Outlaw Style: Poems

by R.T. Smith

Outlaw Style is a collection of narrative and lyric poems, many of them in the tradition of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues. While gothic imagery, humor, and nineteenth-century diction and reference alternate and interweave, the four thematic currents that converge in the collection are music, race, spirituality, and the impact of monstrosity on somewhat innocent bystanders. Poems like “Dar He,” “Scuppernongs,” and “Plantation of the Mad” address the history of American racial intolerance with muted horror, while the final series of poems explores the roots and impact of traditional music, from unsettling songs of the Carter Family through Delta Blues and the haunting ballad “Strange Fruit.” The collection also features poems, such as “Shepherd Ollie Strawbridge on the Chicken Business,” which question the nature of spirituality; and the central section, “The Booth Prism,” performs a kind of séance in which the author channels the voices of many of the people―from Anna Surratt Tonry to Booth’s lovers and siblings―whose lives were altered by contact with Lincoln’s assassin. Throughout Outlaw Style formal and vernacular rhythms stand in counterpoint, images of violence excavate a stark and troubling beauty, and history and mystery fuse and feud, as the landscape and culture of the American South are presented for interrogation and understanding.

Genres: Poetry

110 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection, with some Appalachian settings I'm familiar with, I thought I would like. Nope. I'm pretty flexible on prose / poetry stuff, but a lot of these poems seemed like chopped up prose, and flat prose at that. There's some good descriptive lines, but many of the poems didn't hold my interest to the end. The long middle section, devoted to Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth, crashed and burned for me. It's a great topic, but it was simply an abbreviated version of what you could pick up in a history book (and on that front, I highly recommend the recent American Brutus, by Michael Kaufman). For all this negative stuff, I'll flag two fine poems: "Thrush Witch," and "Carrion Cry" (which for me was the best poem in the collection).

[Diann Blakely]

OUTLAW STYLE makes even the grimmest, quasi-Manichean spirits--like his fellow Georgian, Flannery O'Connor--want to get happy and testify to the workings of the Holy Spirit; and, simultaneously, to bargain with the Devil for the ability to grab a guitar's neck and confess "the enduring thirst for melody." Smith delves deeply into the traditions of Southern music, as well as the story of John Wilkes Booth and outside artists. He arrives at a place beyond wisdom, his high notes resounding with humility, confidence, and sprezzatura. "O play that thing" is probably a more fitting accolade than "bravo," and OUTLAW STYLE makes us crave an encore. Then another.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite book by R.T. Smith, but still a great read. See my review on Rattle http://www.rattle.com/ereviews/smitho...