Методические указания и контрольное задание №5 по английскому языку. Доржиева Г.Б - 21 стр.

of his new collection Out of Danger. Much of what Fenton had                 5. In the Seventies, this devotion took Fenton to most
experienced as a journalist in Indo-China is infused into the          points east - Vietnam, Cambodia and in 1986 to the Philippines,
poem like a bloodstain. “It's a far cry. / It's a war cry. / Cry for   where he became Far East correspondent for a newspaper. In
the war that can do this thing,” Fenton read - or rather sang. It      the late Eighties, he bought a prawn farm with a group of
was not just what he read, it was how he read it. Fenton               friends out there, and spent a lot of time in the remote
punched the air, spoke his lines as if they were burning his           countryside. He settled down to write many of the poems
mouth, and pranced around dramatically. It was the most                collected in Out of Danger.
electrifying stage performance I've ever seen - and it was just a            6. Fans will not be disappointed. The qualities of the last
poetry reading.                                                        volume – narrative skill, wit, a taste for fantasy - are on display
       2. “James,” says Christopher Reid, poetry editor at Faber       in abundance. There's also a new tone, a new preoccupation. At
and Faber, “is the nearest thing we have to a rap artist. When he      least five of the poems are achingly tender love lyrics.
reads, he doesn't mumble in the way we university poets are            Presumably these are addressed to someone?
meant to.”                                                                   7. “I wouldn't presume anything,” Fenton answers briskly.
       3. But James Fenton is not how poets are meant to be.           “The point is, with a lyric, you have to write about what you are
Poets are not meant to be rich. They are meant to be wild,             feeling, but also about what one generally feels in such
drunk, aesthetically penniless. Fenton, described as “the most         situations. That's what makes the poem, not a particular person.
talented poet of his generation” a decade ago, defies this cliché.     So I wouldn't presume anything at all if I were you.”
He is very rich, though his wealth has little to do with his verse.          8. Fenton was born in 1949, the son of a theologian. His
Fenton is rich because of a musical. When he was fired as              interest in English literature began only when he took his
librettist of the musical Les Miserables 1985, it was thought          school-leaving exams. He had written to W. H. Auden, and the
only fair that he should gain some reward for the work he had          poet visited the school. “He talked to us and we were absolutely
already done. His agent negotiated a percentage. Given that Les        tongue-tied,” says Fenton. “He was particularly nice to me.”
Miserables has played all around the globe, this must amount to        Auden's influence was decisive. When Fenton went up to
a very large sum of money indeed.                                      Oxford to read English, Auden would take him out to lunch.
       4. On the proceeds, Fenton has bought property. He owns               9. After Oxford, Fenton considered journalism. He wrote
a flat near the Adelphl Theatre in London and a farm four miles        to every newspaper north of Birmingham, but no job was
outside Oxford. The money has also brought him independence.           forthcoming. The poet Anthony Thwaite, then literary editor of
“When I work now,” he says, “it is only because I want to.” It's       the New Statesman, came to the rescue. Fenton had been doing
been a long wait since Fenton's last volume. The Memory of             monthly book reviews for him: when Thwaite needed an
War and Children in Exile was published in 1983. Acclaim for           assistant, Fenton got the job.
the book was led by another poet, Peter Porter; his view of                  10. His first volume of poetry was published in 1972.
Fenton hasn't changed. “He is a spasmodic poet, but also very          “The book was well-received,” says Fenton, “and I was
popular- it's the way he writes, with a mixture of poetic              convinced that I wanted to be a poet. But the point was: how to
language and real directness. But the important thing about him        live as poet? I didn't want to live off poetry and I didn't want to
is that he doesn't indulge himself in poetry every morning. He's       be a literary journalist. If all you worked on was books, and you
devoted to the outside world.”