Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Wednesday, 21 June 2000

"Selected Poems" by Ian McMillan (Carcanet, 1987)

Feels more like a "Collected" than a "Selected". He frequently uses repetition, often in a "Naming of Parts" way: the first mention being literal, the 2nd mention by context becoming if not surreal then at least metaphorical. Some of the poems ("Responses to Industrialism", "Form without Implicit Moral", "Loose") seem to me mere quirkiness. The juxtapositions in "How the Hornpipe Failed" and "The Old Agony of the Scalp" work better.

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