thel.

Douglas Barbour is a professor of English at the University of Alberta.
He is the author of Lyric/anti-lyric : Essays on Contemporary Poetry,
Breath Takes, and Fragmenting Body Etc.

Among the many signs that concrete poetry is making a comeback, Donato Mancini’s work must rank high. His second book, Æthel, is an amazing collection of mostly typeface constructions in the tradition of “clean” concrete, beautifully rendered, but with the witty addition of titles that take the mind ever further into the visuals and away from any kind of simple representation.

Mancini works with a variety of enlarged typefaces, including those associated with other forms of writing, such as Hebrew (this in the brilliant “A Time of Doubt for Atheists”); he also constructs a number of the pieces out of hand-drawn sign language, a neat variation of the usual grounds of concrete. Thus, each page becomes a separate “picture,” with what could be called either a running commentary beneath or a series of individual titles. As Mancini says in his acknowledgements, the work “proposes a theoretical framework for a visual/concrete poetry within contemporary poetics, diverse poetic practices and poetry culture at large.” That framework insists on melding high and popular culture, as the list of the sources he has punningly borrowed from demonstrates.

So, we are offered pieces with titles like “The Sorrows of Young Werther (Goth Phase),” in which Mancini piles Fractur letters into a kind of castle; or “When I Paint My Disasterpiece,” in which hand signs fissure into an inarticulate mass; or “Pope? Nope,” a wonderfully thickened fall of letters. The range of expression Mancini achieves with his variations on and of type and lettering is staggering. Add to that the sly wit and breadth of his borrowings, and Æthel becomes an object to return to again and again. Basically, Mancini’s constructions are drop-dead gorgeous—not, perhaps, the usual praise for concrete poetry, but deserved here. Æthel signals the presence of a major new talent in this field.