"Polder" begins with extinction. The dust that existed from the first instant of creation is the dust to which in the end all creation will return, 'sinking under its weight'. The prose-poem 'Dust' was written when the poet was being treated for alcoholism and began the process of recovery. The collection ends with poems addressed to Torquatus, friend of the Roman poet Horace, a dialogue across centuries that defies the dust and looks back with mixed feelings to the drinking days of ambition, pride, and failure - and celebrates the poet's fiftieth birthday. In between are other conversations. In 2000 McCully moved to Amsterdam and began to explore the Dutch landscapes, dialects and culture that animate the second section of Polder with faces and voices past and present. In the third, 'Masterpieces', works by Vermeer, Rembrandt and other artists displayed in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, are engaged in dialogues that range from the quizzical to the confrontational. The poet tries to find firm ground in a fragile landscape reclaimed from the hungry sea, a home in a place that is not yet home.
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Draws on the author's own recovery from alcoholism, his move to the Dutch landscape and the work of famous artists such as Vermeer and Rembrandt in dialogues that range from the quizzical to the confrontational.
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"a keen fly-fisher, a translator of Old English poetry and an expert prosodist... these skills have miraculously combined so that almost every poem alights on the surface of the reader's mind with absolute integrity, judgment, and profound allure The Observer"
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781847770172
Publisert
2009-07-28
Utgiver
Vendor
Carcanet Press Ltd
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
135 mm
Aldersnivå
01, G
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
100
Forfatter