Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

D. J. Enright is one of the most entertaining poets around and I’ve always turned to his poems with usually-justified anticipation whenever I’ve seen his name in a magazine or anthology. He was, of course, linked to the ‘Movement’ group of the 1950s, but not for him the Little Englandism of Kingsley Amis nor the higher Philistinism of Philip Larkin. Enright, no doubt because of his foreign adventures, is cosmopolitan and alert to what goes on in the world generally, both in life and literature. What does connect him to the best of the ‘Movement spirit is his clarity. He is rarely, if ever, obscure, and irony is central to his poetic voice:

My mother’s strongest religious feeling
Was that Catholics were a sinister lot;
She would hardly trust even a lapsed one.
My father was a lapsed Catholic.

     You’ll notice how relaxed it seems, too, and this also sets him apart from quite a few English poets. I always have the feeling that they’re afraid to speak naturally and that concepts of what constitutes literature hold them back. As a result they often sound stiff and strained. But Enright manages to sound as if he’s just letting the poems flow in the manner of ordinary speech. It may be that his technique can only be described as functional, but on the other hand it could be argued that he has the best kind of technique, an unobtrusive one:

I’m not one of those simpletons who believe
That if only they had a large TV screen
They would be able to see the naughty bits

     That he relies a great deal on humour can’t be denied, but the poems are not just good jokes. They’re backed by a humanist philosophy and they often hold up to ridicule the pompous and powerful. The less-fortunate and those who fail to make the grade are looked on in a kindlier fashion, though fools of any kind are not suffered gladly. Not too long ago I heard a bright young poet describe one of his contemporaries as ‘very readable.’ It was meant to be a clever put-down. Well, D. J. Enright is ‘very readable,’ and I consider that a great attribute.