Learning to Sleep

Learning to Sleep, John Burnside's first collection of poetry in four years, explores the charmed darkness between life and death, featuring ghosts from his mother and Arthur Rimbaud, as well as provocative meditations on institutions and personal lives. It is a profound and elegiac exploration of the human condition, marked by Burnside's own struggles with sleep disorder and near-death experience. Cressida Connolly calls it "by far the best British poet alive" and praises its concision and beauty.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 80 pages
Publication date: 05 August 2021
Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Learning to Sleep ,John Burnside s first collection of poetry in four years - from the author s mother,commemorated in an exquisitely charged variant on the pastoral elegy,to the poet Arthur Rimbaud,who wanders an implausible Lincolnshire landscape looking for some sign of belonging. Throughout the book,the powers and dominions of a lost pagan ancestry emerge unexpectedly through the gaps in contemporary life: half-seen and fleeting,but profoundly present. Behind it all,the figure of Hypnos,the Greek god of sleep,marks Burnside s own attempts to come to terms with the severe sleep disorder from which he has suffered for years,a condition that culminated in the recent near-death experience that informs the latter part of the book. Add to this a series of provocative meditations on the ways in which we are all harmed by institutions,from organised religion,or marriage,to the tawdry concepts of gender and romantic love that subtly govern our personal lives,and Learning to Sleep reveals Burnside at his most elegiac,while still retaining a radical pagan s sense of celebration and cultural independence. For my money,John Burnside is by far the best British poet alive... I read it over and over again,marvelling at its concision and beauty. Cressida Connolly, Spectator ** A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021**

Several ghosts haunt John Burnside's first collection of poetry in four years, Learning to Sleep. From the author's mother, commemorated in an exquisitely charged variant on the pastoral elegy, to the poet Arthur Rimbaud, who wanders an implausible Lincolnshire landscape looking for some sign of belonging. Throughout the book, the powers and dominions of a lost pagan ancestry emerge unexpectedly through the gaps in contemporary life: half-seen and fleeting, but profoundly present. Behind it all, the figure of Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep, marks Burnside's own attempts to come to terms with the severe sleep disorder from which he has suffered for years, a condition that culminated in the recent near-death experience that informs the latter part of the book.

Add to this a series of provocative meditations on the ways in which we are all harmed by institutions, from organized religion to marriage, to the tawdry concepts of gender and romantic love that subtly govern our personal lives, and Learning to Sleep reveals Burnside at his most elegiac, while still retaining a radical pagan's sense of celebration and cultural independence.

For my money, John Burnside is by far the best British poet alive. I read it over and over again, marveling at its concision and beauty. Cressida Connolly, Spectator

A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021

Weight: 116g
Dimension: 133 x 197 x 12 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781787332348