{"id":6242,"date":"2016-05-02T19:17:51","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T18:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242"},"modified":"2016-05-04T10:13:40","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T09:13:40","slug":"anthony-caleshu-the-victor-poems-shearsman-9-95-reviewed-by-ian-pople","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Caleshu, The Victor Poems<\/em> (Shearsman) \u00a39.95, reviewed by Ian Pople"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Caleshu\u2019s extraordinary book, set in polar regions, appears at first glance to riff on two other poets, T.S. Eliot and W.S. Graham:\u00a0 T.S. Eliot for those lines from \u2018What the Thunder said\u2019 in which the two walking \u2018up the white road\u2019 appear<\/em> to have a ghostly third walking with them.\u00a0 In Eliot\u2019s notes for this section, he suggests that the lines were stimulated by one of the Antarctic expeditions, \u2018(I forget which, but I think one of Shackleton\u2019s)\u2019. And Caleshu appears to not towards W.S. Graham\u2019s \u2018Malcolm Mooney\u2019s Land\u2019 in which \u2018the printed snow\u2019 is a metaphor for the struggle with language on the white page; elsewhere Graham talks about the \u2018white threshold\u2019.\u00a0 Both Eliot and Graham populate this white landscape. And this is what Caleshu does in his \u2018Victor Poems\u2019.<\/p>\n

Set in a polar landscape, a narrator seeks to speak for the protagonists in the action as they explore, inhabit, work through that landscape.\u00a0 All they time they refer to\/ defer to the mysterious \u2018Victor\u2019 who appears to be the presiding genius of the place.<\/p>\n

In section 18 of the poems, sub-titled \u2018Fata Morgana\u2019, Victor appears to be just that, \u2018One can circle the globe looking for a friend, but here you\u2019ve been all along, donning a hat of come-hither hints and half-formed suggestions \u2013 a beacon for polar birds of supernatural agencies\u2019<\/p>\n

At another point, the narrator comments:<\/p>\n

We\u2019d try you Victor for treason if there weren\u2019t an attractive young woman at your side.<\/p>\n

Your friend, <\/em>she says, is an allegory for a star, a life<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Choice for those of us who\u2019ve lost our voice.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thus Victor appears to be a catchall for aspiration and the need for worship.\u00a0 Victor is a kind of contemporary deus absconditus<\/em> who may or may not provide a panacea for all their problems.\u00a0 But toward whom the narrators seem inescapably drawn.\u00a0 Victor is both friend and enemy;\u00a0 both fata morgana and trickster who\u2019s leading these people across the void towards what they both do and do not want.<\/p>\n

These lines give some flavour of the loping, jokey prose in which the \u2018epic\u2019 is couched. \u00a0\u00a0On the one hand there is a very precise evocation of the polar landscape and the techniques for existence there:\u00a0 \u2018We sled the ice-foot, the belt of shore-fast, until the air is as crass as the water below.\u2019 And detail from the natural world: \u2018On a platter of ice:\u00a0 the murre eggs of sea birds, low flying auklets, boiled and stored in seal oil, the dovekies fermented like very ripe brie\u2019(24. We come on the back of snowmobiles) On the other, Caleshu is never afraid to stitch his tapestry with anachronisms of both place and time: \u2018If we had a boom box, we\u2019d blast some heavy rap from the safety of a widow\u2019s walk, while you rise up from the powder to appear in front of us with a pea-shooter\u2019 (29. Panegyric).<\/p>\n

This is a lamentably late review for a text which reaches out in epic fashion, in a thoroughly unique way.\u00a0 The Victor Poems <\/em>is a splashy, capacious poem which bubbles along in a completely engaging and involving way. If I\u2019ve invoked Eliot and Graham, it is only that Caleshu\u2019s poem reaches out to them in both scope and ambition.\u00a0 And are its 42 sections a nod towards Douglas Adams\u2019 answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything?<\/p>\n

Ian Pople<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony Caleshu\u2019s extraordinary book, set in polar regions, appears at first glance to riff on two other poets, T.S. Eliot and W.S. Graham:\u00a0 T.S. Eliot for those lines from \u2018What the Thunder said\u2019 in which the two walking \u2018up the white road\u2019 appear to have a ghostly third walking with them.\u00a0 In Eliot\u2019s notes for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"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":"\nAnthony Caleshu, The Victor Poems (Shearsman) \u00a39.95, 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=6242\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anthony Caleshu, The Victor Poems (Shearsman) \u00a39.95, reviewed by Ian Pople - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anthony Caleshu\u2019s extraordinary book, set in polar regions, appears at first glance to riff on two other poets, T.S. Eliot and W.S. Graham:\u00a0 T.S. Eliot for those lines from \u2018What the Thunder said\u2019 in which the two walking \u2018up the white road\u2019 appear to have a ghostly third walking with them.\u00a0 In Eliot\u2019s notes for […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-02T18:17:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-05-04T09:13:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ian Pople\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ian Pople\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242\",\"name\":\"Anthony Caleshu, The Victor Poems (Shearsman) \u00a39.95, reviewed by Ian Pople - The Manchester Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-02T18:17:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-04T09:13:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/1e4c20066db3d71097155619e6d443a9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Anthony Caleshu, The Victor Poems (Shearsman) \u00a39.95, reviewed by Ian Pople\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"description\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/1e4c20066db3d71097155619e6d443a9\",\"name\":\"Ian Pople\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"caption\":\"Ian Pople\"},\"description\":\"Ian Pople's Spillway is published by Anstruther Press.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=21\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Anthony Caleshu, The Victor Poems (Shearsman) \u00a39.95, reviewed by Ian Pople - The Manchester Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anthony Caleshu, The Victor Poems (Shearsman) \u00a39.95, reviewed by Ian Pople - The Manchester Review","og_description":"Anthony Caleshu\u2019s extraordinary book, set in polar regions, appears at first glance to riff on two other poets, T.S. Eliot and W.S. Graham:\u00a0 T.S. Eliot for those lines from \u2018What the Thunder said\u2019 in which the two walking \u2018up the white road\u2019 appear to have a ghostly third walking with them.\u00a0 In Eliot\u2019s notes for […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242","og_site_name":"The Manchester Review","article_published_time":"2016-05-02T18:17:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-05-04T09:13:40+00:00","author":"Ian Pople","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ian Pople","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242","name":"Anthony Caleshu, The Victor Poems (Shearsman) \u00a39.95, reviewed by Ian Pople - The Manchester Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-05-02T18:17:51+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-04T09:13:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/1e4c20066db3d71097155619e6d443a9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6242#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Anthony Caleshu, The Victor Poems (Shearsman) \u00a39.95, reviewed by Ian Pople"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/","name":"The Manchester Review","description":"The Manchester Review","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/1e4c20066db3d71097155619e6d443a9","name":"Ian Pople","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","caption":"Ian Pople"},"description":"Ian Pople's Spillway is published by Anstruther Press.","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=21"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2PuXo-1CG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6244,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6242\/revisions\/6244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}