Contemporary British poetry and the city

<p>Though poets have always written about cities the commonest critical categories (pastoral poetry nature poetry Romantic poetry Georgian poetry etc.) have usually stressed the rural so that poetry can seem irrelevant to a predominantly urban populati. Explores a range of contemporary poets who visit the 'mean streets' of the contemporary urban scene seeking the often cacophonous music of what happens here. Poets discussed include:<br> Ken Smith Iain Sinclair Roy Fisher Edwin Morgan Sean O'Brien Ciaran Carson Peter Reading Matt Simpson Douglas Houston Deryn Rees-Jones Denise Riley Ken Edwards Levi Tafari Aidan Hun and Robert Hampson. Approaches contemporary poetry within a broad spectrum of personal social literary and cultural concerns. Includes 'loco-specific' chapters on cities including Hull Liverpool London and Birmingham with an additional chapter on 'post-industrial' cities such as Belfast Glasgow and Dundee.</p>