The Burden of Jonah Ben Amittai

Edward L. Edmonds is a professor of English at the University of Prince
Edward Island.

From time immemorial, there have always been hopeful seekers after
spiritual truth, no matter how pathless the approaches may be. In this
volume of his poems, Brown goes back to Jonah, son of Amittai, to
Elijah, to Odin, as his source-references: all are mirrored and
symbolized in his own world of today.

Immensely erudite, he makes no concession to the layreader. Few there
will be who do not thumb their dictionary more than once—Brown is a
past master of the art of nuance, of those overtones and undertones of
meaning of words to which the language lends itself. Close understanding
of the biblical texts and of Scandinavian mythology will help too, as
will a more-than-passing acquaintance with English literature. Even so,
occasional obscurity creeps in, possibly the inevitable result of his
trying to express what may be virtually inexpressible. Language can then
begin to break down, a problem T.S. Eliot came up against when writing
his “Four Quartets.” Brown’s recourse is to language
experimentation, an attempt perhaps to get back to the more fluid
conditions of language that prevailed with Shakespeare: indeterminacy of
part of speech, flexibility of syntax.

This slim volume includes several poems that—in a different
form—have previously appeared in divers journals.