Face of It
Roger Langley's poems explore perception. They take their bearings from forms as diverse as Renaissance hermeticism, a Greek vase, Rauschenberg's painting, Bottom's dream, a green beetle. Here the world may chime, like a building by Palladio, or disappear on a parting wave as in a film by Bergman. Surprise and truth come together. Things are both ordinary and vivid, distinct and universal. Langley's poems take delight in the sound and sense of language: for him, etymology can be revelation. In the interplay of word and object, each poem attempts an epiphany.
About the author
R. F. Langley was born in Rugby in 1938. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge and went on to teach English and Art History in secondary schools. He has lived in Staffordshire for most of his life, but the inspiration for much of his work comes from the landscapes of Suffolk. He has published pamphlets and his work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, most recently "The Harvill Book of Twentieth-Century Poetry in English" (1999). He died in 2011. He was posthumously awarded the 2011 Forward Prize for "Best Single Poem", for "To a Nightingale".