Poems Of J.V. Cunningham
Cunningham's (1911-1985) precisely bitter epigrams deserve more admirers. This gathering of all his verse returns to print such barbed, impregnable accomplishments as this poem (quoted whole): "Time heals not: it extends a sorrow's scope / As goldsmiths gold, which we may wear like hope." Like Ben Jonson's, Cunningham's best lines often state his moral or stylistic goals: "The classic indignation, / The sullen clarity / Of passions in their station, / Moved by propriety." Other favorite topics are regret, epistemology, bad books, theology, alcohol, and sex. (The lesser poems simply condemn, or resent, or become dirty jokes.) Epigrams state rules, clarify, generalize and show impersonal authority; Cunningham's parched, self-suspicious intelligence fit such ends, and formed his "plain style"-- "Savage, direct and bitten, / Not pitying and unclean." Like the diamonds used as drill bits, Cunningham's rigorously specialized verses are harder and clearer than what they attack, pointed, unornate, small-scale, useful, and valuable.Copyright © 1996, Boston Review. All rights reserved.--From The Boston Review--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.