Broken Ground

William Logan writes with grace and fluency: he presents informed critical opinions with a commitment often lacking in contemporary criticism. Re-reading of his chosen authors was, in my case, sparked off by his views which are nothing, if not controversial.
The review of Gorgeous Nothings, a book dealing with Emily Dickinson’s use of envelopes and scrap paper points up the academic sterility of the discussion about the meaning of these fragments. Of course, Dickinson would use the paper to hand; paper, Logan reminds us, was an expensive commodity. Similarly, Dickinson’s use of capitals and dashes, much argued over among critics of the work, were as much the work of printers as a precocious technique of careful phrasing. Dickinson “had no reason to prepare printed copy”.
There are judgments here that are more questionable. Whether Kipling had the “emotional range of a schoolboy” (whatever that is) is, I think, an American misunderstanding of British reticence. Kipling’s ambiguous stance on the motives, meaning and effects of British empire building could be a more useful channel into his complex emotional tonalities.
The essay on Geoffrey Hill cuts in at an odd angle. Mercian Hymns, Hill’s finest work, is barely mentioned. An account of Logan’s somewhat star-struck encounter with Hill takes up space that could usefully have dealt with the resonances of the volume – “I liked that”, said Offa, “sing it again”.
Philip Larkin’s ‘I remember, I remember’ is handled in a dogged, documentary-style analysis which brings in railway-station architecture, the bombing of Coventry and the tracks between London, Bristol, Swansea and Liverpool plus the ferry crossing to Belfast. Larkin’s distinctive laconic and wry verse style gets lost in this welter of references.
There is a fine intelligence running through this volume. My concern is that this quality leans to the tangential which muddles its thrust; when on target, it is superb.

William Logan presents a work of poetic critique and reflection that would be essential paired reading in a range of literature and composition courses. Erudite, insightful, literary, Logan probes what poetry is in a meaningful and dialogue-provoking manner.