The things that I listed that bug me about Donaghy are also what endear him to me. If I were to list other poets I read and love, I might say the same of them. And, no, I don't think "drugs, sex, and bad soul" are his top notes... I'm more attracted to his storytelling, and his engagement with the reader. But I think that for those readers like Philip the more wilder elements are a barrier. I read Donaghy for a few years before I knew of his drug habits, which I only learned from Tim Murphy's remembrances. When I encountered those references, I never assumed he had firsthand knowledge, but I thought it likely. In any event, that's totally beside the point.
About the closing couplets... I agree that Donaghy makes that work. It's also one of the most daring techniques he employs (that, and the unabashed conceits worthy of Donne). I agree with David... it is like the box is being snapped shut, but paradoxically it still breathes. What first jumps to mind here is the closing of "Reprimands" when Thomas chooses to "...wet with blood his faithless hand." There is a contemporary aversion to the kind of closure that Donaghy tends to employ in these poems and I think it comes from a postmodern unease with the whole idea. And I don't think one can encounter it without thinking of Shakespeare, which is either to the poem's benefit or detriment.
It's interesting that so chilling a poem as "Shibboleth" was inspired by his move to London. It seems he never took the most obvious route from inspiration to poem. It would have been too easy to write a poem about the American new to London trying to get the lingo down. What if Donaghy had written a poem with a confessional "I" that directly addressed his anxieties?
|