The Commons by Stephen Collis

by Stephen Collis

In "The Commons", we wander the English countryside with the so-called mad peasant poet John Clare, just escaped from an Essex asylum, walking the more than eighty miles to his home in Helpston; we pick wild fruit with anarchist Henry David Thoreau, also newly escaped from jail (for not paying his poll tax); and we comb the English Lake District, undermining William Wordsworth's proprietary claim upon it, with a host of authors of Romantic Guides and Tours.Tearing down (intellectual) property's fencing, "The Commons" veers in and out of history to find spaces of linguistic hope. What we call, in less inspired moments, "allusion," "borrowing," or even (pretentiously) "intertextuality" is just this fact that poetry proves again and our languages are common; shared; and, un-enclosable.

Genres: Poetry, School

Paperback

First published April 30, 2008

Reviews

[Chloë · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous cover. This second edition is one of the nicest-looking books I’ve ever seen.

Powerful suite of poems, too. Just to have them in your mouth, so alive and juicy (like the blackberries themselves).

And the essay! Collis is our modern-day Thoreau, in many ways. I hope he is a legislator of the world, unacknowledged or acknowledged. It would be a good world.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good imagery but over all just pompous and trite!

[e · Rating 5 out of 5]

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