There is nothing intrinsically wrong with Gillian Clarke’s collection “The Silence”. All the poems are entirely competent, ‘poetic’. Yet for me they lack any kind of universality, something to which I can relate in such as way as to be moved or inspired or feel the work relevant. Reading them feels a little like skimming through a photo album where you don’t know the people in the pictures – and don’t care much about their stories either.
And then, two poems at the end: ‘Gorse’ and ‘Taking you there’… Or should I say, one poem..?
I’ve no idea what’s going on here:
| in ‘Gorse’ | in ‘Taking you there’ |
| The cliff’s path steep and stony, gorse popping in the heat. I show you the ledge where I lay | The path was steep and stony, air so hot the gorse was popping. I showed you the rock where I lay |
| the morning after a night of storm, and war, radio warnings, grown-ups hushing in rooms. | after nights of storm, Hitler and war on the radio, grown-ups whispering in rooms, |
Is one poem a draft of the other that’s made its way in by mistake? Is this an oversight by the editor and/or publisher? An experiment? [There’s also a glaring error in the title of one poem where there’s a rogue full stop in the middle of a word – ‘Th.istle’! This is clearly a mistake as in the contents list it’s ‘Thistle’. Doesn’t look good for Carcanet…]
First time I’ve ever come across such blatant duplication (certainly without any explanation or theory behind it).
Sorry, “The Silence” isn’t for me.
Ian Gouge - Writer 