Paul Stubbs

The Icon Maker

View larger image

The poetry of Paul Stubbs presents an original and unorthodox re-evaluation of religion and human existence, powered by a visionary impulse which, in The Icon Maker, sees the principal theological players in a world 'beyond' religion called to account and made to face uncomfortable transformation into corporeal beings. Resolute atheist, jaded sinner, ecclesiastical man - all are the poet's targets, and in this powerful second collection, we encounter a poet working uncompromisingly with language, hounding it to keep it awake and to take on the unrefined materials of his imagination.

Read...

• List of contents
• Deathbed vision of Ungaretti
• Noah's epiphany
• Crucifixion (triptych, 1965)

106 pages
ISBN: 978 1904614 517 (pbk)
ISBN: 978 1904614 98 2 (hbk)
Published 1st July 2008

Quotes and Reviews

"...this is indeed a remarkable collection, original to the point of idiosyncrasy, tussling with language, much in line with Eliot's pronouncement that the poet 'must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force, to dislocate, if necessary, language to his meaning.' The result is not an easy or comfortable read but it is certainly a challenging and exciting one... He [Stubbs] takes on big themes, playing great earnest metaphysical games with religion and ways of perceiving the world. In this he resembles Philip Pullman in His Dark Materials. He is an ambitious poet of real originality."

— Matt Simpson, writing of Paul Stubbs' first collection, The Theological Museum (Flambard, 2005)

"Stubbs is one of very few living poets whose work I go back to."

— Alice Oswald

[Of Lorna Thorpe, A Ghost in my House, and 'The Icon Maker':] These are both very powerful books; they contrast in content, style and subject matter, but compare in their strength, originality and the sheer quality of the writing.

— Ian Pople, The North, Issue 42, Oct 2008

Paul Stubbs is a poet of the sacred; more particularly he is a poet of the absconded God, almost in the moment that the deity leaves the world. ...more »

— Ian Pople, The North, Issue 42, Oct 2008

Paul Stubbs wants least of all to reassure his readers. In his latest collection 'The Icon Maker', there are few cosy signposts, few satellite navigation directions saying where to turn next, few bits of paper dropped by the hare. ...more »

— Tim Liardet, The Warwick Review, December 2008

On arriving in Paris from the provinces and clearly faced with no other plausible reaction, Arthur Rimbaud urinated on the manuscripts of established poetasters and summarily destroyed the 'poetic' Parisian lodgings the Parnassians had provided for him. ...more »

— Will Stone, Agenda Poetry Magazine

The muscular lines, the moral seriousness and the passion for metaphysics in the poetry of Paul Stubbs are all reminiscent of the work of Geoffrey Hill. ...more »

— Keith Richmond, Tribune 23 Jan 09

Paul Stubbs writes like nobody, but nobody in contemporary British poetry. For influences you have to go to European poets like Georg Trakl, Gottfried Benn, Janos Pilinszky, Ungaretti, all of whom provide epigraphs for poems in this his second collection. ...more »

— Matt Simpson, Stride Magazine, 2008.

Reader reviews

You can read 3 reader reviews of this book.
» Add your own review