Contrary to what I normally write, which is Genre Fiction, I am indeed quite an articulate and well-educated member of the literary community. During my degree I undertook a single class for poetry, labelled Poetry and Criticism. The entire focus lay on the critique of works of poetry by people I had never heard of before.
The irony of the class was that I did better in it than anything else in my degree before or after. Maybe the world might make a poet of me yet?
This is a review essay for the class that earned me high marks, and the weird thing was, I did not find it particularly intriguing, but I suppose that worked in my favour in this case. I had a unique outlook on what needed to be done and the key thing with essays is to have that unique flair about your work.
I hope you enjoy my combined review essay of Jack Gilbert’s book, “Refusing Heaven,” and Jordie Albiston’s book,”Vertigo.”
The world of poetry and poetics is a massive field, filled with many different forms of poetry. Modern classics include poets like Philip Gross, Jack Gilbert and Jordie Albiston, and in an attempt to show just how this is so Vertigo by Jordie Albiston and Refusing Heaven by Jack Gilbert will be the primary focus. Now, it is unfair to compare different poets to each other, but for the purposes of simplicity, Gilbert and Albiston will be considered as equals. The first point that should be investigated and elaborated upon involves the style of each poet and how they develop over the course of their respective books. This involves a multitude of comparisons – Jarrell’s comments on the language of poetry will be considered, as will Hume’s comments on taste. That is only the first point, and will lead into our second of powerful poetry, with reference to Michelle Borzi and Robert Hass and what they perceive powerful poetry to be. Thirdly, what these critics perceive good poetry is in their minds is not what people should believe, according to Hume’s own perception on what he believes taste is. Fourth, we must investigate what our own perception on what good poetry is and the ultimate comparison between what Albiston does right, and what Gilbert does right and why each poet is right in their own mind and eyes. Lastly, we look at Wittgenstein’s commentary that art is merely a wild animal that has been tamed for the purpose of the artist – whether they are a writer, poet, painter, sculptor, musician or anything else – all art is essentially a tamed animal. Without proceeding to bore the benevolent reader to death, we delve into our first point – the fact that each poet has their own style, crafted specifically for their collective works.
Gilbert and Albiston can essentially be called modern-day classical poets even though they have a more contemporary language and style that many won’t consider classic in any shape or form. Yet, as we know from what Hume says in Of the standard of taste, every person has a wildly different opinion right down to the little details. To demonstrate, a single poem from both Albiston and Gilbert need to be carefully analysed to find the subtle stylistic nuances of each poet.
there was no shelter for our illegal / heart no home for our temporary /
soul | we were nothings nobodies / non-existent parts in the whole | /
you rounded us up you herded us / down to where the water was rising /
||: you made us walk the mile :|| / and filmed with your phones the /
flow of our tears and that fast and / fearsome flood | you know salt /
is salt when the deed is done and / it all comes out in the wash | (that /
this rivulet/river tastes just like the / sea and may be our ticket home) | /
hey! we hear your words | obey / your bidding as we hide new hope /
in our hem | then We-Who-Have / No-Love we get down on our knees /
you tell us that this is The End and / you have a name for us ||: Them :||
The above poem is Chorus #2 from Vertigo, and as Jarrell says when criticising A.M. Klein, poems should have at least some form or come entirely from a personal experience, but unlike what Mr. Klein did with his poems, the emotion and personal experience can be clearly seen in Albiston’s work. The emotional value and style of the writing adds to the effect that Albiston is perfectly achieving in Vertigo. Since we must look at dual poets, delaying too much on Albiston’s works would do no justice.
“And,” she said, “you must talk no more
about ecstasy. It is a loneliness.”
The woman wandered about picking up
her shoes and silks. “You said you loved me,”
the man said. “We tell lies,” she said,
brushing her wonderful hair, naked except
for the jewelry. “We try to believe.”
“You were helpless with joy,” he said,
“moaning and weeping.” “In the dream,” she said,
“we pretend to ourselves that we are touching.
The heart lies to itself because it must.”
This poem is Naked Except for the Jewelry from Jack Gilbert’s Refusing Heaven, and it is a perfect example of why many people find it hard to appreciate poetry in any shape or form. The words, for all their simplicity, hide the true meaning behind the words Gilbert has on the page. This is the principal behind Jarrell’s criticism of Klein, that his words have no meaning and he wasn’t there to experience what he is writing about. With both Albiston and Gilbert, we get a sense that they experienced what they have written their poems about, even though on the surface they seem simple. However, this is what makes Poetry such a unique art medium and what can lead to it being powerful.
Michelle Borzi, in her reviews of works by Fahey and Tredinnick, points out the difference between natural flowing poetry and forced poetry. To bring this idea to both Gilbert and Albiston allows us to delve deeper into the meaning of their poems.
an iceberg on fire in the rain | shouting
out to me over his pain Help me! Into
your heart! | I melted myself one night
The above three lines, from Amoroso, demonstrate what Borzi is trying to hammer into our heads – the words and the flow of those words give us a sense of a natural flow. With the dialogue fully italicised, the reader can immerse themselves in the poem, envisioning themselves in the situation that Albiston wants us as the reader to be in.
I look up when I hear a goat hurt far down
the valley and discover the sea
exactly the same blue I used to paint it
with my watercolors as a child.
So what, I think happily. So what!
More Than Sixty from Gilbert uses a different style in an attempt to achieve that natural flow, but it does not achieve the effect that makes it powerful poetry. For starters, it seems just a little too personal to properly engage a reader into the world Gilbert wants the reader to experience. Hass says of James Wright that a few of his lines of poetry don’t seem like they are written by the poet, but rather someone who noticed said poet, and this is what it feels like when reading a fair amount of the poems of Gilbert – that we are not reading the words of the poet, but the words of someone else. As we know though, every person has their own perception on what good poetry is, right down to small details.
Sentiment and reason form the basis of David Hume’s definition of taste – if people rely more on sentiment when judging and reading poetry, then at the surface they seem to agree, but the finer details show that they wildly vary. Based on what Jarrell, Borzi, Hume and Hass say in their criticisms, we can determine if they would universally like Albiston and Gilbert’s poetry, while pointing out things that they would dislike. Starting with Albiston, take the following lines from Chorus #15:
we went to the village
doctor | to heal our
civilised heart | there
were billions of us in
millions of queues but
the good doctor worked
very fast | she raised
her hand! as though we
If we look at what Jarrell says of Klein and the simple nature, as if a retelling of what may have happened, then we can assume Jarrell would enjoy Albiston’s poems, seeing as Albiston has written her poems in a more personal, immediate style that come from a personal experience. The beautiful nature of the lines, the flowing nature of how they work fit well with what Borzi calls powerful poetry, a stylistic approach to the lines on the page. Yes, Albiston writes poems like music, but that is the beauty of these poems in Vertigo, they are seemingly directed in how they are written. Hass looks for poets writing as if they are a poet, and so Albiston writes like a poet which would please Hass. Each line and word sounds like it came from a poet, each carefully selected and chosen for the effect they give off. This supports Hume’s argument – universally we agree that it is good, but the details distinguish us – Jarrell with his personal and immediate style; Borzi with the style of the poems written down and Hass for the choice of words and the perspective that those words have come from. However, not all criticism will be positive. Take the follow passage from Gilbert:
Are the angels of her bed the angels
who come near me alone in mine?
Are the green trees in her window
the color I see in ripe plums?
If she always sees backward
and upside down without knowing it
what chance do we have? I am haunted
by the feeling that she is saying
melting lords of death, avalanches,
rivers and moments of passing through.
And I am replying, “Yes, yes.
Shoes and pudding.”
The reaction from our critics would be mixed – Jarrell may praise the personal experience of the poem, but at the same time, he might criticize the poem for not being immediate and bookish. The words are verse-like in their nature, an immediate musicality not prevalent. The style is very bland, which is perhaps a displeasure to Borzi and the perspective presented could potentially be off-putting to Hass, yet it is not right to say that these would be the opinions based solely on the words of these critics. To properly get an opinion, Gilbert and Albiston do certain things right, which the other either does poorly, or not at all, and it is those points that are mostly involved in the comparison between the two poets.
Although as previously stated that it is not fair to compare a poet to anything but themselves, we often find ourselves in a conundrum when we focus on only one poet. To address this issue, we must, by virtue of necessity, compare two poets of similar eras to one another and see which does things well, and what they do that the other poet either lacks or has failed to achieve in their words. Take the following poem, Overture, from Albiston and read it through three or four or five or six times.
and so it goes ||: another man and
woman take leave of their mothers |
and stand at the start of an enormous
past | their hands held fast in each
other’s :|| it is the first time | there
is no path ahead (or none to be seen)
just a cumulus cloud hanging above
a cadenced canopy of trees | trees |
with all the earth below | there is fire
in the air and fire in the heart there is
fire at the core of the newborn soul |
she steals a sly breath | can smell the
fear rise like smoke from his tremolo
arms ||:another woman and man are
willing to love | neither believing
that either may yet come to harm:||
Now, let us break this down and see what Albiston does well. First, look at the flow and layout of the poem itself – a very musical quality which can be attributed to Albiston’s musical background, each line carefully planned out and given a precise direction as to what the poet wants the reader to do. Break that down a little further, and spot the oddly placed lines that do not look like they belong, which have again been meticulously and carefully placed for the maximum effect upon the reader. So we see that Albiston is good at the finer details of flowing poetry which overall adds to the effect she is trying to achieve. Looking deeper, we see the subtle nuances of good poetry – ‘fire at the core of the newborn soul.’ That line is absolutely beautiful in what it does, and it is what makes Albiston a near perfect example of a poet who can paint a perfect picture in the mind of a reader. However, there is one thing Gilbert does better than Albiston. The following 8 lines are from the poem Kunstkammer.
We are resident inside with the machinery,
a glimmering spread throughout the apparatus.
We exist with a wind whispering inside
and our moon flexing. Amid the ducts,
inside the basilica of bones. The flesh
is a neighborhood, but not the life.
Our body is not good at memory, at keeping.
It is the spirit that holds on to our treasure.
Like Albiston, each word of Gilbert’s is carefully placed for the maximum effect, but unlike Albiston, Gilbert is more descriptive, forsaking fluidity for this imagery. The lines themselves read less musically, opting for a more methodical, descriptive method. On the surface, this makes the poem more appealing to the standard prose reader, as the poem itself reads simply like prose. Gilbert is more focused on the surface details, making a reader want to read his works, and Albiston wants the reader to read her work for what it is – amazing poetry. If I may for a moment break formality, in my eyes any form of writing is a type of art, with poetry being the highest tier a writer can accomplish, due to the many complex nuances and techniques involved.
Wittgenstein’s work on the surface might be a mish mash of ideas, but the main idea he is trying to convey is that art works on an emotional level, pulls at your feelings. As demonstrated in all the above poems used, every single line of those pulls at the emotions one way or another. Albiston’s poems aim for the heart, while simultaneously making you think about their meaning, which in turn improves the effect they have on a reader in the end. Gilbert does this to a lesser extent, but his works still have a very strong emotional value for those that can see past the clunky, expositional exterior of his poems. As stated, it is unfair to compare poets to each other, but in Wittgenstein’s view that art is essentially a tamed wild animal, it should be said that Albiston have achieved a greater feat than what Gilbert has, taming a larger animal in a more concise, near perfect manner.
In our conclusion, we can determine that our two poets, Gilbert and Albiston, approach their poems in a different manner, in an attempt to please a specific audience they are aiming for. The wild animal that is Albiston’s poetry is aimed for those that want to read poetry as poetry, a near perfect example in almost every word put down. For Gilbert, he is aiming for a broader, more prose oriented audience as his poems are more viscous and expositional based, but this does not detract from what can be said of each poet. Both poets, although with their different approaches – Albiston with a personal, engaging approach and Gilbert with the broad spectrum – are at the top of their field, a master worker of word weaving, storytelling and poetics. Refusing Heaven and Vertigo are two must-reads for those interested in poetry, and for those that do not understand what poetry wants to achieve. Nothing else can be said of what each has done in their works but perfection.
References I used are listed below (shown as-is from the final draft). I am sure people are intelligent enough to find them with the information provided above.
Albiston, J. Vertigo (A Cantata)
Borzi, M. On Diane Fahey, The Wing Collection: New and Selected Poems, and Mark Tedinnick, Fire Diary
Gilbert, J. Refusing Heaven
Hass, R. James Wright
Hass, R. Lowell’s Graveyard
Hume, D. Of the standard of taste
Jarrell, R. These are not Psalms
Wittgenstein, L. Culture and Value
I look forward to sharing more of my past work with all of you, and I sincerely hope it helps you better understand my mind as a writer.
I also apologise if you thought that I WROTE poetry. Sorry, I’ve only written one poem and it stays under lock and key.
Fenrir's Lair 