Seventeen Odes

Don Precosky teaches English at the College of New Caledonia and is the
co-editor of Four Realities: Poets of Northern B.C.

This book is a collection of 17 Horatian odes written in an eleven-line stanza. It is the kind of book which calls into question the whole concept of tradition. I am tempted to describe it as a collection of “traditional” odes, but into which tradition does it fall? It is certainly not in the modern tradition, since a fixed stanza, complex rhyme schemes, and regular metre are not hallmarks of poetry in the last 80 years. Then again, it does not fit into any pre-modern tradition either, since the odes are written out of an entirely twentieth century sensibility.

The first ode gave me a double jolt. Being used to the informal conversational style of most modern Canadian poetry, I was shaken by the deliberate artifice, the contrived yet effective use of language. Once I was able to accept the strict form, I smugly assumed that White would fail, that the book would unfold as a collection of pale clichés, poetic inversions, thee’s and thou’s. I was wrong. This book works. The poems are clockwork intricacies, shining jewels, clear and focused miniatures.

By imitating the old, White gives us the shock of the new.