Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2022
Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2023
The poems in Ephemeron deal with the short-lived and transitory - whether it's the brief,urgent lives of the first section,'Insect Love Songs',the abrupt,anguished,physical and emotional changes during secondary school,as remembered in'Boarding-School Tales',or parenting's day-by-day shifts through love and fear,hurt and healing,in'Daughter Mother'.
The long central section,'Translations from the Pasiphae',gathers these themes together in a blistering,unforgettable re-telling of the Greek myth of the Minotaur,as seen from the point of view of the bull-child's mother - the betrayed and violated Pasiphae. The familiar legend of the dashing male hero slaying the monster in the labyrinth is transformed here into a story of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary cycle of violence,power and the abuse of power. At the centre lies Pasiphae calling for her son:'They took him away from me/and they killed him in the dark,for years.'
Telling uncomfortable truths,going deep into male and female drives and desires,our most tender and vulnerable places,and speaking of them in frank,unshrinking ways - these poems are afraid,certainly,but also beautiful,resolute and brave.
Publisher: Vintage PublishingISBN: 9781787333710Number of pages: 128Weight: 145 gDimensions: 198 x 132 x 10 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'A new collection of Benson's wise and vivid work is a real occasion... exciting...fully inhabited and multi-faceted.'- Fiona Sampson,The Guardian
'There have been a number of impressive reshapings of classical tales in recent years,and it is a bold poet who would risk comparison with Alice Oswald and Anne Carson,but Benson's'Translations from the Pasiphae'earns its place alongside their works.'- William Wootten,Literary Review
'There is a gorgeous,sunbleached quality to much of this writing,which stuns and scorches. It will be a pleasure to see which cycles of myth Benson takes on next. - Stephanie Sy-Quia.'- The Times Literary Supplement
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