John Heath-Stubbs (1918–2006)

This is a rich and varied collection by a poet who is completely in command of his material. Published in 1985 it is self-consciously English in its outlook, but not in a provincial and diminshing sense. It is ripe with allusions to European literature, ancient classical mythology and Biblical stories. In fact the book begins with the title poem which recounts with intelligence and insight aspects of the Fall. Adam, recently expelled from Eden, sacrifices his much loved ox (this is the immolation of the aleph - the first letter of the alphabet being derived from this, the first named animal). "Blood must atone" he says and once the sacrifice is done he has two visions in the sky, neither of whom is his friend without reservations. This is followed by the Cain and Abel story which culminates with the nomad Cain wandering "Within his loins / Abiram, Judas and the prodigal". This is a dark and sinister opening to what is often a lively and life affirming sequence: poems on Orpheus, Arthur, King Canute, Robert Herrick, St Francis of Assisi, Aeschylus and the Magi as well as Mittle Miss Muffet. Whether writing in the persona of these figures from history or adopting a wise voice of his own, Heath-Stubbs is always sure footed in diction and tone. There are a number of elegies and poems to celebrate birthdays (including his contemporaries such as David Gascoyne, Charles Causley and George Barker) and sequences on insects, poems on animals and birds. There is even a clever sequence on famous advertising images and product packaging: the one on Camp Coffee finds time for an ironic comment on empire, referring to the image of a Muslim servant offering a British officer a tray with a bottle on it bearing the same image as the actual bottle, something which creates an infinite regression or mise en abyme of bottles and labels and servants :
"The artist is confident, clearly,
Of the Raj contnuing not only in time, but also through
An infinity of contingent universes."
The book itself has this kind of effect - it will, I am sure, reward further reading and reflection.… (mer)