J. H. Prynne


Jeremy Halvard Prynne is a British poet closely associated with the British Poetry Revival.
Prynne's early influences include Charles Olson and Donald Davie. His first book, Force of Circumstance and Other Poems was published in 1962; Prynne has excluded it from his canon. His Poems collected all the work he wanted to keep in print up to the time of publication, beginning with Kitchen Poems. Expanded and updated versions appeared in 1999, 2005, and 2015.
Prynne was one of the key figures in the Cambridge group of Revival poets and was a major contributor to The English Intelligencer.
In addition to his poetry, Prynne has published some critical and academic prose. A transcription of a 1971 lecture on Olson's Maximus Poems at Simon Fraser University has had wide circulation. His longer works include a monograph on Ferdinand de Saussure, Stars, Tigers and the Shape of Words, and self-published book-length commentaries on poems by Wordsworth and Shakespeare. His essay on New Songs from a Jade Terrace, an anthology of early Chinese love poetry, was included in the second edition of the book from Penguin 1982. He has written poetry in classical Chinese under the name Pu Ling-en. In 2016, a lengthy interview with Prynne about his poetic practice appeared in The Paris Review as part of its "The Art of Poetry" series.
Prynne was educated at St Dunstan's College, Catford, and Jesus College, Cambridge. He is a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He retired in October 2005 from his posts teaching English Literature as a Lecturer and University Reader in English Poetry for the University of Cambridge and as Director of Studies in English for Gonville and Caius College; in September 2006 he retired from his position as Librarian of the College.

Poetry