The Legacy of Louis MacNeice at the Pumphouse, Aldeburgh
Sunday 15 June

The Irish poet Louis MacNeice, idiosyncratic, brilliant and gifted, was an inspiration to many well known poets including Philip Larkin and Seamus Heaney, but another big fan is  Peter Carpenter, poet, critic and editor of Worple Press. He came to the lovely little studio theatre in Aldeburgh, converted from an old pump-house, to tell us about MacNeice’s work and life.

He read the poems he had selected in his intimate, quiet style and I realised that, like Shakepeare, the way to appreciate poetry is to see/hear it performed.

MacNeice’s poems have rhyming couplets and  repeated refrains and he was also keen on including  “lists” ...

    Pretzels crackers chips and beer:
    Death is something that we fear
    But it titillates the ear.

        (from Bar-Room Matins)

MacNeice, (1907-1963) wrote in an autobiographical yet slightly surreal style, and when you hear how his mother left when he was a child, of his Rector father and the anecdotes about his time working for the BBC in London, his  poems take on a new dimension.

The evening was organised by the Suffolk based Poetry Trust, in partnership with Aldeburgh Music as part of the 61st Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts. The Trust is one of the UK’s flagship poetry organisations, delivering a year-round programme of live events, creative education opportunities, courses, prizes and publications.

Rachel Sloane
June 16th 2008