With English Subtitles

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

This is Carmine Starnino’s third book of poems. The first, The New
World (1997), concentrated mainly on his Italian-Canadian background,
and contained endearingly personal poems about home and family, then
poems exploring his cultural and religious inheritance. These are
cleanly etched and well crafted, the product of an interesting new
voice. Credo (2000), elaborating on the same topics, is remarkable for
an increased emphasis on words—their meanings, sounds, and
power—culminating in “Cornage,” an impressive 16-poem sequence
celebrating the fascination of etymology as illustrated by a joyous and
infectious hunt through specialized dictionaries.

With English Subtitles carries Starnino’s poetic quest still further.
The dust jacket calls it “an exceptionally focused collection,” but
(while agreeing with the emphasis on minutely clear focus in individual
poems) I would have thought that the main feature of this volume is an
exhilarating display of the variety of Starnino’s poetic abilities. He
has graduated, moreover, from a preoccupation with word meanings to a
revelling in verbal play.

It begins with a series of carefully observed poems about specific
objects (“The Kettle,” “Junkyard,” “Scarecrow,” “The
Suitcase”). These are followed by another intriguing language poem,
“On the Obsolescence of CAPHONE,” which recalls and celebrates
dialect and the demotic, then (changing tone) by a series of mysterious,
painful, highly personal poems about “a bad marriage / of
atmospheres.” The book ends, however, in upbeat fashion, with a poem
called “Summons” that exploits language and especially metaphor with
all the energy and exuberance of a Dylan Thomas.

The junkyard is a “high-rise of mess,” the scarecrow a “mummified
broomstick”; ancient coins in the British Museum are “Ozymandian
loose change // or a bit of dodo boodle, bygone swag.” As can be seen,
Starnino loves to blend the ornate and the colloquial. He belongs with
the likes of Pratt and Klein rather than Bowering or Purdy. Too many
Canadian poets work on an “in-the-beginning-is-the-theme” principle;
Starnino gives precedence to words. If you appreciate poetic skill,
verbal pyrotechnics, and a distinctive voice, this book is cause for
rejoicing.