Paul Christensen's Blog - Posts Tagged "poetry"

The Cycle of Nine by Juleigh Howard-Hobson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


'The Cycle of Nine' is an excellent poetic work dealing with cycles, darkness, rebirth, with its titular cycle of nine poems forming the centrepiece of a riveting collection.

The poetess Juleigh Howard-Hobson has a unique gift for feeling inside nature, evoking its inner essences. This is poetry for a time when secrets long hidden emerge into the light of dawn (as is now starting to happen), and even hints at a return of the gods ('Shield Wall').

Recommended for "those who strain to see the rays of the Black Sun."

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The Wanderings Of Oisin And Other Poems by W.B. Yeats

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Oisin journeys to three islands representing feeling, combat and repose, ‘the three incompatible things man is always seeking.’

(This is also mirrored in Yeats’ three ‘Rose’ poems, ‘The Rose of the World’, ‘The Rose of Battle’ and ‘The Rose of Peace’, and on a more mundane level in the labour movement - eight hours work, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.)

I don’t like the way the rhythm changes dramatically in the third section, like the time change in an ‘80s glam rock song; it makes the poem feel unbalanced. Other than that, an incredible work for a 22 year old scribe.



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Hogwash & Balderdash by Troy Southgate

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Troy Southgate is known for co-founding National-Anarchism and thus pissing off a lot of Marxist filth who had infiltrated the anarchist movement. However, he has also written this completely absurd collection of Neo-Victorian rhymes. The blurb cites Edward Lear as an influence, but I would say Roald Dahl's 'Dirty Beasts' and 'Revolting Rhymes' are a better comparison.



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Ion by Plato

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


The first half of this dialogue is good,
Dealing as it does with inspiration,
Magnetic power beyond the conscious ‘should’.
But then it makes erroneous equations,
Equating conscious knowledge with the pearl
Of true rhapsodic passion in a whirl.
Directed inspiration is a thing:
A mean, between blind groping on the wing
And uninspired and hollow artifice;
But Plato never says a word of this.



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W.B. Yeats: A New Biography by A. Norman Jeffares

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I would have liked to have learned more about his interactions with O’Duffys’s fascist Blueshirts, which must have been significant as he was writing marching songs for them.

Leaving aside such omissions, the book isn’t bad for an overall impression, including his complex relation to Irish nationalism.

‘As always, Yeats yearned for a society where all classes would share in a half-mythological half-philosophical folk belief.’ p.212.

That’s supposed to be bad???



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