of quatrains, to be spotted "cresting the gable/of someone's roof"--only now it becomes a mere "graven image" without the poet's voice to give it life. Words are the Dragon, and the poem itself, long and slim and elegantly draped over the pages, resembles a live, if mythic, creature, animated by the poet's breath, and exhaling imagination's fire.[by Fleur Adcock]
Dragon Talk
from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Books blog: Poem of the week: Dragon Talk by Fleur Adcock
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[John] Cornford begins dramatically, as if to invoke some great, abstract power. His innovative stroke, the repetition of "heart" three times, is wonderfully successful. A surge of emotion is created with each repetition, and, every time, the word earns its place by acquiring a faintly different meaning, and tracing a movement from impersonal register to intimate.
from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Books blog: Poem of the week: Poem by John Cornford
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