{"id":9092,"date":"2018-01-24T13:22:04","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T12:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=9092"},"modified":"2018-01-30T19:38:38","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T18:38:38","slug":"beatrice-garland-the-drum-reviewed-by-ian-pople","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=9092","title":{"rendered":"Beatrice Garland, The Drum<\/em>, reviewed by Ian Pople"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beatrice Garland, The Drum<\/em> Templar Poetry \u00a310.00<\/strong><\/p>\n

A key note in Beatrice Garland\u2019s debut collection, The Invention of Fireworks<\/em>, was the tension between stability and change. In that first book, Garland reconciles that tension technically by using an adroit combination of lyric and narrative, working between epiphany and process. Garland\u2019s new book, The Drum<\/em>, also has such a tension and technical focus. And in this book, too, Garland\u2019s technique often hinges on her ability with the sentence, with moving an idea through a poem by moving the syntax fluidly and adeptly.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the sentences are short and sprightly, as in the villanelle, \u2018Valentine\u2019 which bounces along with the sentences emerging from and reinforcing the structure. Much like Elizabeth Bishop\u2019s magisterial \u2018One Art\u2019, Garland uses the form to deadly, ironic effect. \u2018Valentine\u2019 begins: <\/p>\n

She was a woman that you used to know
\nwith ink-black hair and eyes of greeny-grey.
\nIt was a love affair as these things go. <\/p>\n

And ends: <\/p>\n

All life is change, each a become an o:
\nthe heart grows quiet, black fades to silver-grey.
\nIt was a love-affair \u2013 but these things go:
\nshe was a woman that you used to know. <\/p>\n

In \u2018Valentine\u2019, Garland moves the \u2018story\u2019 of the poem through the details of the relationship; from the carnelian ring the woman wore, and the love songs which seem to witness the relationship, through to the way \u2018the music\u2019s yes became a no\u2019. And on to the play, in the opening of the final verse, of \u2018each a become an o\u2019, mimicking both the rhyme scheme of the poem and the alpha and omega of the trajectory of the relationship. <\/p>\n

Elsewhere Garland might work a whole story through a single sentence. On the opposite page to \u2018Valentine\u2019 is the poem \u2018Day Care\u2019 in which the sounding of the security alarm in the day care centre occasions a range of behaviours among those who attend, \u2018Roberts finishes the miniatures concealed \/\/ in the multiple pockets of his combat gear \/ before standing to attention at the Assembly Point, \/ at the green sign showing two adults \/ and two children holding hands, and four arrows \/\/ pointing inwards, one for each of them;\u2019 Garland\u2019s carefully unadorned writing not only renders Roberts situation all the more poignant, but in the second half of these lines, her powers of observation again point up the irony of the \u2018assembly point\u2019 with its carefully delineated \u2018family\u2019 emphasised by the inward pointing arrows; a family from which Roberts is clearly excluded. <\/p>\n

Poems in the final, third section of The Drum introduce a slightly newer note to Garland\u2019s poetry. Here, the narratives of these poems reach out towards to situations which are more mysterious and less explicable. One such is \u2018The Rock\u2019, in which Garland explores the story of the apostle Peter. After a lifetime of service, Peter reflects on his life, \u2018Yet still some things \u2013 the glow of charcoal \/ after dark; at dawn, the farm bird\u2019s call \/ to arms, the knowing questions of young girls \/\/ that day I still had promises to keep – \/ all make me turn away. I cannot speak \/ and such thoughts, even now, can make me weep.\u2019 Garland sees the Bishop of Rome as prone to the same range of doubts and ambivalence as the rest of humanity, and she does this with the kind of detailing which renders Peter\u2019s humanity both accessible and spiritual. <\/p>\n

The final section of the book also contains some very fine landscape poems. The speculative, pondering nature of Garland\u2019s concerns allows her to move around the landscape listening to the sounds and voices she hears there, \u2018From time to time there drifts upwards \/ that slow complex random music \/ from the valley \u2013 tiles hammered\/ one by one along a roof beam, \/ a barking dog, an occasional voice – \/ and as we descend, \/\/ the scrape of spade on stone \/ and the rising note of water \/ filling a bucket slowly.\u2019 \u2018El Maestrazgo\u2019. In this piece, the movement through landscape becomes a metaphor for the movement through life itself; the poem continues, \u2018Perhaps it will come just once: \/ when the blood has ceased its round \/ and the marching comes to an end \/\/ because we have arrived, and all breath is stopped with clay.\u2019 If the poem is a kind of elegy, it is an elegy to a life of careful observation and powerful empathies. This is a collection which is driven by considerable imaginative elegance and precision. <\/p>\n

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

Beatrice Garland, The Drum Templar Poetry \u00a310.00 A key note in Beatrice Garland\u2019s debut collection, The Invention of Fireworks, was the tension between stability and change. In that first book, Garland reconciles that tension technically by using an adroit combination of lyric and narrative, working between epiphany and process. Garland\u2019s new book, The Drum, also […]<\/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":"\nBeatrice Garland, The Drum, 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=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=9092\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beatrice Garland, The Drum, reviewed by Ian Pople - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Beatrice Garland, The Drum Templar Poetry \u00a310.00 A key note in Beatrice Garland\u2019s debut collection, The Invention of Fireworks, was the tension between stability and change. 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