No cookies. No tracking. No advertising.
Front PageBusinessArtsCarsLifestyleFamilyTravelSportsSciTechNatureFiction
Search  
search
date/time
Sat, 10:00AM
light rain
16.4°C
W 15mph
Sunrise5:44AM
Sunset6:12PM
No cookies. No tracking. No advertising.
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
@stevewhitaker1.bsky.social
P.ublished 19th September 2026
arts

Poem Of The Week: Among The Talk And The Laughter By Norman MacCaig (1910-1996)

Among the Talk and the Laughter

Why does he fall silent?
Why does that terrible, sad look
tell he has gone away?

He has died too often.
And something has been said
that makes him aware of the bodies
floating face downwards
in his mind.


Norman MacCaig's haunted poem occupies a space between conversation and abstraction: temporarily losing sight of his surroundings, the narrator's gaze is drawn to the poem's subject, whose mien suggests an existential vacancy occasioned by terrible experience.

The poet's language is simple and direct, his tone is concerned, vicariously harrowed in recognition of the other's pain. The second stanza fleshes the bones of the first, yielding a glimpse of the interior of the suffering imagination unfolding in crushing silence.


'Among the Talk and the Laughter' is taken from Worlds: seven modern poets, edited by Geoffrey Summerfield, published by Penguin Books (1974)

Also by Steve Whitaker...
Understanding The Stone: The Green Parcel By John Challis
Poem Of The Week: Soirée By Peter Reading (1946-2011)
Children's Poem Of The Week: Catamaran Smile By Carmella de Keyser
From Ukraine To Kilimanjaro: Diana's Journey
Poem Of The Week: Hilltop By Ruth Sharman
The shortened address for this article is: newspub.uk/020yu
Search Results