[Michael Juster]

I have just read, and want to recommend, a new release from Ohio University Press, called Set The Ploughshare Deep; A Prairie Memoir (Ohio University Press 2000) by North Dakota poet/farmer/venture capitalist Timothy Murphy. It's hard to put a label on this book--it includes short memoirs by Murphy, some by Murphy's father, and many of Murphy's distinctively compact, intense lyrics. Murphy is one of the most important emerging formalist poets in the country, if not the most important. There is not much new poetry if you're already a Murphy fan, although it is fun to read the poems in the context of the essays. Look also for the Murphy/ Alan Sullivan translation of Beouwulf coming out shortly from Story Line; Peter Davison of The Atlantic declared it better than the Heaney version on key dimensions before wimping out from what appeared to be his true view and declaring a tie. I've heard Murphy read from the work-in-progress, and there is no question in my mind that the new translation leaves Heaney's in the dust.

[Paul Deane]

It's good to see Timothy Murphy's work
getting some attention.

If anyone wants to see selections from
Alan Sullivan's Beowulf translation,
check out my website on alliterative
poetry,
http://www.jps.net/pdeane/fgr/

That takes you to the main site
page, then just click on Beowulf
on the menu.

In my view at least Sullivan does
a much better job capturing the
aural feel of the original in modern
English verse.

[RCL]

Paul Dean,
Thanks for the link to alliterative verse. I recently read Heany's translation and liked it, but after reading the one you recommended, realize its weaknesses. This one sounds very like a translation I did eons ago in grad school, and Fred Cassidy tried to talk me into doing ASaxon for the doctorate. Alas I didn't but still read it. Thanks again.