Wednesday, February 07, 2007

An Anthology

Don't Ask Me What I Mean, edited by Clare Brown and Don Paterson is a collection of author's statements (actually excerpts from the back issues of the Poetry Book Society's Bulletin). Each author talks about the background for his or her book (e.g. Geoffrey Hill on King Log, Mercian Hymns, etc., or U. A. Fanthorpe on Neck Verse). Not overlong, the selections are usually to the point and specific. Included are "Almost all the major poets published in the U.K. in the last 50 years." There are in factr 120 poets from Betjeman to Fred D'Aguiar, but "the postmoderns will gripe at the ommission of thier stars." Indeed, but this is the only weakness of an otherwise fine and varied collection. For some reason a half dozen Americans are also included (Charles Simic, C. K. WIlliams, Merwin, Mark Doty and a few others). Why is there apicture of a Joshua Tree on the cover of this very and mostly English anthology.

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