A rich reward for poetry readers

Published Sep 5, 2011

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The title of this slim volume refers to a model invented in 1850 by Dr George Merryweather, curator of the Whitby Museum.

Twelve glass bottles were set in a ring round a stand with a bell encircled by 12 hammers. The hammer was attached to a bit of whalebone set in the neck of one of the bottles. In each bottle was a leech, we are told in the endnote, and when a storm approached, the leeches climbed up the necks of the bottles. This action disturbed the whalebones and the bells started ringing.

An apt epiphora for these wonderful and enticing poems with a blend of urban legend, mythology, literary references and science.

Isobel Dixon published Weather Eye in 2001 and A Fold in the Map in 2007. Her new volume, The Tempest Prognosticator, is indeed a virtuoso collection.

The poem Usury came second in the Ilkley Poetry Competition in 2007, judged by Britain’s poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. There are other commendable poems and nods from the greats. J M Coetzee praises the sparse volume with exciting poems as “virtuoso”.

Dixon has published in South Africa and in The Paris Review and The Guardian, and several poems have appeared in anthologies.

The motto by American writer Henry James (1843-1916), “Cats and monkeys; monkeys and cats; all human life is there” carries a subtle Jamesian warning: show me, don’t tell me. Dixon applies this dictum in her imagery.

In Root verses the speaker prays for “the peace of photosynthesis” in an awareness of the deep organic and Buddhist mystery of vegetables. In a humorous poem, You, Me and the Orang-utan, desire reflects a dream of Borneo. A Beautifully Constructed Cocktail (22) reflects on the poetry in the names of cocktails. Astronomy Sonnetry – in memory of musician Syd Barrett (1946-2006) (Pink Floyd) – is a whirlwind of references and a technical dance “for the lost son of Otter” (36). Silking the Spider (37) is a homage to Louise Bourgeois, the well-known French artist, and on the delicate work of spiders.

Ruth Padel in The Poem and the Journey (2007) argues that there is no one secret to reading a poem, but to think of it as a journey. In Dixon’s volume one is constantly reminded of the poem as a journey: references to other poems, other continents, and an interesting relationship between a South African poet living in England sending her letters home.

It is a most commendable volume of poetry. Indeed a rich reward for the poetry reader. – Joan Hambidge

l Joan Hambidge is an Afrikaans poet who teaches at UCT. Her latest volume of poetry, Visums by Verstek, was published by Human & Rousseau. - Cape Argus

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