From Kirkus Reviews
This second volume by the William and Mary English professor incorporates some of the strengths of those poets hes written about in academic monographs, especially Robert Lowell, whose tragic sense of history is much like Harts (The Ghost Ship) own: incidents and figures from the past remembered from a somewhat altered perspectivethrough old dioramas found in a barn, the Lincoln Memorial covered in pigeons, or the reenactments of Williamsburg. The sad tales of Americas natives particularly haunt him, from Pocahontas to a drugstore Indian or a collection of Indian-Head Nickels. A sequence of stolid verses depicts the poets grandfather doing manly things at his Maine cabin (fishing, hunting), and then descending into the scattered memories of Alzheimers. Harts rough monosyllables often describe his boyish reveries in naturesapping trees, picking applesbut his puerile innocence is interrupted by scenes of cold historical consciousness: A school play (in the title poem) recalls Kennedys Cold War; a game of warrior braves is undercut by Vietnams atrocities glimpsed on the TV; and building a tree-house ladder with his father ends with an argument about the war. Hart also channels real and mythic voices from the past: Admiral Byrd in Antarctica, Sylvia Plath skiing, Icarus in descent. Altogether, Harts Puritan plainness and his love of simple things and chilly landscapes make for much welcome clarity. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
Alzheimer's
The Black Mitt
Blood Brothers In The Winter Marina
Byrd In Antarctica
The Catamaran
The Cemetery Association Map
Charleston
The Crash Site
Digging The Bomb Shelter
Dioramas Of King Philip's War
Directives
Driving Lesson
The Drugstore Indian
Easter Planting
Exiles In Williamsburg
The Farmhouse Antiques Shop
Godot At Sylvia Plath's Grave
The Gray Camp
Harvest
Hell Week
The Hermit's Gold
Icarus On Stone Mountain
The Ice House Studio
The Incubator
Indian-head Nickels
The Last Visit
Lincoln In Marble
Maine Wedding
The Map-maker's Epiphany
The Martyrs' Memorial
Mercy Kill
The Midnight Hydroplane Race
Mountain Burial
The Oracle Of Bees
Pan In Winter
Pocahontas In Jamestown
The Prisoner Of Camau
Psoriasis
The Quarry Drowning
The Rooster Mask
Rowing The Ashes Out
The Sap House Fire
The Starving Time
The Stolen Canoe
Sylvia Plath On Mt. Pisgah
Tai Tai
The Tree Ladder
The Yoghurt Shop
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
The Black Mitt
Blood Brothers In The Winter Marina
Byrd In Antarctica
The Catamaran
The Cemetery Association Map
Charleston
The Crash Site
Digging The Bomb Shelter
Dioramas Of King Philip's War
Directives
Driving Lesson
The Drugstore Indian
Easter Planting
Exiles In Williamsburg
The Farmhouse Antiques Shop
Godot At Sylvia Plath's Grave
The Gray Camp
Harvest
Hell Week
The Hermit's Gold
Icarus On Stone Mountain
The Ice House Studio
The Incubator
Indian-head Nickels
The Last Visit
Lincoln In Marble
Maine Wedding
The Map-maker's Epiphany
The Martyrs' Memorial
Mercy Kill
The Midnight Hydroplane Race
Mountain Burial
The Oracle Of Bees
Pan In Winter
Pocahontas In Jamestown
The Prisoner Of Camau
Psoriasis
The Quarry Drowning
The Rooster Mask
Rowing The Ashes Out
The Sap House Fire
The Starving Time
The Stolen Canoe
Sylvia Plath On Mt. Pisgah
Tai Tai
The Tree Ladder
The Yoghurt Shop
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
