{"id":12489,"date":"2024-10-09T13:28:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T12:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12489"},"modified":"2024-10-15T12:27:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T11:27:38","slug":"carl-phillips-scattered-snows-to-the-north-reviewed-by-ian-pople","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12489","title":{"rendered":"Carl Phillips, Scattered Snows, To The North, reviewed by Ian Pople"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/carl-phillips-snows-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"750\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Carl Phillips | Scattered Snows, To The North | Carcanet: \u00a311.99<br \/><\/strong><strong>Reviewed by Ian<\/strong> <strong>Pople<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Relatively hot on the heels of Carl Phillips&#8217; Pulitzer Prize-winning volume, <em>And Then the War<\/em>, comes his new volume, <em>Scattered Snows, To The North.<\/em> Phillips\u2019 new collection has just been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot prize in the UK. The volume\u2019s blurb suggests that it\u2019s a volume of poetry about \u2018distortion and revelation, about knowing and the unreliability of a knowing that\u2019s based on human memory.\u2019 In addition, the T.S. Eliot prize shortlist suggests that the volume\u2019s exploration of the \u2018unknowing of knowing\u2019 adds a strong elegiac note to his poetry.<\/p>\n<p>It is true that the first two poems of the collection do look towards autumn and offer a meditation on loss and grief. The first of these poems, \u2018Regime\u2019, ends with the lines, \u2018It\u2019s hard \/ to believe in them, \/ the beautiful colors \/\/ of extinction: but \/ these are the colors.\u2019 Whereas, the next poem, \u2018Before All of This,\u2019 begins with \u2018And as usual, early summer seems already to hold, inside it, \/ the split fruit of late fall, those afternoons whose \/ diminished music we\u2019ll soon enough \/ lie down in\u2019. Both the end line of \u2018Regime\u2019 and the opening line \u2018Before All of This\u2019, are typical of Phillips\u2019 style. The deferred centre to the sentence, \u2018the beautiful colors of extinction,\u2019 or \u2018the split fruit of late fall\u2019, and the way in which Phillips seems gently to explore these centres with pronouns that both anticipate and further defer, i.e., \u2018them\u2019 and \u2018it\u2019. This is emblematic of Phillips\u2019 mediative style. This gentle, meditative tone is also reflected in his choice of adjectives, \u2018beautiful,\u2019 \u2018split\u2019, \u2018late\u2019, and \u2018diminished,\u2019 which possess their own sense of elegy. The construction of the opening two poems suggests not only a very particular and adept control of the cadences of the poem\u2019s syntax but also a particular and adept control of the rhythm of ideas and images; a control, if you like, of the rhythm of thinking. A rhythm that is calm but never diffuse.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Before All of This\u2019 ends with the lines:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The air stirs like history<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Like the future<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Like history<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The spaced pauses are ambivalent, yet draw attention to the repetition of \u2018like\u2019: a developing, retrospective style. The repetition of ambivalent pauses creates a climax that washes back not only over the poem that has preceded it but also washes forward over the poems that follow it\u00a0\u2013\u00a0denoted by the lack of a full stop after the final word. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Scattered Snows, To The North<\/em> is a volume where Phillips, who has never been afraid to be declarative, pushes a kind of certainty to the fore. If \u2018a kind of certainty\u2019 seems like a contradiction in terms, it\u2019s a tribute to Phillips&#8217; skill and control that this is what came across to this reader. Perhaps this kind of certainty embodies the volume&#8217;s blurb&#8217;s declaration that Phillips&#8217; poetry is interested in exploring \u2018the unreliability of knowing\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>This \u2018unreliability of knowing\u2019 is a key motif in <em>Scattered Snow, To The North<\/em>. In Western Edge&#8217;, Phillips writes, \u2018I need you \/ the way astonishment, \/ which is really just \/\/ the disruption of routine, \/ requires routine.\u2019 Here, \u2018astonishment\u2019 acquires a particular kind of certainty, which is then undermined. Phillips\u2019 declaration of astonishment as \u2018really just the disruption of routine,\u2019 becomes an uncertain declaration through the line\u2019s repetition. For some readers, this might make the poem a little hermetic, even vatic. But often Phillips in his poetry rubs up against the circular in order, I would suggest, to set it apart, to examine, and even force the reader to examine their own certainties about the poetry. Philips\u2019 development of the circular becomes its own kind of phenomenology.<\/p>\n<p>Phillips has commented on his concern with the power dynamic held within relationships, particularly in the context of gay relationships. <em>Scattered Snows, To The North <\/em>once again returns to the power dynamics behind these relationships, but Phillips&#8217; examination this time seems hesitant. Querulous syntax folds and unfolds in and beneath itself.\u00a0 This folding and unfolding leads Phillips to build long sentences full of hesitation. Here is an example from the title poem \u2018Scattered Snows, to the North\u2019: \u2018But there were \/ people, of course, too, most of them \/ destined to be unremembered, \/ who filled in their drawn lives \/ anyway \u2013 because what else \/ is there? to where the edges \/ gave out.\u2019 Phillips&#8217; syntax is so full of hesitation that it is unsurprising that their \u2018edges\u2019 finally \u2018gave out\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Phillips\u2019 <em>Scattered Snows, To the North<\/em> is a volume of poetry that explores perception as shifting and uncertain. This new volume of Phillips\u2019 poetry contains some of his finest reporting of the natural world. But what \u2013 arguably \u2013 makes Phillips one of the finest poets writing today is his skilful exploration of the \u2018unreliability of knowing\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><em>Reviewed by Ian Pople<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carl Phillips | Scattered Snows, To The North | Carcanet: \u00a311.99Reviewed by Ian Pople Relatively hot on the heels of Carl Phillips&#8217; Pulitzer Prize-winning volume, And Then the War, comes his new volume, Scattered Snows, To The North. Phillips\u2019 new collection has just been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot prize in the UK. The volume\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[13,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Carl Phillips, Scattered Snows, To The North, reviewed by Ian Pople - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12489\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Carl Phillips, Scattered Snows, To The North, reviewed by Ian Pople - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Carl Phillips | Scattered Snows, To The North | Carcanet: \u00a311.99Reviewed by Ian Pople Relatively hot on the heels of Carl Phillips&#8217; Pulitzer Prize-winning volume, And Then the War, comes his new volume, Scattered Snows, To The North. 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