 [ Large Image ] | Aiken Drum Peter Sanger 2006 / Poetry / $19.95 9781554470143 / Trade paper / 144 pp In his sixth collection of poetry, Peter Sanger brings his archaeologist’s eye, along with classical and local iconography, to his encounters with domestic implements, local ecology, cultural relics and landmarks. The poems in this collection achieve a delicate balance between the grounded and the ethereal, such that the poet’s studies set down in words without losing any of the transient nature of seeing and of understanding. Alighting on plants, tools, vessels, instruments and jewellery, Sanger’s engagement with each is infused with imagination and a sharp association with an interior catalogue of imagery that spans classical mythology, Shakespeare, and a personalized spectrum of more contemporary influences, including poets Elizabeth Bishop and Richard Outram, and photographer Thaddeus Holownia. The poems in this collection share a stunning precision, and demonstrate a simultaneous thrift and exuberance of language and rhythm. Music comes from surprising places, adding a quality of purity and resolve in some places, achieving the liturgical lilt of nursery rhyme in others. Aiken Drum features a long poem on the nebulous existence of William Newman—alias: Moon—a con artist who got by on what others assumed about him as he roamed New England and the Maritimes in the early nineteenth century. Here Sanger tugs at the edges of a more recent myth, revealing some of the essence of mythology itself. As the voices of poet, speaker and subject coalesce, readers are compelled to question just what we make of individuality and what we deem truth. Circling around the verity of the person and the presentation of that verity in literature, Sanger extends into poetry the bibliographic sleuthing that has defined his recent prose work. “The tutelary spirit in Aiken Drum is an archetypal, mercurial shape-shifter whose name gives the collection its title,” says Sanger. “Originally, the character Aiken Drum appears in an old Scottish nursery rhyme of uncertain origin. Here, he also appears in the shape of the infamous ‘mysterious stranger’ who called himself during a career of thievery and fantastical escapades Smith or More or Newman or—Henry Moon. His story is told in the poem sequence ‘Abatos,’ but his presence, in various forms (including at one point, the philosopher Wittgenstein), infiltrates many poems throughout the collection. Like many books of poetry, Aiken Drum’s geography is both purgatorial and paradisal. Which is which, and when, are matters for the man in the moon and Aiken Drum.” To purchase this title: Add it to your cart There is also a special edition of the book: 9781554470150 | Other Books by this Author |  | Sea Run: Notes on John Thompson’s Stilt Jack Peter Sanger 2023 / Literary Criticism Canadian Poetry / $28.95 CAN 9781554472581 / Trade paper / 144 pp |  | Biorachan Road Peter Sanger 2022 / Essay / $150.00 CAN Fine / 22 pp |  | Odysseus Asleep: Uncollected Sequences, 1994-2019 Peter Sanger 2019 / Canadian Poetry / $21.95 CAN 9781554472048 / Trade paper / 128 pp |  | Lightfield: The Photography of Thaddeus Holownia Peter Sanger 2018 / Photography, Essays, Canadian Art / $24.95 CAN 9781554471775 / Trade paper / 112 pp |  | Of Things Unknown: Critical Essays, 1978–2005 Peter Sanger 2015 / Literary Criticism / $34.95 CAN 9781554471508 / Trade paper / 368 pp |  | Oikos Peter Sanger 2014 / Essay / $9.95 CAN 9781554471256 / Pamphlet / 16 pp |  | Fireship: Early Poems, 1965–1991 Peter Sanger 2013 / Poetry / $25.95 CAN 9781554471218 / Trade paper / 192 pp |  | John Stokes’ Horse Peter Sanger 2012 / Poetry / $21.95 CAN 9781554471133 / Trade paper / 128 pp |  | Through Darkling Air: The Poetry of Richard Outram Peter Sanger 2010 / Biography / $65.95 CAN 9781554470617 / Hardcover / 512 pp |  | The Stone Canoe: Two Lost Mi’kmaq Texts Peter Sanger, Elizabeth Paul, Alan Syliboy 2007 / Literary Criticism / $29.95 CAN 9781554470433 / Trade paper / 192 pp |  | Aiken Drum Peter Sanger 2006 / Poetry / $49.95 CAN 9781554470150 / Fine / 144 pp |  | White Salt Mountain: Words in Time Peter Sanger 2005 / Books & reading, Books & reading / $59.95 CAN 9781554470037 / Fine / 240 pp |  | White Salt Mountain: Words in Time Peter Sanger 2005 / Books & reading, Books & reading / $27.95 CAN 9781554470044 / Trade paper / 240 pp |  | Spar: Words in Place Peter Sanger 2002 / Books & reading / $21.95 CAN 9781894031547 / Trade paper / 112 pp | Spar: Words in Place Peter Sanger 2002 / Books & reading / $49.95 CAN 9781894031554 / Fine / 112 pp |  | Divisions of the Heart: Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Memory and Place Sandra Barry, Peter Sanger, Gwendolyn Davies 2001 / Essays / $32.95 CAN 9781894031318 / Trade paper / 336 pp |  | Kerf Peter Sanger 2001 / Poetry / $4.95 CAN 9781894031530 / Pamphlet / 24 pp |
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