The Ballad of Billie Potts

Dark Irony in the "land between the rivers"

Like most people, I know Robert Penn Warren mostly from his masterwork, "All the King's Men". His poetry, not so much. This ballad was released in 1943 as one of the pieces in "Selected Poems". Here, the Ballad gets special featured treatment, and it is well worth a close look even if you, like me, are not necessarily drawn to the ballad, or long poem, form.

The story is one of harsh irony, being based in large measure on old folk tales. It is a meditation on the matter of innocence and guilt, and a telling story about what it really means to return home. That said, you don't need an analysis from me. Heck, I just got here myself.

Here's what I felt was the really appealing thing about this book. It's sort of four reading experiences in one. The first half of the book is taken up by a scholarly but accessible analysis of the poem by John Burt, who is a pretty big deal, (deservedly), in Warren circles. The other half of the book is devoted to the poem and to a large number of unnerving, vaguely surreal, illustrations that capture the darkness and despair and bitter truth of the poem.

I read the first pages of the Burt essay and skimmed the rest. I then read the poem fairly quickly and scanned the drawings. Because the poem made more sense and had much more impact as a consequence of my brief review of the Burt piece I went back and, with the benefit of having just read the poem, reread the Burt article more closely. I got much more out of it this second time around. I then turned to the poem again and read it again, more carefully, and with the benefit of Burt's insights and analysis. That's what I meant about this having been four different reading experiences, each more rewarding than the last.

The upshot? I enjoyed the Ballad. I understood it, and learned a good deal about Robert Penn Warren and about the type of craftsmanship that goes into a work like this. This was rewarding and satisfying and a fine reading experience, and I'm pleased that I somehow ended up with this. A nice and unexpected find.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

The Ballad of Billie Potts by Robert Penn Warren is an American version of an international folktale. Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic, and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry.

John Burt provides a detailed introduction to the story set, in this version, in Kentucky. The story itself is a folktale in Eastern Europe, Ohio, and points further west in the US. The introduction, itself, is longer than the poem. The background provided is excellent. This edition is also illustrated by P. John Burden whose almost three-dimensional renderings are haunting and very much add to the story. The dark works have an unsettling effect as well a constant reminder of doom represented by the crow.

The poem and the drawings represent the land between the water. This, in American lore, is the separation of the established East and the untamed West. The Potts' Inn represents the border between the East and the West. It is very reminiscent of the introduction to the TV series The Twilight Zone:

It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.

As the poem progresses the separation between wilderness and metropolis shrinks until the middle ground almost sits on the edge of a great city contained in something like a park. No longer wilderness in a true sense but a civilized version of the wild... a safe wilderness.  The Potts are not safe and prey off of weaker and richer travelers.  They are an element of danger in moving to the west.  It is city folk versus those people who live in Charlie Daniel's "Wolley Swamp" or even Hank Williams Jr "Country Boy" song.  Here Warren uses poetry instead of lyrics, but like lyrics, he repeats a refrain “in the land between the rivers.”

A haunting bit of poetry, folklore, and artwork complete a tale that will chill the reader.  The reader will be left to consider which aspect of the book is most important.  Is it the lore, poetry, or artwork, or is it perhaps a perfect combination of the three.  The introduction and a little US history of the expansion West will give the reader a near perfect picture of the Americanization of a folktale.  The story itself verges on creepy and has an exaggerated Appalachian setting.  As Burt notes in the introduction, there is no redemption in this tale but the reader may notice a progress of time and industry unaffected by  “the land between the rivers.”  Very well done on several levels.

The plot and the illustrations are captivating and memorable. The formatting doesn’t work well on the Kindle, and some passages become a bit obscure and dense for a modern reader.

"The Ballad of Billie Potts" is a folktale with a universal theme. Robert Penn Warren's poetic version is set in "The Land Between the Rivers", the bottomland between the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers in Western Kentucky. Big Billie Potts is a murderous innkeeper who preys off seemingly wealthy travelers heading west. He alerts his accomplices and splits the "spoils" after they rob and murder their unsuspecting victims. Little Billie, his oafish son, in an attempt to "prove himself" to his parents, is determined to frisk and kill a traveler but ends up humiliated and shunned by his father. Little Billie leaves "the land between the rivers" and heads west.

This version of "The Ballad of Billie Potts" is comprised of three equally impressive components. The 1943 poem by Robert Penn Warren is definitely outstanding. The introduction by John Burt details Penn's use of dual voices, the ballad voice of the narrator who explains the events as they unfold and the commentator voice, parenthetic passages which are ruminations about the feelings and motivations of these actions. The magnificent illustrations by P. John Burden greatly enhance the text by displaying almost three dimensional renderings to compliment the ballad text while stylistically matching the commentary text as well.

"The Ballad of Billie Potts" by Robert Penn Warren, with accompanying introduction by John Burt and illustrations by P. John Burden is an excellent pairing of poetry and folklore that I highly recommend.

Thank you Smith Publicity and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Ballad of Billie Potts".