Consisting of 100 parts, the line-count in this work arcs from one line in part I to 50 lines in part 50, and thence back down to one in part 100 with parts of equal line-counts making mirroring pairs. Like many forms, self-imposed or otherwise, Cronin uses this apparently restrictive structure to support an original unfolding of verse.
Consisting of 100 parts, the line-count in this work arcs from one line in part I to 50 lines in part 50, and thence back down to one in part 100 with parts of equal line-counts making mirroring pairs. Like many forms, self-imposed or otherwise, Cronin uses this apparently restrictive structure to support an original unfolding of verse.
is Australian poet MTC Cronin's tenth book and her second British collection. A compositional tour de force, the sequence consists of one hundred poems, the line-count arcing from a single line in poem 1 to fifty lines in poem 50, and thence back down to a single line in poem 100. Like many forms, self-imposed or otherwise, Ms Cronin uses this apparently restrictive structure to support a wonderfully original unfolding of verse. Ms Cronin's work has been attracting enormous interest in both Britain and North America, and this volume will reinforce her burgeoning reputation.
"Poets have always enjoyed close relations with oracles, and oracles are fond of dazzling us with numbers. MTC Cronin's new collection of poetry counts the mystery of life, love and literature up to 50 by addition of lines, and then proceeds to the full 100 by subtracting them. Throughout the verse is precipitously oracular -- filled with strangeness and yet abidingly concerned with everyday experience. It is indeed A Book of the Dead and a Journal of the Living. This amounts to a new departure by one of Australia's most admired younger poets -- an extraordinary vision overall." --Peter Porter
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