In these lectures given at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Constantine discusses the chief end and means of poetry: a lively and effective language. Translation Is Good For You, drawing mainly on Keats, considers translation as a way to a poetic identity and a language of one's own. Use and Ornament looks at the particular case of Brecht. Poetry of the Present is largely concerned with Walt Whitman and D.H. Lawrence. It discusses the ambition of free verse to convey the abundance and quickness of life in the truest (liveliest) way.
Used availability for David Constantine's A Living Language