The New World

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

After a distinguished literary apprenticeship, Montreal poet Carmine
Starnino has published his first book. His poems have appeared in The
Fiddlehead and The Malahat Review, as well as in Lorna Crozier and
Patrick Lane’s anthology Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets (1995).

Many of the poems in The New World are about Starnino’s immigrant
family. Several have Christian themes, but the volume’s central theme
is the emigration of the poet’s Italian family to Canada, effectively
explored in “Heritage.” The Starnino family history is cleverly
revealed through a series of descriptive phrases (“This is the apple
tree ... This is the church bell”), with the author serving as the
understated narrator of a carousel slide projector show.

This poet distinguishes himself from his Canadian peers by offering
translations of Italian poets, such as Eugenio Montale. Since the
original authors are acknowledged only in small-type cutlines at the
ends of their poems, one might accuse the translator of trying to
overshadow the original creator. This charge can be countered by
examining Umberto Saba’s verse “The Goat.” The lines “In the
groan of a solitary goat / I heard the lament of every other pain, /
every other life” suggest that the author either has chosen a worthy
poet or has been able to boost a mediocre one.

These translation exercises aside, form effectively serves content in
this volume, articulating emotions about such subjects as family and
immigration. Starnino offers sentiment without sentimentality,
establishing himself as both communicator and artisan.