Book description
'This is not a play. This is a poem in several registers, set at
night on the Severn Estuary. Its subject is moonrise, which happens
five times in five different forms: new moon, half moon, full moon, no
moon and moon reborn. Various characters, some living, some dead, all
based on real people from the Severn catchment, talk towards the
moment of moonrise and are changed by it. The poem, which was written
for the 2009 festival of the Severn, aims to record what happens when
the moon moves over us - its effect on water and its effect on
voices.' Alice Oswald A Sleepwalk on the Severn is a poem for several
voices, set at night on the Severn Estuary. Its subject is moonrise,
which happens five times in five different forms: new moon, half moon,
full moon, no moon and moon reborn. Various characters, some living,
some dead - all based on real people from the Severn catchment - talk
towards the moment of moonrise and are changed by it. Commissioned for
the 2009 festival of the Severn, Alice Oswald's breathtakingly
original new work aims to record what happens when the moon moves over
the sublunary world: its effect on water and its effect on language.
Alice Oswald lives in Devon and is married with three children. Dart,
her second collection, won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002. Her third
collection, Woods etc, was a Poetry Book Society Choice and was
shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection and the T. S.
Eliot Prize. A Sleepwalk on the Severn appeared in 2009, as did Weeds
and Wild Flowers, her collaboration with the artist Jessica Greenman.
