Matthew Sweeney


Country: Ireland
Language: English
Year of birth: 1952

(Ireland, 1952) studied English and German, and has lived for long periods of time in London, Berlin and Timisoara (Romania).
Sweeney has published ten collections of poetry, the most recent of which is Black Moon (2007). In addition, he has written poetry and stories for children as well as the handbook Writing Poetry and Getting Published (1996). He has also compiled diverse anthologies, including Beyond Bedlam: Poems Written Out of Mental Distress (1997) and The New Faber Book of Children’s Verse (2001).
In 2008, a parallel-text anthology of his poetry (in English with Dutch translations) was published by Atlas: Het ijshotel (The Ice Hotel), edited and introduced by Peter Nijmeijer.

As a poet, Sweeney has specialised in the genre of the ultra-short story, the bizarre or slightly disconcerting anecdote, which he invariably dishes up in supple, crystal-clear verses, with the composure of a born (and by now dyed-in-the-wool) storyteller. And yet it seems as though he is the first person to listen to his own creations with a shake of the head, a laugh, or even horror – not out of vanity, but with the naive enthusiasm of a bird-watcher who has caught sight of a rare species. For that reason he is never boring, even though the reader knows – perhaps better than he does himself – that each successive poem is inevitably going to be unadulterated Sweeney.
His parables are often hilarious and oppressive at the same time, sometimes shocking, sometimes simply fairytale-like and moving.
Sweeney’s “alternative realism” derives on the one hand from an Irish tradition which, more than the British, readily accepts a blend of seriousness and humour, the everyday and the supernatural. On the other hand, there is an unmistakable relationship with the close-ranked narrative art and dark prevailing tone of a certain German, or at any rate central-European, school. Sweeney studied German and, according to him, embarked on these studies “out of a love of Kafka”. But he also cites Büchner, Kleist, Trakl and Böll as writers who have fascinated him, alongside English-language poets such as Simic, Plath and Beckett.

‘Do Not Throw Stones At This Sign’, one of the two poems (the other is ‘The Compromise’) that Sweeney read aloud in 1998 during his first appearance at Poetry International, is one of his flawless classics. It is also emblematic: no matter how blasé and aloof you might assess his work to be, you fly into it with eyes open. Each stone on that beach is the potential scalp of a reader. Just keep tally, Sweeney.

Maarten Elzinga
Translated by John Irons