The much-loved, yet undervalued, final book of poems by British-Canadian poet John Thompson, is reissued in a handsome edition, featuring a new introduction by Rob Winger.
Originally published in 1978, Stilt Jack is a series of powerful soliloquies on the complexity of love and the process of living. These are made immediate through Thompson’s command of metaphor, his eye for the New Brunswick landscape, his intense, often elliptical way of transfiguring everyday things into shorthand symbols of reality. This remarkable sequence of poems is based on the ghazal, an ancient Persian poetic form which is discussed in Thompson’s introduction to the original edition of the book.
These poems more than fulfill the promise of Thompson’s first collection, At the Edge of the Chopping There Are No Secrets. Stilt Jack is the last testament of a major poet at the pinnacle of his craft.
The much-loved, yet undervalued, final book of poems by British-Canadian poet John Thompson, is reissued in a handsome edition, featuring a new introduction by Rob Winger.
Originally published in 1978, Stilt Jack is a series of powerful soliloquies on the complexity of love and the process of living. These are made immediate through Thompson’s command of metaphor, his eye for the New Brunswick landscape, his intense, often elliptical way of transfiguring everyday things into shorthand symbols of reality. This remarkable sequence of poems is based on the ghazal, an ancient Persian poetic form which is discussed in Thompson’s introduction to the original edition of the book.
These poems more than fulfill the promise of Thompson’s first collection, At the Edge of the Chopping There Are No Secrets. Stilt Jack is the last testament of a major poet at the pinnacle of his craft.
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — Apr 16, 2019 |
| Specifications | 80 pages | 5.5 in x 8.5 in |
| Keywords | ghazal; despair; couplets; celebration; death; suicide note; mental illness; alcoholism; Mount Allison University; loneliness; 20th century poet; New Brunswick; primitive; chaotic; poetry; poetic form; CanLit; free verse; |
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Excerpt |
| Written By |
JOHN THOMPSON (1938–76) was one of the most acclaimed Canadian poets of the twentieth century. Born and raised in England, he received a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Michigan State University before moving to Canada to teach at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. His first collection, At the Edge of the Chopping There Are No Secrets, was published in 1973, and his second, Stilt Jack, appeared posthumously in 1978. |
| Written By |
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JOHN THOMPSON (1938–76) was one of the most acclaimed Canadian poets of the twentieth century. Born and raised in England, he received a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Michigan State University before moving to Canada to teach at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. His first collection, At the Edge of the Chopping There Are No Secrets, was published in 1973, and his second, Stilt Jack, appeared posthumously in 1978. |
“In the last years of his life, apparently, John Thompson craved a poetry of extremis, of damnation. That implacable mystique has taken hold of poets from Baudelaire to John Berryman; Thompson’s surrender to it, in Stilt Jack, is an arresting performance of the part. And a deeply troubling one.” —Dennis Lee
“A world of essence, primitive and chaotic, made of earth, air, fire, and waters . . . spilt blood, split woods; cries, horses, fish; Anabasis half begun, half finished in the New Brunswick woods . . . Poetry so unique as to be beyond ‘originality.” —A.J.M. Smith