Donatello's Version [Paperback]

James Scully (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2007

These are post-9/11 poems examining such issues as the Holocaust, the prison scandals in Iraq, and other human rights violations.

Written as the war on terror morphed into an imperial war, Donatello's Version carries on the public poetry tradition of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Horace, Juvenal, Dante, Milton, Blake, and others. These poems arise from the premise that words matter, that the res publica (the human value that individuals in a community place above their own self-interest) also matters, and that the voice of the poet can make a difference.

In Donatello's Version, post-9/11 reality is re-viewed through Hamlet, Donatello's David, Lazarus, and Coltrane. Rather than being a poetry collection of answers, this is a poetry collection of questions, impasses, and revelations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Donatello's Version is a social poetry which arises not from opinionation and facile protest, but from clear-eyed witness." -- Richard Wilbur

"James Scully's Donatello's Version is essential reading...Scully's achievement has matched his remarkable ambition." -- Jon Andersen, The Café Review

"James Scully's fierce moral intelligence, poetic craft and grim humor are all alive and well in this long-awaited collection." -- Adrienne Rich

Book Description

These are post-9/11 poems examining such issues as the Holocaust, the prison scandals in Iraq, and other human rights violations.

Written as the war on terror morphed into an imperial war, Donatello's Version carries on the public poetry tradition of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Horace, Juvenal, Dante, Milton, Blake, and others. These poems arise from the premise that words matter, that the res publica (the human value that individuals in a community place above their own self-interest) also matters, and that the voice of the poet can make a difference.

In Donatello's Version, post-9/11 reality is re-viewed through Hamlet, Donatello's David, Lazarus, and Coltrane. Rather than being a poetry collection of answers, this is a poetry collection of questions, impasses, and revelations.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 103 pages
• Publisher: Curbstone Books (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931896313
• ISBN-13: 978-1931896313
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,067,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Scully was born 23 February 1937 in New Haven, CT, where he attended Roman Catholic grammar and high schools. His mother was a factory worker. His father, a glass grinder and shipping clerk, had immigrated to the U.S. from Clydebank, Scotland. Neither finished high school. He himself was a beneficiary of the post-WWII economic boom. With free access to a teachers college he found himself, with no defined or generalized expectations, in the unfamiliar world of middle-class culture. Absorbing and challenging in many ways, nonetheless as a 'second language' that culture-- lacking an authoritative presence--did not feel 'real' to him. His initial ambivalence toward it has never been resolved.

In 1964, with the support of a National Defense Fellowship, Scully earned a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. His first book, "The Marches," received the 1967 Lamont Award from the Academy of American Poets. Later, with a Guggenheim Fellowship, he and his family travelled to Santiago, Chile. They arrived during the first weeks of the Pinochet regime, which on 11 September 1973 had overthrown the Unidad Popular government and murdered its President, Salvador Allende ("Santiago Poems" 1975). Earlier and later he received other grants, including from the Ingram Merrill Foundation (Rome, 1962-63) and the NEA. There were translation awards--the Jenny Taine Memorial Award, and the Islands & Continents Translation Award (Denise Levertov was the judge) and the Bookbuilders of Boston Award for book cover design ("Apollo Helmet" 1983).

In 2007, during a brief, intensive turn through the former Yugoslavia, he wrote a journal recovering suppressed historical information and venturing candid, topical observations. This was published in Serbian translation. Azul Editions would later publish the original English language text: "Vagabond Flags: Serbia & Kosovo" (2009).

"Angel in Flames: Selected Poems & Translations 1967-2011" (Smokestack Books, UK) is the most recent of eleven books of poems. A collection of critical essays, "Line Break: Poetry As Social Practice" (1988) was reissued in 2005 with a foreword by Adrienne Rich. The many translations and co-translations include Aeschylus' "Prometheus Bound" (1975) with C J Herington, "The Complete Plays of Sophocles" (2011) with Robert Bagg, Latin American texts (by Roque Dalton, Teresa de Jesus, and others), plus anonymous Quechua texts or songs teased from Spanish translations.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The year's best? Maybe. Most important? Yes, indeed., December 15, 2007

By 

Richard B. Downing (hudson, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Donatello's Version (Paperback)

In his "Afterword" to Raging Beauty (1994) James Scully says, "I know longer write poetry." With Donatello's Version that is no longer true. Oh, Scully's back all right and none too soon. DV's poems will rip your head off. If you're looking for Odes, dig out your Keats (nothing wrong with that). But if you're looking for poems on depleted uranium, death by atomic bomb, boxcars filled with victims and victimizers (ie, us), Hamlet American-style, old women babbling about leaving the party that is their final home, and bombed out wedding parties, Scully's your man. And Scully needs to be your man. He doesn't just put his readers' feet to the fire, he makes us part of the fire. He makes us feel the heat, question why it burns and who...and who started each particular fire. And, most importantly, who allows those fires to continue and continue and continue to burn so destructively.

It would be tempting to call Scully's work Poetry of Witness (as a blurb on this page does) except witnesses are usually detached - spectators. You will not feel detached. Scully has no patience for passivity. You will have to deal with "those impossible dead/growing out of their deaths/into an army of trees" ("Qana"). When, as Hamlet did, you "discover [your] own hand in [your] own blood" ("The Hamlet Mess"), you will realize the point is not to wash away the blood but to do something about its being there.

(Special bonus comment: Start with Donatello's Version then the read Scully's necessary essay "Afterword: Culture War" from Raging Beauty: Selected Poems - and go from there. (And thank Curbstone Press for championing Scully's work.))