The Third Mandarin by Frank Kuppner Carol Ann Duffy He was an elegist and

He was an elegist and a celebrator whose music rises again in these new versions

Cath Nichols

After his first gratuitous exercises when he was 22 and striving to commit himself to love poetry

Packed full of poems

The Third Mandarin by Frank Kuppner Carol Ann Duffy He was an elegist andFrank Kuppner's The Third Mandarin is made of 501 quatrains divided into five 'books'. Taken together, they collage an alternative Imperial China of drunk poets, grumpy sages, and sex starved emperors. Along the way Kuppner riffs on myriad forms, from love letters and prophecies to drinking songs and graffiti. As a storyteller, Kuppner sticks faithfully to the path of least significance. His is a poetry of things that might happen in a minute or two,