Marratide: Selected Poems

By William Martin

William Martin (1925-2010) was a poet of extraordinary vision and musicality. Thoroughly grounded in his native North-East England, its pit communities and industry, his song-like poems nevertheless traverse a vast geographical and historical landscape ranging from deep Celtic and Anglo-Saxon sources to the mythology and sacred sites of India, via a passionate political engagement that never limits song to mere rhetoric. He also drew on children's games, ballads and street songs in poems showing both political anger and a wider concern for a society losing its common ground, its rituals and rites of passage.

Marratide: Selected Poems brings together poems from William Martin's four collections Cracknrigg (1983) and Hinny Beata (1987) from Taxus Press; and Marra Familia (1993) and Lammas Alanna (2000), from Bloodaxe Books. Two comprehensive introductory essays by editors Peter Armstrong and Jake Morris-Campbell discuss the life and poetry of William Martin in this edition published to celebrate his centenary.

A QR code printed in the book links to archive audio recordings of poems read (and sung) by William Martin.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1780377460
• ISBN13: 9781780377469
• Release Date: July 2025
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"