Translations from the Natural World: Poems
Even with a score of volumes and a king's ransom of literary honors to his credit, Australian poet Murray refuses to take words for granted. His latest collection is a forceful blend of formalism and experimentation, a test of imagination, ear, and tongue for both poet and reader. Framed by several intricate but conventional genre poems (travel narrative, epithalamion) is a sequence of 40 lyrics delivered in the imagined inner voices of nonhuman beings, from pig ("Us snored the earth hollow, filled farrow, grunted") to DNA molecule ("I am the singular/ in free fall./ I and my doubles/carry it all"). Mixing the linguistic reach of Hopkins with the eerie solemnity of Ted Hughes, Murray demonstrates that while "Nothing is apart enough for language," nature can never seem more alien than when cast in human terms.- Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, N.Y.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.