Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Donald Revell: Thief of Strings

Thief of Strings, Donald Revell (Alice James, 2007)

I read Revell in a kind of enraptured haze, I’m so taken with the odd combination of his poetry: a lovely, consistent lyricism, a mild, very American surrealism, an entraced eye for the unfolding details of the (especially natural) world, closely tied in with a genial piety. If Geoffrey Hill is a High Church Anglican Prophetic poet, & Susan Howe an Antinomian Calvinist poet, then Revell is a Franciscan poet. And that’s a compliment.

[75/100]

3 comments:

Archambeau said...

"birdie birdie, heaven heaven" -- I think that's Revell's own description of his work. Sounds Franciscan to me.

Norman Finkelstein said...

And the new translation of Rimbaud's Illuminations is likewise wonderful.

Unknown said...

OK, I'm sold. Or, rather, buying. Thanks!