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.

Sunday, 6 March 2005

"Dragons" by Matthew Francis (Faber and Faber, 2001)

"Dragons" is a poem where all 38 lines end in "dragon". "Invocation"'s 44 words all start with "w". "Spending the Night in the Temple" has 9 sections. Each section has 10 lines, the 1st having 13 syllables and each subsequent line having a syllable less than the previous one. The lines are organised into 4 stanzas - 4, 3, 2, 1 lines. And "Bath" is a villanelle.

I didn't care for the Winchester poems but even in those there's evidence that the poet's aware that he's using words on a page.

I especially like "Frog Chronicle" and "Twentieth-Century Dream"

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