Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 128

Cfje ClarfomlteDffer jackson daily news gQ2 Sunday, December 21, 1980 Life as viewed through poets9 eyes Book by the forceful drawings of Leonard Baskin, whose work has appeared in 'Hughes' earlier books. His strength that of the poet. Although he, too, is interested in the metaphors available in farming and living on the land, Wendell Berry's Openings is very unlike Hughes' Moortown. Berry's rural environment is Kentucky, his landscape usually a sympathetic one which either reflects or prompts his thoughts. Unlike Hughes' mode of confrontation, Berry's is contemplative.

He is more inclined to evaluate the landscape and to make it sensible than he is to do battle with it or its inhabitants. Rising, the river is wild. There is no end to what one may imagine whose lands and buildings lie in its reach. To one who has felt his little boat taken this way and that in the braided currents it is beyond speech. The transition here between natural description and memory, between the objective world and the subjective imagination is Wordsworthian.

those days and made these poems. It will come as no surprise to readers of Hughes' earlier work that the events he chooses to describe are often confrontations, combats between man and the land, man and the weather, man and beast. The sequence begins with a description of a dismal rain, proceeds through the ordinary chores and occasions of living on the land (dehorning the cattle, birthing of calves, hunting the fields) and ends with a moving eulogy to his father-in-law. Hughes is a poet for whom struggle of one kind or another forms the usual center of his work. Poems other than the "Moortown" sequence which seem characteristic include a sequence about Prometheus on the rock, a shorter one about small, predatory fish called pho-tostomias, and another called "A God," about the crucifixion.

Technically, Hughes continues to create driving, relentless rhythms and to prefer muscular, monosyllabic language. His poems have never so much begged one's attention as commanded it. Hughes can be an exhausting poet. His thematic interests are not wide and his lines can seem relentless, but one must admire his devotion, his sheer energy. Finally, it should be noted that this is a physically handsome book, illustrated Public sorrow, the acquired gold of the leaf, the falling off, the prefigured burning of the yield: which is accomplshed.

At the lakes's edge, the metal pails are full vats of fire. So waste is elevated into beauty. But the leafless teee, Gluck says, is a form of "forced accommodation." At the grave, it is the woman, isn 't it, who bends, the spear useless beside her. The public sorrow becomes a private grief, the burning of the leaves a metaphor for the loss of sons. But if her subject matter is not exotic, her tone of voice is Whatever the subject matter, we realize, we are being addressed in a passionate voice which proves its passion through control; we are being addressed by a voice capable of biting irony, Then begins the terrible charity of marriage, husband and wife climbing the green hill in gold light until there is no hill only a flat plain stopped by the sky.

and wit, Lord, You may not recognize me speaking for someone else. I have a son. He is' Descending Figure by Louis Gluck The Echo Press, $9.95 Mooretown by Ted Hughes Harper and Row, $10.95 Openings by Wendell Berry Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, $3.95 Reviewed by JON K. YENSER Special to SUNDAY I Descending Figure is the third book of poems published by Louise Gluck. It follows First born (1968), a beginning which certainly must be called auspi cious, and the House on Marshland, which earned the critical praise of many good readers.

Gluck is an uncom monly interesting poet, technically gift- ed and thematically arresting. This book is like its predecessor a relatively, thin volume (26 poems in 48 1 pages) tilled with scrupulous, and care-' ful poems. Her typical mode is a disci- plined, relatively short-lined free verse. She writes about childhood, marriage and separation, her family. She writes, too, about the particular fact of being a Autumnal for instance, she begins with, a kind of landscape the falling of.leaves and their burning and ends with a version of timeless grief, the woman at a grave.

It begins: JoKnston authors Barnett biography 1 Rolled With Ross Revised Structure still one of the best so little, so ignorant. and a kind of otherworldly calm, In the empty field, in the morning, the body waits to be claimed. The spirit sits beside it, on a small rock nothing comes to give it form again. Fear of A reviewer who ends by quoting much of Louise Gluck is simply admitting that no small amount of discursive prose can account for the work here. She deserves to be read.

Her voice is clear and singular. Moortown is the seventh separate volume of poems by this British poet to be published in this country. Collections of Ted Hughes' work are also available. Hughes is one of England's most prolific poets, and he is one who has consistently held the attention of readers on this side of the Atlantic. This is a long book for a volume of poems 183 pages, more than 50 poems, many of them sequences.

The book's title comes from a 34-poem sequence at the beginning. The sequence "Moortown" records the events and the emotions connected with a year of farming near Devon, where Hughes and his father-in-law worked. Hughes kept a quasi-journal of $10. Three recent additions to the Dover line uphold the high qualitylow price tradition. They are collections of drawings by Jacopo Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci and engravings by Gustave Dore.

The Leonardo book contains 60 illustrations from his notebooks sketches for easel paintings, frescoes and sculptures, theatrical and allegorical designs, plans for civil and military engineering projects, and studies in botony and anatomy. There is a wonderful sketch showing how he worked out the complex background perspective of his painting, "The Adoration of the Ma- wi I irifin It is natural, for so been that aware of but mentor's of the Barnett Johnston, Times at reading. The at Star which cost be had from (A Political Portrait) by Erie Johnston Barnett Book, $10 Reviewed by O.C. MCDAVID Daily News Staff Writer man can make you feel prouder to be a Missis-sippian than Ross Barnett," a civic club member was heard to say after listening to a speech by the Man From Standing Pine who will be remembered by history as the governor who took a thumping from the federal government in his stand against racial integration of the University of Mississippi. But the greatest achievement of Rollin' Ross, according to his biographer and longtime political ally, Erie Johnston of Forest, was in the buildup of industry in Mississippi during his four years as governor.

A man who practiced his own peculiar brand of public speaking and who imposed it at every offered opportunity, Governor Ross Barnett traveled widely throughout the country, addressing university audiences, civic clubs, political gatherings. His speeches were a melange of missions regardless of the audience: To students, businessmen and politicians alike, his message was a mixture of States' Rights advocacy, Tourism, and Industrial Opportunity. His message was that Mississippi is a heaven of blossoms and beauty, an industrial frontier of unmined wealth and a paradise of brotherly love. In jm momi 0 Presehud to down of racial segregation in education institutions (James Meredith's enrollment at the University of Mississippi under protection of a battalion of U.S. marshals and after a night-long campus battle in which two were killed and many injured).

"He was the first governor to enact a far-reaching Bill of Rights for Industry that included getting the Right-to-Work law made a part of the Mississippi Constitution. He made many trips to the North, East and West, hammering home his fanatical belief in states' rights and constitutional government and extolling the blessings Mississippi could offer prospective industrialists. He actually stole industries headed for other stales with his persuasive charm. "He was the first governor of Mississippi who never ran for any other office. "He was the first governor to experience an invasion of northern civil rights leaders, determined to change Mississippi overnight.

Barnett referred to them as 'outside How Barnett used his "breakfast at the Mansion" as a selling tool, the amusing stories he told, the faux pas he committed, the strategy of his campaigns, all are related. Johnston portrays the governor as a wily and determined antagonist and advocate. How campaign aides thwarted derogatory reaction when Barnett walked into a spinning airplane propeller is one example of Johnston's "inside" stories about a political era which history must rank as one of the most colorful in Mississippi history. Many such stories, how ever, are only hinted at the reader realizes a few funerals must precede their telling. The book is an enlightening and sometimes amusing story, well told.

The narrative will hold the reader's attention and afford an insider's insight into the events marking this as one of the important eras in Mississippi's history. I could not put it down. I Rolled With Ross is not a textbook. It was not intended as one. However, it should be an aid to any serious student of Mississippi history especially of the era of Barnett's maneuvering with federal judges in his long but vain attempt to prevent Meredith from becoming the first black to enter the Ole Miss.

Some of the court opinions are quoted. HESH0B4 COUNTY practically the same breath, he denounced tervenudn into local affairs particularly and extolled the beauties of his native state hospitable climate for visitors and industrial re- The center of this book is, as in jHughes' work, a lengthy sequence. Ber-jry's "Window Poems" consists of 27 separate sections, each piece based on (what the speaker sees out his study window that day. The sequence covers like Hughes' poem a consider-iable period of time. Berry's poet-speak-(er sits through one winter at this window, writing and reflecting.

It is an important and useful difference between Hughes and Berry: In the Moortown sequence Hughes focuses, ior the most part, on discrete events of jthe day. He spends little time speculating on the meaning of those events, but rather is content to render the graphic details as forcefully as possible. Berry, on the other hand, is willing to recollect in tranquility. Also unlike Hughes, Berry has the impulse to reflect on public events. This, too, is a traditional posture: the agrarian poet delivering a disinterested opinion about current events.

Berry writes about the Vietnam war, about the environment, about detente. One of the most interesting poems specifically in this is "To a Siberian Woodsman," jwherein Berry makes a sensible plea, man to man, for peace and understanding. Jon Yenser is a writer living in Iowa. a cogent introduction by Gross, a good bibliography and a useful glossary. The essayists are an impressive gathering.

Beginning with Robert Graves' eccentric account of the origins of English meters, we can move through the rigorous voice of Ivor Winters, the basic texts of Otto Jespersen and I.A. Richards, the theories of two of our greatest practioners (Pound and Eliot), to the ideas of contemporaries John Hollander and Donald Justice. They all address the difficult and rewarding questions that surround the music of poetry. Why and how do poems sound musical? What constitutes the idea of metrical order? Is that order still necessary, or is vers libre more than an aberrant thought? Why does English seem to demand a different set of rules than the classical languages? We must admire this collection, and we must believe what the introductory remarks tell us: that this revised edition is a response to writers and teachers and students who made clear the need for a good collection of essays on English prosody. In general this is an even-handed treatment, although one could wish for a more contemporary exponent of free verse.

As was the case in 1966, this book will be useful to a small, select audience. Jon Yenser is a write- living in Iowa. prices The Dore book is the most lavish of the three and easily my favorite. It contains 208 steel engravings, selected dm of 618 he did to illustrate the Italian Renaissance epic poem, "Orlando Furioso." The engraving style is strictly Victorian yet handled with such imagination and tuergy it looks more like Frank Franzetta than Thomas Nast. Hopeless romantics jnd advertising departments looking for clip art should have a field day with this amazing collection of castles and caves, dragons and dungeons, witches and whirlwinds that only someone of Gustave Dore's genious could hope to produce.

THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME si by Henri Arnold and Bob Lee Jumbles, to form YOU WOULPNJ'T EXPECT HIM TO BE SOMEONE'S KI6HT-HANP fAAH. Now arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by the above cartoon. ANSWER IN THE CIRCLES BELOW YYYYYY1 A A A A A (Answers appear on page 00) a I Boys, meet my i loo-tenant Ross Barnett biography surely, that anyone so closely associated long with his subject as Erie Johnston has anyone thus allied should be actually frailties in-liis-" makeup, although he does poke fun at some mannerisms. VZZ retired editor of the weekly Scott County Forest, covers the story in a straightforward, news-reporting style which makes for easy hardbound book is available in Jackson Graphics, 4443 1-55 North. Mail orders $12, including postage and handling can Barnett Books, Box 81, Forest, MS 39074.

settlers. Elected on.campaign planks advocating continued racial segregation and more industrial jobs, Barnett took office in January of 1960 as the Civil Rights Movement neared its peak. It is on those tumultuous times that I Rolled With Ross concentrates. Ross' public relations aide through two political campaigns (1955 and 1959), Jonnston prefaces his book with a summation of Barnett's "He was the first governor to experience the break Famous artists' work collected on good paper at reasonable The Structure of Verse a revised edition edited by Harvey Gross Ecco Press, $9.95, paper Reviewed by JON K. YENSER Special to SUNDAY In 1966, when it was first published.

The Structure of Verse was a very good book of its kind. Its kind was, granted, quite limited, of interest mainly to graduate students in English. It was a collection of essays about theories of English prosody. As the editor of this volume, Harvey Gross, defined it, prosody is "in the broadest sense the music of poetry, and, in the narrower sense the specific organization of the syllables, that is, the meter." But if the audience was limited, it was selective. And in 1966, this collection of essays, which cost 95c for a suspiciously bound paperback, was one of the best books of its kind.

wj It so happens that it sUlfuT Moreover, this edition is a different book seven essays have been added and six dropped since 1966. The book now costs more than ten times what it cost in 1966, but so does almost everything else. Besides, the book is now an attractively bound papperback. The book contains a total of 15 essays, sented here are not very informative, and freshman art students, who are often required to study them, will sorely miss the rest. The Bellini drawings are something of a disappointment, although they are probably as well reproduced as one could expect.

While they are a good representation of his work, many are so faded that it is difficult to get much out of them. There are some interesting perspective studies and a wonderfully elaborate drawing of the Crucifixion, however. One advantage the Bellini book has over the Leonardo book is a section of notes for each of the 50 plates. 79 Beverage 83 As written: Mus. 85 Hears of 86 Lake 87 Struggle with 88 Spoken 89 Negative prefix 90 Fond wish 91 Chemical compound 92 Hardwood tree 93 Hurries 94 Greek letter 96 Auricular 97 Scruff 100 Compass pt- 102 Chinese fac- SOLUTION tlon tools 105 European 121 Decline country 122 Quack 109 Season icine 112 Ascend 123 Knocks 113 Damage 125 Carnivorous 114 Group of mammals seven 126 Hindu 116 Soaks queens 118 Ripped 127 Warble 120 Kitchen 129 Of the Unscramble these one letter to each six ordinary words.

LEMWID I 1 I I I I BOLUDE federal in- schools and its art books at modest prices. The books, all soft-cover, are especially popular with college students who have acquired a taste for fine things but can't yet afford them. They're also popular with art departments, who use them as clip art sources, and artists, who buy them as cheap references. The books are invariably well-designed; the illustrations big. clear and generally well-selected.

There are about 50 titles, ranging from Daumier: 120 Great Lithographs to Science Fiction and Horror Movie Posters in Full Color, and they're all priced at less than a copo Bellini Selected Drawings edited by Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier Dover, $3.50 paper Leonardo Drawings Dover, $2 paper Dore's Illustrations or Ariosto's 'Orlando Furioso Dover, $5 paper Reviewed by JAMES LARRICK Clarion-Ledger Cartoonist Dover publications has made quite a name for itself, producing high-quality his famous "Diagram of Human Proportions." There are also some of his studies of horses for the Sforza monument (an enormous sculpture the clay rendering of which was destroyed by invading armies before it could" be cast in bronze) and a drawing of some of the figures of "The Last Supper." Conspicuously absent in the collection are most of his famous anatomy studies. Drawn as he dissected cadavers a form of scholarship that could have cost him his life, had he been caught, in 15th Century Italy the drawings are still among the most accurate of medical illustrations. The two drawings pre 150 Meet 152 Heavy downpour 153 South Pacific island 154 Hawaiian intsrs. 156 Lamented 157 Worms 158 Girl's name 159 Average 53 Winglike 54 Hindu garment 56 Thinking 59 Occurrence 60 Equal 61 Girl's nickname 63 Hunting dogs 65 Halt 67 Bitter vetch 69 Printer's measure 70 Guided 72 Bog down 74 Tantalum symbol 76 Man's nickname 77 Book of maps 160 Out of date DOWN 1 Commonplace 2 Comment 3 Hopes for 4 Edible seed 5 Cut 6 College deg.

7 Man's Crossword Puzzle 131 Rocks 142 Japanese 132 Jockey Earl beer med- 144 Break sud- 133 Ore source i d8nlv 134 col- Owing 1148 Household I pet 136 Pack away 149 Meadow 138 European 151 By way of 140 Outfits 153 Exist la'ty 141 Animal coat 155 Tin symbol 1 six square, rw I I I KA I ACROSS 1 Snares 6 Church service 10 House part 14 Shade tree 19 Teel nant at 2 1 Encourage 22 Assistant 23 Container 24 Injures 26 Formal letter 28 Retinue 29 Siamese native 30 Pond 32 Woody plants 33 Farm animals 34 Moccasin 35 Transgresses 37 Waste allowance 39 Ethiopian title 40 Chapeaus 41 Man's nickname 42 Sharp 44 Zodiac sign 46 Withered 47 Solicitude 48 Prophet 50 Advocate 52 Center 53 While 55 Couple 57 Negative 58 Sisters 59 Stockings 60 Qt. part 62 Chem. bldg. 64 Pedal digits 66 Pronoun 68 Sun god 69 Direction 70 Bishopric 71 War god 73 Shred 75 Postage stickers 77 The sweet- sop 78 Lasso 80 Towers 81 Lamprey 82 Annoys 84 Running pace 86 Courage 87 Irish lassie 89 Cyprinoid fish 92 Tremulous 95 Man's name 98 Russian city 99 Passageways 101 Enthusiasm 103 Bristle 104 Dance step 105 Sea eagle 106 Holy fig. 1 107 Pronoun 108 Man's name 1 10 Plunge 111 Paso 112 Toll .113 Hastens 1 15 Teutonic deity 117 Insect 119 Cerium symbol 120 Evergreen trees 121 Give up 124 Shine brightly 126 Trick 127 Father 128 Of the mail 130 Three: Sp.

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