Saturday, October 24, 2009

Rotimi Fasan serves us with another delectable dish - my other favorite reviewer, Ikhide Ikheloa, would say, scrumptious. Yes, that's his word.
Okay, I was saying that Fasan's review of Lindsay Barrett's collection of poems makes me wanna go get my own copy of the collection. Beautiful. Here are part of his review:

"Much of what Barrett has to say in his poetry comes by way of metaphors, many times veiled and oblique. The corollary of this is that the symbolisms of the poems in A Memory of Rivers tend to blunt the sharp edge of their aggrieved, if somewhat, mild advocacy. The anger of the poet is controlled, does not boil over and has the assuring ring of wisdom. This is a major achievement of Barrett's- the ability to weave words into images, make them say the unsayable and to disagree without being disagreeable. It is what makes A Memory of Rivers a worthy effort in spite of the apparent monotony of the images projected and the language employed."

I can imagine using Fasan's reviews as lesson materials for students of craft.
ENJOY

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