Dammtor

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Poetry History & Criticism
Cover of the book Dammtor by James Sheard, Random House
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: James Sheard ISBN: 9781407072616
Publisher: Random House Publication: September 2, 2010
Imprint: Vintage Digital Language: English
Author: James Sheard
ISBN: 9781407072616
Publisher: Random House
Publication: September 2, 2010
Imprint: Vintage Digital
Language: English

Dammtor is the old city gate and now the centre of ground transport for the great port of Hamburg. In James Sheard's second collection it is a 'station for midnights, hitched up on stone legs, hollow with sunken light' - a hub for the damaged and deracinated. These precise, wounded poems draw the reader through this desolate landscape - through sexual longing, sexual violence, bereavement and the beginning of hope through the birth of a son.

Dammtor restlessly narrates the condition of maleness, looking for truth and music in a voice which is both urgent and unadorned. The poems are spoken in solitary places - late-night stations, hotel lobbies, car rides and empty woodland - but they are addressed to the living, the missing, the dead and the just-born. Personal and political narratives leak into the spaces of the poems to form a strange light which has something of the hallucinatory clarity of translations.

The voice might be by turn elegaic, vicious, obsessive or bewildered as it explores its topic, but it is accompanied by an eye which will not - or, perhaps, cannot - blink. Finding tenderness amid brutality, Dammtor is a highly accomplished and remarkable collection.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Dammtor is the old city gate and now the centre of ground transport for the great port of Hamburg. In James Sheard's second collection it is a 'station for midnights, hitched up on stone legs, hollow with sunken light' - a hub for the damaged and deracinated. These precise, wounded poems draw the reader through this desolate landscape - through sexual longing, sexual violence, bereavement and the beginning of hope through the birth of a son.

Dammtor restlessly narrates the condition of maleness, looking for truth and music in a voice which is both urgent and unadorned. The poems are spoken in solitary places - late-night stations, hotel lobbies, car rides and empty woodland - but they are addressed to the living, the missing, the dead and the just-born. Personal and political narratives leak into the spaces of the poems to form a strange light which has something of the hallucinatory clarity of translations.

The voice might be by turn elegaic, vicious, obsessive or bewildered as it explores its topic, but it is accompanied by an eye which will not - or, perhaps, cannot - blink. Finding tenderness amid brutality, Dammtor is a highly accomplished and remarkable collection.

More books from Random House

Cover of the book Si no eres el primero, eres el último by James Sheard
Cover of the book El Torreón de los enigmas by James Sheard
Cover of the book Penthouse Suite by James Sheard
Cover of the book La invasión by James Sheard
Cover of the book Island Fortress by James Sheard
Cover of the book The Shifting Light by James Sheard
Cover of the book Dead Money by James Sheard
Cover of the book Mar Blanco by James Sheard
Cover of the book Texas Bride by James Sheard
Cover of the book Welcome to the Outback by James Sheard
Cover of the book Home Remedies by James Sheard
Cover of the book The Essential Screenplay (3-Book Bundle) by James Sheard
Cover of the book Love on Location by James Sheard
Cover of the book Madera de savia azul by James Sheard
Cover of the book Another Amy (Replica #3) by James Sheard
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy