World Between the Eyes: Poems [Paperback]

Fred Chappell (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 60 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr (October 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807115932
• ISBN-13: 978-0807115930
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,231,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Debut collection a pleasure, if not up to later standards., May 17, 2004

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Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: World Between the Eyes: Poems (Paperback)

Fred Chappell, The World Between the Eyes (Louisiana State U. Press, 1971)

Fred Chappell is a poet who talks like a regular guy, or what a regular guy would talk like if he had a vast dictionary in his head and a pitch-perfect grasp of the English language. It should be no surprise that Lovecraft is one of Chappell's heroes, for Chappell has the same precision of language and revelry in the beauty of the word that Lovecraft did. Most poets who feel this way, though, won't admit it on paper; Chappell even turned it into a whole novel (the blissfully awful 1968 release Dagon, in which Cthulhu and pals come to backwoods North Carolina. I kid you not).

The shadow of Howard Phillips and his slimy offspring are still to be found here, in Chappell's first "serious" work; the poem "Weird Tales" is, as one could reasonably surmise, a love letter to Lovecraft. Alongside the pieces of quiet, atmospheric horror and the attendant amusements can be found a number of meditations on baseball, the obligatory kid poems, a few witticisms, and cleverly-constructed formal pieces. To call this a "first book," with all the attendant damning with faint praise that connotes, would be somewhat facetious. It's not that the work here is not strong (for it is), but that Chappell's stuff gets better as he gets older. His eye has sharpened, but it was certainly capable back in the day.

Excellent stuff. *** ½