A year of intensive close reading and personal reflection led to this uniquely entertaining collection of essays about poetry in general and one remarkable poem in particular: ‘In the dream of the cold restaurant’ by Abigail Parry.
Whether you’re a seasoned poetry reader or a curious newcomer, this engaging and constantly surprising book offers a generous, idiosyncratic take on what poetry is, what it does, and what it’s for.
From the author of Multiple Joyce: 100 essays about James Joyce’s cultural legacy.
Notices
“Here are fifty short essays and pieces of criticism—some slight; others more weighty—which together form a great exemplar of the fine art of digression. This book is an apparently Queneauvian exercise in close reading which rapidly spins out to encompass the value of poetry, language, and life its very self. It is a book not to be read in one sitting, but to be taken twice a day, perhaps, like medicine, strong coffee, or a good single malt, the kind of book that might make you want to go and write another book consisting of 50 short chapters. Collard is a great example of the tradition of the non-academic scholar—erudite, profound, witty, and wide-ranging.”
—C. D. Rose, author of The Blind Accordionist and Walter Benjamin Stares at the Sea
“Not a manifesto or misery-memoir, more a metaphysical watchmaker’s manual, in which the perma-curious Collard disassembles and prods the cogs, springs and dials of poetry. Then he rebuilds: the poem, the page, himself. A slightly better world.”
—Melissa McCarthy, author of Photo, Phyto, Proto, Nitro
“50 brief, illuminating essays melding memoir, close reading, literary analysis, and cultural criticism…. Collard’s insightful essays reveal him, as well, as a sympathetic presence, sensitive and wise. Fresh, perceptive literary essays.”
“[Collard’s] meticulous exegesis illustrates how even a brief poem can contain untold layers of meaning. It’s a rousing celebration of the power of literature.”
“[B]oth intense and entertaining, offering as it does thoughts on Collard’s highly detailed interpretation on a line by line basis, and on poetry in general…. A Crumpled Swan is not a book to be rushed. There is much to consider and time should be given to allow reflection on Collard’s reasoning and exhortations. I gained much from my perusal including enjoyment. More than that, though, any reader will ever after carry with them the ability to read poetry through a clearer lens.”
—Jackie Law, in Never Imitate
“In the process of examining Abigail Parry’s poem, Collard offers a refreshingly individual approach to poetry in the context of the Western world, especially the English-speaking Western world, as he discusses poetry’s characteristics, its pleasures, and the significance of its contribution to the enrichment of human life in general and of his own life in particular. He places no conventional academic wall of lofty impersonality between himself and his readers…. Collard is knowledge- able, entertaining and often very funny throughout the fifty essays which make up the book…. [which] is enlivened and enriched throughout (even in the footnotes) by Collard’s unfailingly acute sense of humour, that invaluable giver of perspective and joy, and even of Hobbesian sudden glory.”
—Lyn Ashcroft, in Quadrant
“Collard has the affable, chatty, word-in-your-ear quality of the bright, original friend you most love to talk with, because of their vision, cheerful erudition, and inclusivity…. A wide-sweep book like A Crumpled Swan is never easy to sum-up, except to say it’s a read-with-a-pencil volume—Collard knows things—and if you care for literature, you will find plenty of juicy detail, apt quotes, and other entertainments. The author takes us on a breathtaking wander through the dream origins of poetry, to a meditation on what poetry is for, to an interactive lesson in linguistics….The book is, all at once, a cheerful guidebook, an idiosyncratic map, and an energetic paean, and it exudes Collard’s glee and pleasure in the work.”
—Nuala O’Connor, in Books Ireland
David Collard writes for print and online publications including the Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review, 3:AM Magazine, gorse, Exacting Clam, White Review and others. About a Girl: a Reader’s Guide to Eimear McBride’s A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing was published by CB editions and he contributed to the recent anthologies We’ll Never Have Paris and Love Bites.
He lives in London, where he organises cultish online literary gatherings. He has a website.