The Rage of Space

Hugh Oliver is Editor-in-Chief, OISE Press.

The Rage of Space is an expensively produced, large-format, hardcover
book that runs close to 60 pages. It has tasteful black-and-white
illustrations (mostly drawn from photographs of the cosmos) and is
punctuated by the quotes of some of history’s more famous astronomers
and philosophers. Unfortunately the gems of the book—the
poems—hardly justify such an elegant setting. The concepts of the
astronomer, the experiences of the astronaut, and the magnitude of the
moon and stars represent heady, inspirational stuff. “The universe is
/ all we understand / cast to the four winds / by a random hand.” Too
heady, perhaps, for all but the most visionary imagination. Indeed,
these days, it is probably fair to say that the music of the spheres is
interpreted more poetically by the astrophysicist than by the poet. Or
arguably this has always been so.