The Documentary Drift: Lutyens, Cockington and Poetry

Kemp, Sam (2020) The Documentary Drift: Lutyens, Cockington and Poetry. In: Walking Bodies. Triarchy Press, p. 242.

Abstract

I did not set out to write a poetry collection about the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944). Influenced by Cecile Oak’s (2017) mythogeographical journey across South Devon in Anywhere, I set out to write a poetry collection exploring the pastoral contradictions of Cockington, a heritage village in the South West. But after an encounter with a collection of letters by Lutyens, who designed the village’s Drum Inn, the village soon became a fantastical theatre where his questions of language, craft and beauty could unravel. In this essay I’ll highlight the role that walking played in a bleeding together of a documentary and geographical landscape.

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