong). Guangzhou, PRC: English Poetry Studies Institute, Sun Yat-sen University / Cambridge, UK: Barque Press, 2005.

"The Listeners" (Walter de la Mare) read by J.H. Prynne

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy The Bibliography of J.H. Prynne.

See also

• List of British poets

External links

Poems

• "On the Matter of Thermal Packing" (repr. in Lynx : Poetry from Bath)
• "Rich in Vitamin C", poem by J.H.Prynne, with a commentary by John Kinsella (Jacket # 6, January 1999)]
• Nos's cool poet of the week: J.H. Prynne at Rate your Music (4 poems)

Prose

• 'Tintern Abbey, Once Again', (commentary by Prynne). (Glossator 1, 2009)
• '& Hoc Genus Omne' and 'Ideal Weapons for Suicide Pacts', Plant time bulletins by "Erasmus 'Willbeen' Darwin", aka J.H. Prynne (Bean News, 1972)

Books

• The Bibliography of J.H. Prynne

Audio / video

• J.H. Prynne at YouTube

About

• J.H. Prynne b. 1936 at the Poetry Foundation.
• On the Poems of J.H. Prynne. Ed. Ryan Dobran. Glossator 2.
• 'An introduction to the poetry of J.H.Prynne', by Rod Mengham & John Kinsella, Jacket 7, April 1999)
• 'Socialist poetry of the 1960s: Prynne, John James, David Chaloner' (Angel Exhaust # 13)]

Etc.

• Finding aid for The English Intelligencer Archive, Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University
• Gonville & Caius College Library

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