Simon Armitage: Poems is a collection of a few of Simon Armitage’s works. Armitage is an English writer who specializes in poetry, plays, and novels. In addition to the poems that are included in this work, Armitage has written additional poetry, two novels, four stage plays, and quite a few essays focused on Northern England. In addition, he is currently a professor at the University of Leeds, and he teaches poetry here, and in 2015, he was also elected to be the Oxford Professor of Poetry, a prestigious honor.
Armitage’s writing is characterized by a unique combination of wittiness and realism while simultaneously being serious and critical. Many of his poems are influenced by music, another one of Armitage’s passions, as he is the lead singer of The Scaremongers, a band. Not only is his poetry distinctive because of Armitage’s style of writing, but his translations, most notably that of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, are also highly acclaimed and well received.
Armitage is quite fearless when touching on more sensitive and serious topics. The first poem in this work, ‘I Say I Say I Say,’ is one of Armitage’s more serious poems that makes a deeper connection between the speaker and the reader on the topic of suicide. However, other poems in this work discuss topics of much greater levity, such as ‘I Am Very Bothered,’ which is a somewhat amusing account of a boy flirting with his crush, or subjects that inspire the readers to do more with their lives, such as ‘It Ain’t What You Do, It’s What It Does To You.’ Armitage’s varied subjects, tones, and purposes in his poems make this collection quite highly acclaimed.
