The Double Reckoning of Christopher Columbus, 3 August-12 October 1492: Poems - Hardcover

Hyett, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0252018664 ISBN 13: 9780252018664

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 1992

Synopsis

Discoverer or conqueror? Hero or villain? Christopher Columbus was neither of the latter, and probably both of the former. Whatever else is true of history's most famous seaman, according to Barbara Helfgott Hyett, he remains an enigma, a figure of major historical importance whose very birthplace, ethnic heritage, and physical appearance remain matters on which scholars disagree.
Intrigued by the mystery that still surrounds Columbus, Hyett has written 47 poems that enlarge on the entries in his Diario, the journal he presented to Ferdinand and Isabela of Spain on his return from what he called the "First Voyage of Discovery." Prefacing each poem with an excerpt from this journal, Hyett provides her own "double reckoning." Endnotes explain some of the historical details in the record.
She finds Columbus was a gifted seaman, but unable to rise above his own vanity or the racism and territorialism of his era. In light of the encounter between the Europeans and the native population and the subsequent genocide of the Arawak people, she does not celebrate the "discovery" but explores, instead, the meaning and ethical paradox of such events.
The Double Reckoning of Christopher Columbus is steeped in research. Hyett bases her impressions on two recent translations of Columbus's diary, her studies of medieval science and of all of the books Columbus read, and on her own investigations in Spain, Portugal, and the Canary Islands.
Hyett's first book, In Evidence: Poems of the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps (1986), was critically acclaimed for its historical and sociological insight. In the present volume, Hyett hopes to cast a new light on the explorer whose ultimate quest remains a mystery.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Hyett ( In Evidence: Poems of the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps ) here selects entries from the reconstructed log of Columbus's first voyage and provides a commentary in the form of a series of 20-line lyric set pieces. These lyrics have power and suggestive force, but are mistaken in their avowal to "renew the myth of discovery" by laying speculation on top of what seem (as quoted) to be seldom more than merest jottings. An erotic lyric on the "young widow" governing one of the Canary Islands ("Her breasts are cordoned and bound. / He is like haze waiting to lift as he slips / between two worlds") seems to be based on nothing more than her sharing the same name, Beatriz, as Columbus's mistress on the mainland. While something in Hyett's rich maritime imagery recalls Melville, there is too little myth to hang it on. The Columbus she raises is a morally aloof mystic and strong, silent type: "The ship beneath him pitches and heaves. But he / stands firm . . ." This figure contains no suggestion of the earthly ambition, egomania or plain vice that inhabit most modern readings of the discoverer's character, while the morally ambivalent conquest which that character prefigures seems entirely outside of this work's vision.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review:

Adrift
After Sunrise
All Night
April In Andalusia
At Anchor
At Gran Canaria
Becalmed
Before Sunrise
The Branch Of Fire
Breaking Down
Breezes
Cipango
The Compass
The Contrary Wind
Dona Beatriz
The Double Reckoning
False Landfall
Fixing The Rudder
The Flight Of Birds
Flying Fish
The Frigate Bird
The Girl
Gomera
Guanahani
High Seas
Imagining The Indies
Isabela
The Kill
Landfall
A Light
Morning
Mutiny
Proem: To Water
Rain
Rerigging The Nina
Sargasso Sea
The Stone
Sunrise
The Tern
Thanksgiving
To The Canaries
The Token
The Volcano
Weeds
The Whale
The Widow
-- Table of Poems from Poem FinderŪ

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0252018664
• ISBN 13: 9780252018664
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 136