Customer Reviews

Swan Electric

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

April Bernard is not new to poetry. Swan Electric, her latest book of poems, follows two previous collections of poetry and a novel. But Swan Electric is a work standing on its own. It is a soulful purveyor of everyday humanity's many schismatic sides. The reader does not have to know Bernard's previous styles of writing in order to understand Swan Electric, but understanding the book is certainly difficult. The heart of Bernard's difficulty exists in finding out just what that the book's statements and meanings are. While the messages are often invisible at first glance, Bernard stylistically links her poems together through arcing thematic patterns. The specific structure of the book, the division into four sections, helps the reader to understand the self and the world around the self.
The book's first section is a series of Bernard's "Dishevelled Sonnets." Most of these poems are loosely based on the Shakespearean sonnet, though by the end of the section, as seen in "Music through the Ceiling," the form has dissipated almost entirely. The metaphoric erosion of form is reflected through the poems' speakers. In the first poem, "See It Does Rise," the speaker retorts purposefully that what may not have been believed should now be believed; however, by the end the speaker is apathetic. The following poem, "Tatters," combines a similar reactionary stance with a burst of feminine pride. In "Dome," Bernard's speaker portrays moody solidarity. The poems of the first section find aid and power in nature, and have focuses on character, voice, and direction, and independence. Yet the final two poems cover up all previous forcefulness and aggression with self-pity, grace, and a focus on the delicate.
The second section, "Song of Yes and No," takes place in New York City, locale seemingly much more comfortable. The poems' speakers are more impersonal, and their interaction with others is more inclusive and positive. While some of the poems are more explicitly related to city life than others, the focus on nature from the first section is nowhere in sight. Bernard frequently references technology, man-made environments, and unnatural constructs. These themes serve as structures that pin the second set of poems together. There are no more cries to forms of the past, like the sonnet. Instead there are poems like "Dial-an-Edict," which rely on the speaker being a part of a group. Bernard uses the second section to show the benefits and social functions of the city. Even if the dark flaws of humans subtly creep into each poem, the city life of the second section serves as a positive theme. The second section juxtaposes the first section's independence and isolation.
The unnamed third section in Swan Electric transforms the first two sections' ambiguously personal and impersonal emotions into a tour de force of uncovered personality. The poems revert back to the independence of the sonnets, but are blunt, radiant, and much more electrifying than what has come before. The third section's speakers are the most bold and unruly, most disorderly and acidic, yet the most true and authentic. These poems represent a truly swan-like energy.
In the poem "Sport," Bernard pairs the idea of pleasure with drowning, an act selfish yet independent. The poem "Although Many Things Make Me Nervous and Sad" is a response to the personal shame of physical play with a man. The poems rise up and show the swan's fierce capability of independent roaring. The speakers are no longer reflecting; instead, they are acting. The speakers have changed through previous circumstances and are actively seeking outcomes instead of merely understanding what has already happened. While the speakers in "Not Rome" and "Go Between" contradictorily leave their cries, their statements, unfinished and inconclusive, this technique reveals that Bernard's complexity still exists. The third section alone does not have all of the solutions to human character.
In the fourth and final section of Swan Electric, "Eidetica," Bernard presents a series of influential visual characters. A large crow, Jimmy Stewart, the dancing bear of Captain Kangaroo, a dead brother, Miriam Makeba, a tree, and of course the book's iconic swan are some of the symbolic figures that serve as symbols of truth for the speakers of these poems . All of these figures play into the inspiration of each poem, and transfer of ideas, truth, and knowledge. Noticeably these figures are both human and nonhuman, both natural and man-made. Just as the poem "Blake and Snake" indicates a level of playfulness through basic human-animal interaction, the poem "Dead Brother" reveals levels of non-comfort and angst. "The Women Who Won't Appear" brings forth past calls to the feminist voice, and the last two poems, "White Tree" and "Coda: Swan Electric" are a call to the nature and assertiveness of the earlier poems.
The fourth section is a full-circle romp that culminates all the earlier poems into a spell-binding portrayal of basic human existence. On its own, the fourth section is almost too much to handle, an overflow, but knowing the rise and fall of themes throughout the previous sections of the book allow the fourth section to operate as a key to lock and unlock all the previous poems. The fourth section serves as a golden mean, a ruler or balance between the confinement of the nonsocial and social behavior of the first sections, and the complete explosion of the third sections. With the containment of poems containing both low and high levels of energy, "Eidetica" is the harmonious conclusion to Bernard's arcing book.
In the end, the intricacies of structure within Swan Electric may seem convoluted and overly difficult. For some, Bernard's poems might call out to the reader's independence and individual sense of power. For others, the book may appear as a series of abstract puzzles confused through both language and imagery. The ability to cause ease and disdain is Bernard's most significant strength. Sometimes the speakers of Bernard's poems make their themes, their fears and desires, difficult to know and understand. Sometimes the speakers' energetic display of themes is easy to grasp. But the combination of both types of poems serves as a calling for Bernard's beastly nature. By the end of the book, the swan metaphor comes to life and serves as the basis for getting to know her poems, whether the reader enjoys them or not, understands them or not. The poems represent electric as beauty and comfort, but also represent electric as warning and uneasiness.

I have been lucky enough to take classes with April Bernard (she teaches at my college--Bennington) and her passion for language is as evident in the classroom as it is in her writings. This is a must read for anyone who loves language and/or for anyone who wants to be a writer.

Amazon's editorial review says this is her 2nd collection of poems, but it's her 3rd, the first 2 in order being Blackbird Bye-Bye & Psalms. April Bernard's language in this collection is ambitious & saturated with the modern world in melancholy, poetic experiments, & themes. April Bernard is a fantastic poet, very knowledgeable. Since you've gotten to the point of reading this review, you should just buy the book already.