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Classic Rough News
With a half-dozen books of poetry published to date, Kenneth Fields distills some forty years of teaching and writing about poetry into Classic Rough News , a collection of fresh sonnets and sonnet-like lyrics that attests to both Fields's skills as a writer and the inexhaustible possibilities of the form.
Classic Rough News follows a skeptical, cosmopolitan, intelligent, poetic presence aware that its carefully constructed veneer could crumble at any moment. In poems that mine interior dialogue for the discovery of great truths, Fields conveys feelings of awkwardness, incompleteness, conflict, and insanity-all in finely crafted verse. Ironic and skeptical, the voice in these poems records the flux of the mind, ruefully acknowledging how easy it is to deceive oneself with mixed emotions. Fully mature and unconcerned about impressions, Classic Rough News is grounded in erudition and humor, revealing how tradition and talent can push one another in unexpected directions.
Classic Rough News follows a skeptical, cosmopolitan, intelligent, poetic presence aware that its carefully constructed veneer could crumble at any moment. In poems that mine interior dialogue for the discovery of great truths, Fields conveys feelings of awkwardness, incompleteness, conflict, and insanity-all in finely crafted verse. Ironic and skeptical, the voice in these poems records the flux of the mind, ruefully acknowledging how easy it is to deceive oneself with mixed emotions. Fully mature and unconcerned about impressions, Classic Rough News is grounded in erudition and humor, revealing how tradition and talent can push one another in unexpected directions.
83 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 2, 2008
I would say this is 3.5.
At first, it didn't enchant me. It was so-so. With what I thought was bland and trying too hard (e.g. "Wonder of wonders, new heaven and new earth!/And she was in it now...She didn't know/How, or exactly how. Her situation/Was questioning her, to say the least.").
But it was Billy that caught my eye first, one of Field's characters. It was the quiet, pensive Billy that had killed, and drank, and fought, and lost himself so many times. With his future so bleak and pitiful ("He prayed in his unbelief,/Then took his humiliation like the cure"), drinking himself to oblivion. My favourites of his were "Cutting His Losses", and "The Interior Castle".
The I started to appreciate Burton more, the erudite scholar (and another drinker). In "Under the Lamplight" he really did shine.
I never really felt all that close to Billie (another character involved in alcohol), unfortunately.
I appreciate the interweaving of all three through the abuse of alcohol and misery.
"Narcissus at Ninety" was spot-on and one of the best poems in the book if not the best (I'm biased with many of Billy's poems, though).
"The Hinge" was so painfully honest and beautifully written; it would have been a better and a more lingering end than "Poetry" was.
I'm considering buying this book.
At first, it didn't enchant me. It was so-so. With what I thought was bland and trying too hard (e.g. "Wonder of wonders, new heaven and new earth!/And she was in it now...She didn't know/How, or exactly how. Her situation/Was questioning her, to say the least.").
But it was Billy that caught my eye first, one of Field's characters. It was the quiet, pensive Billy that had killed, and drank, and fought, and lost himself so many times. With his future so bleak and pitiful ("He prayed in his unbelief,/Then took his humiliation like the cure"), drinking himself to oblivion. My favourites of his were "Cutting His Losses", and "The Interior Castle".
The I started to appreciate Burton more, the erudite scholar (and another drinker). In "Under the Lamplight" he really did shine.
I never really felt all that close to Billie (another character involved in alcohol), unfortunately.
I appreciate the interweaving of all three through the abuse of alcohol and misery.
"Narcissus at Ninety" was spot-on and one of the best poems in the book if not the best (I'm biased with many of Billy's poems, though).
"The Hinge" was so painfully honest and beautifully written; it would have been a better and a more lingering end than "Poetry" was.
I'm considering buying this book.
June 22, 2016
I read one of Fields' poems in a collection and loved it. Sadly, I only liked one or two of the poems in this whole collection. Seemingly deliberately abstruse and basically just about drinking and old age, I couldn't get into almost any of the works. Pity, but definitely pass.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews