The first Felix Dennis poem I looked at, The Server, about computers, is not the kind of work you would see in the pages of a contemporary poetry magazine. It’s a kind of tribute poem on two levels. It’s a tribute poem in that it’s a little like Auden, which he acknowledges. And it’s a tribute poem in the sense that Björn Again are an Abba tribute band.

It makes some interesting moves and is quite entertaining, but doesn’t bear critical scrutiny. Most contemporary poets know that every syllable of their work counts. If you take his lines about e-mail “Bearing you news of a baby boy/ Bringing you misery, bringing you joy” — the second is empty. It’s just there to provide a rhyme for “boy”. But there are some lovely moments, and humour is clearly his strongest suit.

The second, The Caravan Moves, is an interesting little poem. I know he likes Kipling, but it reminds me more of Housman, especially with its ideas of mortality and whether we are capable of grieving properly. Or even Hardy.

What stands out most is that Felix is not working with current speech patterns. For instance, the first line of The Haunted, “When I was but a child”, sounds like someone remembering what poetry used to be like. But when Kipling and Housman were writing, their work had a relationship with the way people talked; this doesn’t. Also you don’t see phrases like his “angry chairs” much these days, although it would be a good name for a neo-punk band. And rhymes like “years” and “tears” are much overused. But these are technical points and I can see it would work for many people.

Felix’s material reads like poetry from a bygone age, when the poet was an aristocrat of the language. There is a declamatory style. I think these days poets work from within the language rather than above it. The danger of working in his style is that it leads to old- fashioned sentiments.

On the other hand, I’m not surprised that Felix has turned to poetry after a life trauma. Just about everybody I know has written a poem at some point in their lives. It’s difficult to put an opera on, but anyone can get hold of a pen. I think poetry still appeals for that reason.

One unusual thing about Felix’s book is that it appears to have been written to be read aloud (by him). Most contemporary poetry is written as text and hopes to succeed on the page. By contrast, this book is almost like a souvenir of a reading. It strikes me that his reading voice is more important than his writing voice.

Overall, I think Felix’s writing shows a wilful, almost bloody-minded ignorance of contemporary writing. However, he does what he does — and that clearly works for a large number of people. I would hope the poetry world is broad enough to encompass him. And I hope if we met (in Mustique, preferably), we could buy each other a drink.

Simon Armitage’s Universal Home Doctor is published by Faber & Faber. See www.simonarmitage.co.uk. He will take part in Poetry International at the Royal Festival Hall, London SE1, on October 30

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