[DOWNLOAD] "In the Wings: The Poetry of Frank Mcguinness (Critical Essay)" by Irish University Review: a journal of Irish Studies * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: In the Wings: The Poetry of Frank Mcguinness (Critical Essay)
- Author : Irish University Review: a journal of Irish Studies
- Release Date : January 22, 2010
- Genre: Reference,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 345 KB
Description
How difficult is it for a dramatist to exchange the expansive world of the stage for the compressed platform of the page, to give up the theatrical possibilities of characterization and action for the linguistic compression of the poem? Frank McGuinness has written four collections of poems--Booterstown (1994), The Sea With No Ships (1999), The Stone Jug (2003), and Dulse (2007), all published by The Gallery Press. (1) Their dominant characteristics are reliance on dramatic monologue and on intense lyricism. Part of the enjoyment in reading the monologues comes from responding to the individual voice and its rhythms. The McGuinness monologue is unexpected in its progression, capable not only of interruptions and digressions, but of contradiction and abrupt heightening of language. While he works within the limitation of poetic forms in the monologue, the lyric, and a sequence of sonnets, he struggles at times to maintain an appropriate verbal restraint. His restless, turbulent imagination tends to burst through constraints of language and structure. Many of the poems in Booterstown speak in the poet's own voice. The collection includes autobiographical poems, elegies, and love poems. Not all of them are equally effective, but a few are significant achievements, Among these are 'The Baker Takes a Walk" and 'Traveller'. "The Baker Takes a Walk', based on a painting of the same title by Brian Bourke, is both realistic and transformative. The poem moves from depiction and interpretation of the painting to a definition of what the baker/artist represents.