In the wake of his father's death, the speaker in Raymond Antrobus' The Perseverance travels to Barcelona. In Gaudi's Cathedral, he meditates on the idea of silence and sound, wondering whether acoustics really can bring us closer to God. Receiving information through his hearing aid technology, he considers how deaf people are included in this idea. "Even though," he says, "I have not heard / the golden decibel of angels, / I have been living in a noiseless / palace where the doorbell is pulsating / light and I am able to answer."
The Perseverance is a collection of poems examining a d/Deaf experience alongside meditations on loss, grief, education, and language, both spoken and signed. It is a book about communication and connection, about cultural inheritance, about identity in a hearing world that takes everything for granted, about the dangers we may find (both individually and as a society) if we fail to understand each other.
In the wake of his father's death, the speaker in Raymond Antrobus' The Perseverance travels to Barcelona. In Gaudi's Cathedral, he meditates on the idea of silence and sound, wondering whether acoustics really can bring us closer to God. Receiving information through his hearing aid technology, he considers how deaf people are included in this idea. "Even though," he says, "I have not heard / the golden decibel of angels, / I have been living in a noiseless / palace where the doorbell is pulsating / light and I am able to answer."
The Perseverance is a collection of poems examining a d/Deaf experience alongside meditations on loss, grief, education, and language, both spoken and signed. It is a book about communication and connection, about cultural inheritance, about identity in a hearing world that takes everything for granted, about the dangers we may find (both individually and as a society) if we fail to understand each other.
Raymond Antrobus was born in Hackney, London, to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is the author of To Sweeten Bitter, The Perseverance, and All The Names Given. He was awarded the 2017 Geoffrey Dearmer Prize (judged by Ocean Vuong) for his poem 'Sound Machine'. In 2019 he became the first poet to be awarded the Rathbones Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre. Other accolades include the Ted Hughes Award, the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, and a Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award. All The Names Given was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize, and several of his poems were added to the GCSE syllabus in 2022. His picture books for children are published by Walker Books (UK) and Candlewick Press (US). Antrobus is an advocate for several D/deaf charities, including DeafKidz International and the National Deaf Children's Society. He divides his time between England and New Orleans.
Clear, unflinching. . . . We expand our comprehension of humanness
in encountering these poems, and recognize the limits of language
that is only spoken and heard--The Perseverance is language
embodied and utterly present.-- "Orion Magazine, Khadijah Queen
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The Perseverance relates Antrobus's experiences of being biracial
and d/Deaf in sharp and beautiful poems. . . . These poems are
expressive and beautiful and will leave readers thinking
differently about sound and silence.-- "BuzzFeed"
Raymond Antrobus's compelling debut, The Perseverance, confronts
deeply rooted prejudice against deaf people.-- "The Guardian"
The Perseverance is an insightful, frank and intimate rumination on
language, identity, heritage, loss and the art of communication. .
. . These are courageous autobiographical poems of praise,
difficulties, testimony and love.--Malika Booker, author of Pepper
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