Gwyneth Lewis was made National Poet of Wales in 2005, the first writer to be given the Welsh laureateship. She is a bilingual virtuoso, and has published six other books of poetry, three in each of her two languages. Chaotic Angels brings together the poems from her three English collections, Parables & Faxes (1995), Zero Gravity (1998) and Keeping Mum (2003). Her modern epic A Hospital Odyssey (Bloodaxe, 2010) and later collection Sparrow Tree (2011) are published separately.
‘The fact that Gwyneth Lewis writes in Welsh and English is central to the issues she addresses…Lewis is not always easy to locate as a poet, and in part this is because of her originality and her refusal to easily fall prey to current trends or trendiness. Her poetic lineage includes poets such as George Herbert, Joseph Brodsky and perhaps most prominently, W.H. Auden. And this is nowhere more evident than in her ability to resolve through poetry complex philosophical ideas, and to make the creative marriages of words and ideas that rhyme allows’ – Deryn Rees-Jones, PBS Bulletin
‘She is one of very few poets to be equally probing and technically sophisticated in both languages…intuitively sensitive to the peculiarities of each’ – Ruth McIlroy, Planet
‘Intelligence and unflinching emotional honesty, which is too rigorous to permit easy consolation…instinctive formal ability and an engaging quirkiness of vision… sophisticated and immensely enjoyable’ – Caitríona O’Reilly, PN Review
‘Felicitous, urbane, heartbreaking, the poems of Gwyneth Lewis form a universe whose planets use language for oxygen and thus are inhabitable’ – Joseph Brodsky
Gwyneth Lewis reads two poems
Gwyneth Lewis reads two poems from Chaotic Angels: Poems in English (Bloodaxe Books, 2005), 'Welsh Espionage' [5] and 'Mother Tongue'. This film is from the DVD-book In Person: 30 Poets, filmed by Pamela Robertson-Pearce & edited by Neil Astley (Bloodaxe Books, 2008).
