SOURCE: A review of Permanently Bard: Selected Poetry, in World Literature Today, Vol. 71, No. 1, Winter, 1997, p. 157.

[In the following review, Kaiser asserts that class and language are the predominant themes in the poems of Harrison's Permanently Bard.]

With its detailed introduction and extensive notes, Permanently Bard, a selection of Tony Harrison's poetry designed for Britain's A-level students, provides an accessible overview of Harrison's poetry for any reader unfamiliar with his work. Comprising fourteen volumes of verse, twelve plays and libretti, and three television plays, Harrison's output is prodigious, but his work is much better known in Britain than elsewhere. This is perhaps because Harrison is a distinctly British poet, one whose central poetic concern is with a distinctly British problem.

Harrison's poetry, whether autobiographical or dramatic, circles around the issue of class and language. He explores how accent, slang, and jargon define class status and mark out the...