Dennis O’Driscoll is among the finest and most popular poets of his generation. New and Selected Poems shows him to be a poet of humanity and wit whose observant, rhythmically supple poetry is attuned to the tragedies and comedies of contemporary life. One of the book’s highlights is ‘The Bottom Line’, a multi-voiced and multifaceted portrait of business managers and bureaucrats.
Closing with a generous selection of previously unpublished work, New and Selected Poems – which follows Dennis O’Driscoll’s acclaimed Exemplary Damages, chosen as a Book of the Year by Seamus Heaney in 2002 – makes for a compelling collection, wide in its appeal and yet imbued with a distinctive and often startling world-view.