Natal Command (Phoenix Poets) - Softcover

Sacks, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226733432 ISBN 13: 9780226733432

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1997

Synopsis

Peter Sacks draws upon his life as an expatriate as well as upon his early years in South Africa, including his time spent in the military, to create a remarkably powerful book of poetry. At turns meditative and narrative, Sacks is unafraid to lay bare in vivid imagery his sense of both personal and historical losses, and his commitment to the works of mourning and of cultural repair. Even the love poems emerge from this book with the impress of both bittersweet aspiration and regret.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Sacks is the author of two previous collections of poems, In These Mountains and Promised Lands, and of the acclaimed critical work The English Elegy. He is professor of English at Harvard University.

Reviews

In this stunning third collection, South African emigre Sacks (Promised Lands, LJ 8/90) confronts the ghosts of two continents, finding them both viscous and vengeful. In the brilliant title sequence, we see "submission sliding into savagery": the memory of a Catholic school teacher fondling boys behind the desk or the child looking through his father's graphic medical books contrasts with military consciousness and views of the oppressed. Caught sleeping while on guard duty, the speaker is awakened: "as the bayonet found the nerve, pain jolting/ to my hands and feet. His boot beside the blade/ he pumped me hard against the ground." Because the vitality of Sacks's voice is built upon contrasts, shorter poems seem slight. They cover much the same ground, though the focus shifts toward love and grieving. Whether writing in long lines or the minimalist style of poets such as Cid Corman, Sacks displays that rare combination of skill and subject matter. This book is important for all collections and will, one hopes, prompt librarians to examine his two previous volumes.?Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226733432
• ISBN 13: 9780226733432
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 87