James Martin Fenton (b.1949) is an English poet, journalist, and literary critic. He is best known for the variety of verse styles that set him apart from the mainstream and the liberal political views threading his oeuvre.
Born in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, Fenton was educated at Magdalen College-Oxford, winning the Newdigate Prize for poetry. He worked as a political journalist, drama critic, book reviewer, war correspondent, foreign correspondent, and columnist. He was an Oxford Professor of Poetry 1994–99; his lectures were collected as The Strength of Poetry (2001.)
Fenton is chiefly a political and satirical rather than a ‘personal’ poet. In collaboration with John Fuller, he produced Partingtime Hall (1987,) sharply satirical poems. Fenton’s own collections include Terminal Moraine (1972,) The Memory of War (1982,) Children in Exile (1983) and Out of Danger (1993; Whitbread Poetry Award,) Yellow Tulips: Poems 1968–2011 (2012.)
Fenton’s non-fiction books include An Introduction to English Poetry (2002.) His adaptation of a classic Chinese play for the Royal Shakespeare Company is The Orphan of Zhao (2012.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by James Fenton
Imitation, if it is not forgery, is a fine thing. It stems from a generous impulse, and a realistic sense of what can and cannot be done.
—James Fenton
Topics: Imitation
It has to be displayed, this face, on a more or less horizontal plane. Imagine a man wearing a mask, and imagine that the elastic which holds the mask on has just broken, so that the man (rather than let the mask slip off) has to tilt his head back and balance the mask on his real face. This is the kind of tyranny which Lawson’s face exerts over the rest of his body as he cruises along the corridors. He doesn’t look down his nose at you, he looks along his nose.
—James Fenton
Topics: Face, Faces
One does not become a guru by accident.
—James Fenton
Topics: Role models
The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation.
—James Fenton
Topics: Poets, Poetry
The lullaby is the spell whereby the mother attempts to transform herself back from an ogre to a saint.
—James Fenton
Topics: Mothers
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