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A review by xterminal
Les Barricades Mysterieuses: Thirty-Two Villanelles by Jared Carter
4.0
Jared Carter, Les Barricades Mysterieuses (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 1999)
Earlier this month, I read Jared Carter's second book, Pincushion's Strawberry, and I have to say that overall I wasn't entirely impressed with it. Well, fifteen years went by between Carter's second and his third, Les Barricades Mysterieuses, and it seems that Carter spent those intervening years learning to write a really, really good formal poem.
Villanelles are one of those odd strict forms where the highest praise one can give a poet is that the reader forgets he's reading a strict form. It's even tougher when the poet adheres to the traditional rules of the form (especially with villanelles, poets like to bend the rules a good deal now and again). But, as the jacket blurbs mention, Carter does manage it, and quite nicely. The selected-at-random quote I use in most poetry reviews doesn't even begin to hint at the subtlety, actually; I liked this poem for its subject far more than its use of the language:
"Come together at last, no longer strangers,
Braceleted with numbers, stripped of names,
asleep and drifting in these still waters,
they share a timeless urge--to be forever
lost in each other's arms, having no shame,
come together at last. No longer strangers,
they touch in casual ways we half-remember--
moored in the twilight, tethered by a chain,
asleep and drifting..."
("Tankroom")
Jared Carter has made it, folks. If you're a poetry fan, and especially if you're a fan of formal poetry, I highly recommend checking out Les Barricades Mysterieuses; good stuff indeed. *** ½
Earlier this month, I read Jared Carter's second book, Pincushion's Strawberry, and I have to say that overall I wasn't entirely impressed with it. Well, fifteen years went by between Carter's second and his third, Les Barricades Mysterieuses, and it seems that Carter spent those intervening years learning to write a really, really good formal poem.
Villanelles are one of those odd strict forms where the highest praise one can give a poet is that the reader forgets he's reading a strict form. It's even tougher when the poet adheres to the traditional rules of the form (especially with villanelles, poets like to bend the rules a good deal now and again). But, as the jacket blurbs mention, Carter does manage it, and quite nicely. The selected-at-random quote I use in most poetry reviews doesn't even begin to hint at the subtlety, actually; I liked this poem for its subject far more than its use of the language:
"Come together at last, no longer strangers,
Braceleted with numbers, stripped of names,
asleep and drifting in these still waters,
they share a timeless urge--to be forever
lost in each other's arms, having no shame,
come together at last. No longer strangers,
they touch in casual ways we half-remember--
moored in the twilight, tethered by a chain,
asleep and drifting..."
("Tankroom")
Jared Carter has made it, folks. If you're a poetry fan, and especially if you're a fan of formal poetry, I highly recommend checking out Les Barricades Mysterieuses; good stuff indeed. *** ½