{"product_id":"poems-before-and-after","title":"Poems Before And After","description":"\u003cp\u003eMiroslav Holub was the Czech Republic''s most important poet, and also one of her leading immunologists. His fantastical and witty poems give a scientist''s bemused view of human folly and other life on the planet. Mixing myth, history and folktale with science and philosophy, his plainly written, sceptical poems are surreal mini-dramas often pivoting on paradoxes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePoems Before \u0026amp; After\u003c\/em\u003e covers thirty years of his poetry. \u003cem\u003eBefore\u003c\/em\u003e are his poems from the fifties and sixties, poems written before the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia: first published in English in his Penguin \u003cem\u003eSelected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e (1967) and in Bloodaxe''s \u003cem\u003eThe Fly\u003c\/em\u003e (1987), with some additional poems. \u003cem\u003eAfter\u003c\/em\u003e are translations of his later poetry, all written after 1968, including not only those from his two Bloodaxe editions, \u003cem\u003eOn the Contrary\u003c\/em\u003e (1984) and \u003cem\u003eSupposed to Fly\u003c\/em\u003e (1996), but also the entire texts of two late collections published by Faber, \u003cem\u003eVanishing Lung Syndrome \u003c\/em\u003e(1990) and \u003cem\u003eThe Rampage\u003c\/em\u003e (1997).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e''A laying bare of things, not so much the skull beneath the skin, more the brain beneath the skull; the shape of relationships, politics, history; the rhythms of affections and disaffection; the ebb and flow of faith, hope, violence, art'' - Seamus Heaney\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e''Miroslav Holub is one of the half dozen most important poets writing anywhere'' - Ted Hughes\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e''One of the sanest voices of our time'' - A. Alvarez\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e''He is a magnificent, astringent genius and this volume sings with an oblique and cutting candour, a tubular coolness we must praise again and again'' - Tom Paulin\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57312086294910,"sku":"NW9781852247478","price":19.19,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781852247478.jpg?v=1778586399","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/poems-before-and-after","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}