This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/18/greek-spring-kelvin-corcoran-review

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
For the Greek Spring by Kelvin Corcoran – review For the Greek Spring by Kelvin Corcoran – review
(30 days later)
English writers have often struggled to reconcile the glories of classical Greece with the country as it is today. On first visiting Greece in 1906, Virginia Woolf's disappointment led her to snobbishly contrast the "rustic dialect of barbarous use" she heard with the "classical speech of pure bred races", and to conclude that modern Greeks were a "mongrel element". Her expectations took no account of demotic Greek or the waves of occupation, immigration and exodus that had been changing Greece's cultural composition for centuries. Kelvin Corcoran is careful to avoid such traps. The poems in For the Greek Spring, written over the past 30 years, drift in and out of conversation with Homer and Xenophanes, but they also register, with equal care, the cultural pressures of modern Greek life, in which one sees "the newly immiserated / in procession under the Parthenon" ("Sea Table"), and Albanian refugees who sell stolen iPads on the beach.English writers have often struggled to reconcile the glories of classical Greece with the country as it is today. On first visiting Greece in 1906, Virginia Woolf's disappointment led her to snobbishly contrast the "rustic dialect of barbarous use" she heard with the "classical speech of pure bred races", and to conclude that modern Greeks were a "mongrel element". Her expectations took no account of demotic Greek or the waves of occupation, immigration and exodus that had been changing Greece's cultural composition for centuries. Kelvin Corcoran is careful to avoid such traps. The poems in For the Greek Spring, written over the past 30 years, drift in and out of conversation with Homer and Xenophanes, but they also register, with equal care, the cultural pressures of modern Greek life, in which one sees "the newly immiserated / in procession under the Parthenon" ("Sea Table"), and Albanian refugees who sell stolen iPads on the beach.
Corcoran is a superbly skilled lyricist. He celebrates Greece's coastlines, meadows and mountains – the tangible, visible surfaces from which its most enduring mythologies are drawn – in passages of bucolic immediacy:Corcoran is a superbly skilled lyricist. He celebrates Greece's coastlines, meadows and mountains – the tangible, visible surfaces from which its most enduring mythologies are drawn – in passages of bucolic immediacy:
And then a morning so fresh
like a massive wet diamond
suspended above the white sea
with the tatty mimosa blowing and
the container ships stuck in the
water
we went off around Taygetos
tottering and twisting in the air.		And then a morning so fresh
like a massive wet diamond
suspended above the white sea
with the tatty mimosa blowing and
the container ships stuck in the
water
we went off around Taygetos
tottering and twisting in the air.
The colloquialism of "massive", "tatty" and "went off", the lambency of "wet diamond", and the aqueous musical signature of those "w" and "t" sounds produce the verbal equivalent of a splash of water in the face, while the pastoral-industrial juxtaposition of "mimosa" and "container ships" captures a scene quintessentially Greek: glimpsed from a headland, through riotous flowers, we see the logistical reality of a sea-faring nation dependent on imported goods.The colloquialism of "massive", "tatty" and "went off", the lambency of "wet diamond", and the aqueous musical signature of those "w" and "t" sounds produce the verbal equivalent of a splash of water in the face, while the pastoral-industrial juxtaposition of "mimosa" and "container ships" captures a scene quintessentially Greek: glimpsed from a headland, through riotous flowers, we see the logistical reality of a sea-faring nation dependent on imported goods.
But Corcoran is not content with displays of lyric acuity. This stanza, from "News of Aristomenes", is just one fleeting moment in a sequence that considers the legendary Messenian soldier credited with resisting the Spartans for 11 years. Corcoran's Aristomenes lays claim to his bravest exploits, but also admits to fleeing from the Dioscuri, and denies that he rose from the dead. There is a noble futility in his attempts to put the record straight: like most folk heroes, he has been eclipsed by his own legend. Back in present-day Greece, the holidaying poet pieces accounts of Aristomenes together. We catch quotes from histories he is reading, imagined testimonials from other soldiers, and prayers for the exiled Messenians, whose yearning for a lost identity pervades the poem. Awash in folkloric fragments, Aristomenes refuses any final explanation.But Corcoran is not content with displays of lyric acuity. This stanza, from "News of Aristomenes", is just one fleeting moment in a sequence that considers the legendary Messenian soldier credited with resisting the Spartans for 11 years. Corcoran's Aristomenes lays claim to his bravest exploits, but also admits to fleeing from the Dioscuri, and denies that he rose from the dead. There is a noble futility in his attempts to put the record straight: like most folk heroes, he has been eclipsed by his own legend. Back in present-day Greece, the holidaying poet pieces accounts of Aristomenes together. We catch quotes from histories he is reading, imagined testimonials from other soldiers, and prayers for the exiled Messenians, whose yearning for a lost identity pervades the poem. Awash in folkloric fragments, Aristomenes refuses any final explanation.
George Seferis's brand of high modernism exerts a strong influence on Corcoran's ambiguous, multivalent poems. The "we" of Seferis's "Mythistorema", for example, is a tricky construction: when he writes, "It used to be easy for us to draw up idols and ornaments / to please those friends who still remained loyal to us", it is hard to say how much the collective identity of Greek people, or of poets, has fused with that of the Argonauts and Odyssean companions to whom Seferis often returns. Corcoran's poems create a similarly choric space, in which tones and perspectives swim through one another, resisting readerly expectations: "we are not who we seem / we don't sing what you think" ("Apokriatika"). "Helen Mania" is an intricate performance in which captains of industry use the pretext of "Menelaus's hot wife gone wrong" to justify war, guards ask "who can outrun love?", and Paris swoons: "Helen you have undone the world / I taste your looks, touch your colour / you were always there, my radiant lexicon".George Seferis's brand of high modernism exerts a strong influence on Corcoran's ambiguous, multivalent poems. The "we" of Seferis's "Mythistorema", for example, is a tricky construction: when he writes, "It used to be easy for us to draw up idols and ornaments / to please those friends who still remained loyal to us", it is hard to say how much the collective identity of Greek people, or of poets, has fused with that of the Argonauts and Odyssean companions to whom Seferis often returns. Corcoran's poems create a similarly choric space, in which tones and perspectives swim through one another, resisting readerly expectations: "we are not who we seem / we don't sing what you think" ("Apokriatika"). "Helen Mania" is an intricate performance in which captains of industry use the pretext of "Menelaus's hot wife gone wrong" to justify war, guards ask "who can outrun love?", and Paris swoons: "Helen you have undone the world / I taste your looks, touch your colour / you were always there, my radiant lexicon".
Lord Byron features in several poems here. Unlike his fellow Romantics, who idolised Greece from afar, Byron saw the country for himself, and seasoned his philhellenist postures of lament with first-hand observations. The resulting culture-clash was not without its problems. In "Disclaimer: Byron Never Went to Ambelakia", Corcoran is critical of the way in which Byron sentimentalised both a group of co-operative workers and the Ottoman despot Ali Pasha who crushed them. Byron "saw the enormous condescension of posterity / rise up and he retreated into the house of George Mavros / all thought and poise gone". Corcoran is even more impatient with Byron's ill-starred intervention in the War of Independence, comparing him to Karagiozis, the Greek equivalent of Mr Punch.Lord Byron features in several poems here. Unlike his fellow Romantics, who idolised Greece from afar, Byron saw the country for himself, and seasoned his philhellenist postures of lament with first-hand observations. The resulting culture-clash was not without its problems. In "Disclaimer: Byron Never Went to Ambelakia", Corcoran is critical of the way in which Byron sentimentalised both a group of co-operative workers and the Ottoman despot Ali Pasha who crushed them. Byron "saw the enormous condescension of posterity / rise up and he retreated into the house of George Mavros / all thought and poise gone". Corcoran is even more impatient with Byron's ill-starred intervention in the War of Independence, comparing him to Karagiozis, the Greek equivalent of Mr Punch.
Despite these reservations, Corcoran identifies with Byron's blend of romance, humour and political engagement. "Hotel Byron" gently mocks its own infatuation with the landscape ("In the fast channel of Despotikon / I married the sea"), but ends with the stirring vision of "a whole country rising up in free association". "Rising up" suggests political insurrection, just as the "Greek spring" of the book's title brings to mind both the Arab spring and the popular protests against austerity measures in Greece. Such a title might lead us to expect more overtly political poems than we encounter. Corcoran's approach is moderate and oblique, but this is nevertheless a book concerned with past democratic ideals, and with the active construal of rights and responsibilities in the present. As he writes bracingly in "Propositions 1", "The limits of human knowledge / do not excuse enquiry / you are not off the hook".Despite these reservations, Corcoran identifies with Byron's blend of romance, humour and political engagement. "Hotel Byron" gently mocks its own infatuation with the landscape ("In the fast channel of Despotikon / I married the sea"), but ends with the stirring vision of "a whole country rising up in free association". "Rising up" suggests political insurrection, just as the "Greek spring" of the book's title brings to mind both the Arab spring and the popular protests against austerity measures in Greece. Such a title might lead us to expect more overtly political poems than we encounter. Corcoran's approach is moderate and oblique, but this is nevertheless a book concerned with past democratic ideals, and with the active construal of rights and responsibilities in the present. As he writes bracingly in "Propositions 1", "The limits of human knowledge / do not excuse enquiry / you are not off the hook".
Frances Leviston's Public Dream is published by Picador. For details of For the Greek Spring and to order a copy see shearsman.com.Frances Leviston's Public Dream is published by Picador. For details of For the Greek Spring and to order a copy see shearsman.com.
Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists
Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.
Write your review of this or any other book, find out what other readers thought or add it to your lists