Books by Iain Twiddy

This is the first critical study to offer a sustained analysis of the theme of cancer in contemporary poetry. In discussing works by major poets, including Paul Muldoon, Jo Shapcott and Christopher Reid, Cancer Poetry traces the complex ways in which poets represent cancer, and assesses how poetry can be instrumental to emotional recovery.

Defying critical suggestions that the pastoral elegy is obsolete, the author reveals the popularity of the form in the work of major contemporary poets Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Paul Muldoon, Michael Longley, Douglas Dunn and Peter Reading. He outlines the development of the form, and identifies its characteristics and functions.