The Collected Poems of Samuel Beckett

I have been a 'fan', if that's the right word, of Samuel Beckett since I first saw an undergrad production of Waiting for Godot in our local Dolphin Theatre (the old version of that theatre, which has since been remodeled). I've read the novels, watched BBC productions of most of the plays, replayed Endgame a hundred times (sheer genius), lectured on the subject, etc. But I have never had much time for his poetry. Probably my fault - a lot of poetry fixations start at a time when the poet or the poetry strike a particular chord with me. A human failing again; we are made of such tics. So, now comes my chance to see how the entire Beckett poetic works stand up - The Collected Poems of Samuel Beckett Edited by Seán Lawlor and John Pilling. Faber and Faber, 499pp. £30 - no doubt historically interesting, and that's enough to start with.

As this Irish Times article says, it is none the less revealing that he should have ended his writing career as he began it, 60 years previously, with a poem.