{"product_id":"9781922571236","title":"Fantastic Day","description":"Author: Ken Bolton\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9781922571236\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Puncher and Wattmann\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 01 Feb 2022\u003cbr\u003ePages: 110 \u003cbr\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKnown for their allusiveness and indirection, Bolton\u0026amp;#x27;s poems can also be jaw-droppingly direct, as they make their way towards resolutions never clearly within their sights, achieved rather than aimed for. \u003ci\u003eFantastic Day\u003c\/i\u003e performs philosophy, history, criticism - all three and satire at the same time, in the dolefully droll \u003ci\u003eHullo\u003c\/i\u003e (which considers our literature\u0026amp;#x27;s ambitions and its very different fortunes) -parody and sincerity, in a strange mutual bind, in \u003ci\u003eBirds of Rome,\u003c\/i\u003e which looks at Italy or \u0026amp;#x27;travel\u0026amp;#x27; while guying the genre \u0026amp;#x27;travel writing\u0026amp;#x27; and, while doing so, mounts a show of rebellion against New York. Both poems attempt to negotiate with the international canon.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe poems in \u003ci\u003eFantastic Day\u003c\/i\u003e set out a range of styles and manners: lyric, fractured, discursive. They are frequently funny, regularly beautiful (see the two poems named after jazz tunes,\u003ci\u003e Star Eyes\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAscension\u003c\/i\u003e), and masterful in wielding a casual, almost idle precision in the service of thinking - thinking\u003ci\u003e about politics\u003c\/i\u003e (the \u003ci\u003eLetter to John Forbes, A Saturday)\u003c\/i\u003e, about friendship, about time, even aesthetics\u003ci\u003e. The Letter,\u003c\/i\u003e initially modelled on Auden\u0026amp;#x27;s \u0026amp;#x27;Letter to Lord Byron\u0026amp;#x27;, treats friendship, time, and a recent Australia - and the same might be said of many of the poems: \u003ci\u003eBriefing Mary Christie,\u003c\/i\u003e the faux naif account of artist Richard Grayson\u0026amp;#x27;s life, the Rousselian simulation of artist Shaun Kirby\u0026amp;#x27;s work, or of Vivienne Miller\u0026amp;#x27;s. Along the way we meet poems as different as \u003ci\u003eTravellin\u0026amp;#x27; Man\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eReach \u0026amp; Ambition\u003c\/i\u003e. The range is considerable, the unity unmistakeable.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis volume concludes with a remarkable long poem, \u003ci\u003eWiesengrund\u003c\/i\u003e, in part a paean to the philosopher Adorno, but as much a dedication to various philosophers and critics (Clement Greenberg, Donald Brook, Cesar Aira, Lucy Lippard) and, in its musical construction, an elegiac account of ... what? ... history, politics, experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47925020524702,"sku":"ING-9781922571236","price":22.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9781922571236.jpg?v=1782957594","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9781922571236","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}