WITH A FOREWORD BY FRANK KERMODE
Henry Reed (1914-86) is most familiar as the author of 'The Naming of Parts', the best-loved and most anthologised poem of the Second World War. He was a poet of much greater scope than that: in addition to publishing A Map of Verona, his 1946 collection, he was a fine translator, particularly from the Italian, and wrote acclaimed radio plays, including an ambitious adaptation of Moby-Dick and a series of six plays featuring his comic creation Hilda Tablet. On his death he left a sheaf of uncollected poems that had appeared in magazines or were in manuscript. These, together with all Reed's published work, a group of translations and a selection of songs from the radio plays, make up this Collected Poems. Jon Stallworthy, poet, critic and biographer of Wilfred Owen, has included a biographical and critical introduction to this profound, witty and humane poet.
Cover image 'Troops Resting' (detail) by Edward Ardizzone. Crown copyright, reproduced by permission of the Imperial War Museum.