Skirrid Hill

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There are actually two Skirrid mountains. Legend has it that Great Skirrid and Little Skirrid were created after the crucifixion of Christ. The mountain was so angered by the horrible event that it split and broke into two pieces. For this reason Skirrid Fawr is often known as Holy Mountain and also explains the Welsh name Ysgyryd Fawr which translates to Great Shattered. Owen Sheers has a gift for the epic sweep of narrative and for the lyrical evocation of passing moments. It is an unusual structural choice to preface a collection with an entire poem. Sheers’ choice to have this poem separated from the rest of the work suggests that this is perhaps a key or a map with which to navigate through the rest of the collection, similar perhaps to how some editions of Lord of the Rings have a map of Middle Earth before you even get to the text of the novel. Taken as a whole, the epigraph touches upon all of the important aspects of this collection. With the line ‘as we grow older’, Sheers is not merely thinking about people growing older, although there is plenty of this in the collection, he is also thinking about the development of society. He is referring to a principle that the French Philosopher, Charles Péguy summed up in the phrase le monde moderne avilit (the modern world corrupts everything).

What I mean by this is that Sheers could be accused, in making this link, of suggesting that women’s ‘magic’ is the bewitching effect of making themselves look more beautiful than they are, yet male ‘magic’ is in practical, useful things, such as harvesting eggs. A moving, striking, illuminating collection, vital and mysterious. Just as it should be.’ – Niall Griffiths To summarize, the speaker sets up his camera and joins his father in a picture. He stands waiting “for the shutter’s blink/ that would tell me I had caught this:” the moment that the two of them are attempting to share. He needs evidence, proof that they were here and they did everything they could to fix their relationship. He was educated at King Henry VIII comprehensive, Abergavenny and New College, Oxford. The winner of an Eric Gregory Award and the 1999 Vogue Talent Contest for Young Writers, his first collection of poetry, The Blue Book (2000), was shortlisted for the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Award and the Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection. His debut prose work, The Dust Diaries (2004), a non-fiction narrative set in Zimbabwe, was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and won the 2005 Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Award.That the poet feels that he ‘should have known’ what his father was trying to say by planting the oak highlights their contrasting personalities. Sheers is articulate and uses words as his livelihood; yet he accepts that his father is a quieter character, more likely to speak through actions.

We recommend parking at the car park in Abergavenny called Fairfield NP7 5SG. Please note that walks starting in the town centre will be longer and we recommend you plan your route in advance. In The Pardoner’s Tale, Death is said to be waiting underneath an oak tree – this echoes the oak tree that his father planted in the previous poem to mark his own passing. The United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.The sexual encounter of ‘Marking Time’ is contrasted here by a far less intimate and enjoyable experience. Skirrid Hill’ was published in 2005 by author and poet Owen Sheers. The name, ‘Skirrid Hill’, takes its origin from the Welsh, ‘Ysgirid Fawr’ which roughly translates as ‘shattered mountain’. ‘Skirrid’ can also mean ‘divorced or separated’ – the theme is the connotation of something broken down or split away — the natural deterioration and separation of people and things.