Joan HoulihanBesprekingen

I read this while taking an anthropology course in my 70s. How well the course and the poetry fit together. How well this book helped me understand the shock of an early society confronted by a society of the 20c.

A fine experiment in primitivist language. Houlihan here uses a diction entirely from the Anglo-Saxon to suggest the mind of a human on the verge of or just passed into language. The basic plot is a youth who leaves the clan, injured physically and by the separation, who reunites with his literal or tribal brother, and who is baptized in the end with a rain of consciousness and perhaps forgiveness.

The poetry is brilliant with clarity in observation of nature. I got used to the almost precious use of "Ay" as a name of "I." However, the use of "hims" and "thems" as possessives seemed unnecessary and distracting. A quibble.

Houlihan writes with a wonderfully musical ear. It is pleasing in a time of poetry that is prosaic to the point of dullness to hear language rise from the page. It is a brave experiment, and it largely works.