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Title: The City of Dreadful Night (Canongate Classics, No 53) by James B. V. Thomson, Edwin Morgan ISBN: 0-86241-449-0 Publisher: Canongate Books Pub. Date: March, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The spheres eternal are a grand illusion
Comment: I read this masterpiece years ago and was quite blown away by it. I have had plenty of time to recover from the overwhelming mood and philosophy of it. I do not feel that life is as the poet portrays it, but he lived a tragic life which included the death of the woman he loved ("the lady of the images"), and there was no way that he was going to see life differently. I recommend this poem to all poetry lovers, regardless of their attitude about life, simply because it is wonderfully written.
Rating: 5
Summary: Melancholia At Last!
Comment: "You think I am weak and must submit
Yet I but scratch you with this poisoned blade,
And you are dead as if I clove with it
That false fierce greedy heart.Betrayed!Betrayed!"
As I think of those bone chilling lines they ring ripples of fright and despair through my still salivating soul, because there's a part of me that longs for more. I remember the first time I encounted Mr. Thomson's masterpiece. It was only a few lines, but it left me starving for more. It soon became a small obsession. I had to have it! I read Thomson's "The City of Dreadful Night" and he became an instant favorite for me as far as poets are concerned. I have read Dickinson and Whitman and Poe, but none of them compare in my opinion to Thomson's morbid metaphors and detrimental descriptions of pain and suffering. I could almost feel the words literally penetrate the deepest recesses of my darkest heart of hearts. Emotions are impossible to put into words exactly, but I believe Thomson damn near succeeded in his "melancholia" as he would put it. You almost have to take breaks in the middle of reading in order to gather your now shattered positive emotions and regain a stronger than steel composure to take in just a little bit more. I feel like Thomson is one of my best friends now because I can relate to everything that he's feeling through his darkest times. He totally discouraged me as a poet myself and crushed whatever confidence I had in my own writing abilities. But it's okay, I'll recover and resume my own confidences denial about actually having skills...I think. For all of you who haven't read this masterpiece to mankind, I strongly suggest that you sink your teeth in and experience first hand how words can be daggers in your consciousness by the absolute best there is. For everyone with insomnia, scream loudly with me the words that should be echoed to the edges of the universe...
"A NIGHT SEEMS TERMLESS HELL!"
Rating: 5
Summary: Gloomy & Nihilistic
Comment: This late-nineteenth century long poem falls somewhere between "Paradise Lost" & "The Waste Land." It contains enough beauties to be a rewarding read, yet its flaws are hard to ignore. Chief among these flaws is Thomson's readiness to insert archaic words like "doth" and "feign" to fill out his meter & rhyme. In praising the poem I enlist the support of Melville, who admired it, & Eliot, whose "The Waste Land" appears to echo it. Eventually, after taking time to search for the least-flawed section or canto of the poem, I decided that section XIII seemed the least-flawed. Then I wondered if Thomson had arranged it that way intentionally, perversely saving his best work, his im-mutabilitie canto, for unlucky thirteen.
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