Selected Poems

Asked what problems most perplexed 'young men at present' Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861) replied 'a growing sense of discrepancy'. His wry and wise poetry explores the tensions of a time of radical changes in the religious, political and literary landscape. He has a sharp eye for absurdity. Clough was a writer of wide interests and liberal sympathies, vividly idiomatic and sensuous, delighting in the detail and variety of everyday life. His technical dexterity is a delight: the poems encompass satire and lyric, dialogue, plot and contemporary reference. His narrative poem he Bothie of Tober-Na-Vuolich and the epistolary Amours de Voyage have the momentum and social precision of novels, capturing a precise image of the Victorian world of the 1840s. This volume includes a generous selection of the full range of Clough's poetry, with a detailed introduction and annotations by Shirley Chew.