NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
An independent small press poetry review
 ONE FLEW OVER A CORNISH HEDGE edited by Wendy Webb Wendy Webb Books 9 Walnut Close Norwich NR8 6YN UK ISBN 978 1 903264 64 5 £2        Web design by  This page last updated: 13th October 2008. |
ONE FLEW OVER A CORNISH HEDGE | |
The Davidian form consists of quatrains, rhymed or unrhymed with ten syllables per line followed by a monostich of just seven syllables.The inside cover of this pamphlet outlines the form for the casual reader and allows us to see how each one is constructed. BOSSINEY BAY 1906 by Pamela Trudie Hodge tells a long narrative story of bathing costumes, high tea and Cornish ladies, working in period detail from the Edwardian age, reminding this reader of Francis Ledwidge's work. RETURN TO ST KILDA by James Knox Whittet is quoted as being the best example in the pamphlet of a Davidian, with it's evolving refrain of The present pained by the past.In this Davidian, the poet follows the return of the protagonist and uses memory and current experience to create a sense of the lost life of a previous time. The repeating refrain does indeed develop the poem, commenting on the effects of past on the present and vice versa. From the examples in this anthology, the form seems to lend itself well to an almost ballad like style of story-telling, in that most of the poems reflect a narrative about a place or a person. WILLIAM HERSCHEL by John Brown is a case in point, where we follow William's dogged determination to invent the telescope. The poem tells the story, using rhymed quatrains and the monostich to underscore each stanza. | ||
| reviewer: Barbara Smith. |