Ship of Fool

by William Trowbridge

This book consists primarily of poems about a character based on the fool archetype, which appears not only in silents and standups (e.g. Keaton, Pryor, Woody Allen) but also in tales running back to the beginning of storytelling. To borrow from Yiddish comedy, he is a combination of schlemiel and schlimazel . The difference is that the schlemiel is a bungler who's always accidentally breaking things and spilling stuff on people and the schlimazel is a sad sack who's always getting his things broken and getting stuff spilled on him. Trowbridge's Fool is both. He is often treated harshly, which seems to come simply from his being a fool. Most fool figures, though comic, are subjected to a great deal of violence. The very term "slapstick" derives from this.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2011

About the author

William Trowbridge holds a B.A. in Philosophy and an M. A. in English from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University. In April, 2012, he was appointed to a two-year term as Poet Laureate of Missouri.

His poetry publications include six full collections: Put This On, Please (Red Hen Press, 2014), Ship of Fool (Red Hen Press, 2011), The Complete Book of Kong (Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2003), Flickers, O Paradise, and Enter Dark Stranger (University of Arkansas Press, 2000, 1995, 1989). He has also published three chapbooks, The Packing House Cantata (Camber Press, 2006), The Four Seasons (Red Dragonfly Press, 2001), and The Book of Kong (Iowa State University Press, 1986).

His poems have appeared in more than 30 anthologies and textbooks, as well as in such periodicals as Poetry, The Gettysburg Review, Crazyhorse, The Georgia Review, Boulevard, The Southern Review, Columbia, Colorado Review, The Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, Epoch, and New Letters. He has given readings and workshops at schools, colleges, bookstores, and literary conferences throughout the United States. His awards include an Academy of American Poets Prize, a Pushcart Prize, a Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference scholarship, a Camber Press Poetry Chapbook Award, and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Ragdale, Yaddo, and The Anderson Center.

He is a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Northwest Missouri State University, where he was an editor of The Laurel Review/GreenTower Press from 1986 to 2004. Now living in Lee’s Summit, MO, he teaches in the University of Nebraska low-residency MFA in writing program.

Reviews

[Chris - Quarter Press Editor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't read much poetry, but if Trowbridge wrote all the poetry in the world, I would probably take more time to read it.

This book is fantastic, full of humor and heartache and heavenly meditations. There are few things that can make you laugh and break your heart moments later. Art that can do this is of the highest order, and Trowbridge is a part of the most highest order of orders.

Read this, even if you aren't into poetry. It just might change your feelings towards the form.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been waiting for a collection like this to be published for over two years now, since I first heard William Trowbridge read one of his Fool poems. It hit me in a way that few poems do, mixing insight with compassion and humor as well as gallows humor and submission to the meekness of human existence, and I had to read more. I went to someone I trusted to be familiar with Trowbridge's body of work only to find out that Bill had not yet collected those particular poems. Well, now he has and I can honestly say that no matter what I imagined in my anticipation, Bill has outdone. These poems exemplify the complex miracles that Bill achieves with a simple voice, creating jabs and quips that my ear revels to listen to and at the same time slipping in such unexpected word choices and images that I feel like clapping in the middle of poems. But, that is what I always expect of Bill. These poems are more. In these poems Bill reexamines the archetype of the fool, strangely combining the esoteric understanding of an 18th century ceremonial magician with the voice of a Nebraska farmer trying to explain Odysseus to his chickens. The poems are funny at the same time they are tragically touching, compassionate at the same time that they are cruel, and sophisticated at the same time that they are crude. I think the evidence of similar themes in the non-Fool poems included in this collection, perhaps of a more autobiographical sort of voice, demonstrate that Trowbridge looks at the fool archetype as a distillation of the most human parts of all of us. Like Fool, we are big-hearted, but we break everything we touch. We try hard, but are purest motives only seem to draw down accidents and malice on our heads. Basically, we are out of luck, but we are blessed. Even with our foibles and lack of a single break, it is the simple yet compassionate part of ourselves which redeems us even if it may not keep us out of trouble. Trowbridge is not condescending in this. Instead he invites us to laugh at our hard yet beautiful lives. The message I get is that it is the very impossible struggle, which we pray most to be rid of, that actually contains our meaning. In short, even with the high expectations I had for this collection, I was still impressed.

[Maryfrances · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you haven't read the poems of William Trowbridge, you are missing out on a special treat. This collection of persona poems features Fool in assorted situations. This is book that offers humor, philosophic thought, and a delightful trip through the literary and pop culture world. Anyone could love these poems. And if you haven't checked out other books by William Trowbridge, they are all little pleasures you should not miss.

[J.A.]

Interesting to hold the theme (and character) of "fool" across such expanses, such thresholds.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ship of Fool is a really interesting book, a three-part compilation of poems that primarily focus on a character known only as Fool, representing the archetypal fool, often times tying him to God and Christianity. Many of the poems are very funny, as they are ironic and/or have humorous punchlines, but I am modest and am willing to admit that because of the difficult language used in some of the poems, I feel like a lot of the humor went over my head, and I couldn't catch it no matter how many times that I read the punchline. The book is certainly very clever, but I don't really care for how many of the poems are written; they are written like a story that doesn't take any pauses, not even when a new stanza starts. Many stanzas end with a comma, for example, while the next one picks up on the sentence that the last didn't finish, and I am not used to seeing that kind of poetry, but I do respect Trowbridge and his artistic choices. I also don't like the fact that the second part of the compilation randomly interrupts the "fool" theme with a broader one, a theme that seems to be autobiographical. It is out of place and interrupts the flow of the overall book. I do appreciate the book for what it is, though; it is certainly artistic, and some of it is funny. I don't hate it, but nor can I say that I love it.

[Red Hen Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful book of persona poems shows Trowbridge at the height of his talents. In this collection of poems about Fool, the reader will laugh and then pause because there is much more than meets the eye. Each poem is rich and complex. This collection is for anyone that likes poetry that offers layers of meaning, a little humor mixed in with philosophic musings.

[Isaac Timm · Rating 4 out of 5]

The concept was a little off putting for me, but there were some very good poems in section two.
I read this collection again with a new understanding of the serial comic idea, it was like reading the poems with a new set of eyes. The "Fool" as the comedian, God as the straight man. I like so many I can't list all of them, School Lessons still rates high, and Fool Noir gets a laugh.

[Reagan Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

wonderful collection of poetry.