A Chorus of Ears : On 'the voice of the poem'

Author: Denise Riley

Philosophy of language

Published on 25 June 2026 by PAN MACMILLAN (Picador) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 144 pages
178 x 111 | 0g

‘One of the most eloquent thinkers about our life in language’ – The Sunday TimesA Chorus of Ears is a series of essays on voice, lyric and the persona of the poet from one of our greatest living English poets. Denise Riley contemplates how a poet's public persona can hold more significance than their actual poetry in the modern literary world. She reflects on how prize culture can transform criticism into a beauty contest, and limit our ability to meet the lyric on its own terms.

What might be discovered, Riley asks, if we liberate the poem from the person of the author? From where does its own voice spring? In allowing the poem to speak, what might we hear?Including a foreword by leading poet and critic Don Paterson.

'One of the great poets of our time ' – New Statesman