SeaManShip

Bantock Gavin

"SeaManShip" is an extraordinary and challenging poem. The "Sea" of the title is a symbol of the natural world, "Man" represents human feelings and intellect, and "Ship" signifies the artificial or man-created.

By turns rhapsodic and incantatory, the poem is loosely based on the structure of a computer manual. The author writes of it that "SeaManShip" charts the struggles of a man, perhaps an overly romantic one, forced to face reality and come to terms with the chaos and confusions of the modern world".

About the Author

Gavin Bantock, born in England in 1939, wrote his long poem "Christ" (1965) while at New College, Oxford. It won the Richard Hillary Award for 1964 and the Poetry Society's Award in 1966. Since 1969, when he received an Eric Gregory Award, he has lived in Japan, where he taught English and drama at Reitaku University. He was awarded third prize in the 1998 Arvon Foundation International Poetry Competition. His books include "A New Thing Breathing" (1969), "Anhaga" (Anglo-Saxon translations, 1972), "Eirenikon" (1972), "Dragons" (1979), "Just Think of It" (2002) and "SeaManShip" (2003).

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