Carcanet Press - The Anti-Basilisk

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Sunlight ploughshare peeling away from earth,
Over and over, topsoil darkness, please
Brighten the buzzards at the breakfast table
When they squat and chuckle: Let us prey.

'Washington Fragment'

In The Anti-Basilisk Christopher Middleton, in the spirit that impelled Shelley to write The Masque of Anarchy, reveals as crooked the apparently straight and sees what's coming round corners with a clarity that dazzles. Bruno Schulz in 1937 made an observation that might stand as epigraph to this collection: 'Thrones wilt when they are not fed with blood, their vitality grows with the mass of wrongs committed, with life-denials, with the crushing of all that is perpetually different and that has been ousted by them.' Certain dilemmas in such a prospect are implicit in the shady figures of 'Saul Pinkard' and 'Doctor Dark'.The Basilisk of the title is a sort of monster, all ego, atavistic and implacable.

The poems fall into five sections, the first and fourth twenty-poem panoramas, the fifth a gathering of translations

Table of Contents

1.

Tableaux I-XX

2.

The Anti-Basilisk

Memoranda

Marienbad, 1814

Remembering Mompou's Musica Callada

A Short Elegy

A Greek Colonial Bronze (Gordian III)

Of F.M.

The Black Basalt Tablet

A Florida Beach

Hair Shirt

Infant Patriarch

The Dead Friends

A Cavity

A Simple Dinner on the Terrace

Entirely Owlish

Intimacy

Sanctificat

The Anti-Basilisk

Waiting for Harvest Moon

Some Words about Some Silence

Matriarch

An Enigma Commonly Passed Over

Acrostic: A Civil Art

The Altar at Vaison

With a Flap of Wings

Memorandum from Gaul

In Ruins

The Paradox of Jerome's Lion

3.

Apropos Saul Pinkard

Pinkard's Quandary

Pinkard Bookish

Pinkard's Song in Adversity

Pinkard's Night Thoughts

Pinkard's Haikus

Pinkard Identifies a Lookalike

Pinkard's Ditty

Saul Pinkard on the Fortune of Musicians

Saul Pinkard's Tirade

Pinkard's Anecdotes:

An Iranian Tale (1970s)

The Village on a Tilt

The House on Fire

An Ominous Circus (Rome, A.D. 358)

Pinkard Brings H�lderlin to the Awareness of Americans

Pinkard's Postscript to Weimar

The Proof and the Pudding

4.

Twenty Tropes for Doctor Dark

Heavy Dog Sees Fish

The Diving Apprentices

Something Vesperal

Lucile / MA 632883

Turf

Buffoon Voice in a Small Port

A Bat, Less Familiar

Charles Meryon

The Moon from a Box of Lokum

A Far Cry from Fear Island

The Digging

Trawling

Cassis, October 23, 1999

Of Paradise

Sybaritic Elegy

Elegy of the Flowing Touch

A Ballad of Arthur Rimbaud

Envoi 127

5.

Translations

From Catullus: Ten Travesties

On Hearing of a Death (Rilke, 'Todes-Erfahrung', 1907)

Charles Mauron's Poem on Van Gogh (1945)

Robert Desnos: Sonnet

Coda

The Concord of State

Notes

Tableaux I-XX

The Anti-Basilisk

Pinkard's Anecdotes

Twenty Tropes for Doctor Dark

Translations

Christopher Middleton, born in Cornwall in 1926, is a poet and translator, especially of German literature. He studied at Merton College, Oxford and held academic positions at the University of Zürich and King’s College London before becoming Professor of Germanic Languages at the University of Texas, Austin. He retired in ... read more

Praise for Christopher Middleton 'a poet with a disconcerting knack of making it new in almost every poem'
John Lucas, New Statesman 'His work is at once rich and sparse, elegantly economic in its subtle shifts from discrete object to discrete object, yet, by contrast with mainstream English realism, striking for the boldness and brio of its imaginings.'
Terry Eagleton, Stand 'Metrically inventive and various, these poems are remarkably alive to "the unknown thing beside us", they listen for "the due sound", and, as if watching birds, register "the timed flight of words". A motto for reading Middleton's work might be: purify the source, then trust to luck.'
Denis Donoghue, London Review of Books 'Middleton is amongst the most consistently inventive, original, and audacious of the so-called 'experimental' or 'innovative' poets of these past twenty-five years.'
August Kleinzahler, Threepenny Review 'The poet's ancestry, his Englishness, is relegated without denial. But the movement, whether it is generated in America, Provence or Cappadocia, is always of encounter...if an eroticism, with the inner and the outer, a profound in-touchness with the multiplicities of existence... a mark of all important poets'
Tom Lowenstein 'Poems, translations, essays - Christopher Middletonâs are among the most visited books on my shelves; always dependable for re-exciting the possibilities of language.'
Jennie Feldman

Quote of the Day Your list has always been interesting, idiosyncratic, imaginative and your translations [...] have been a source of pleasure to me. Al Alvarez Home Events Authors Titles Paperback Hardback Limited Edition Journal CD eBook Audiobook Exact Editions Imprints Anvil Press Poetry Aspects of Portugal Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Carcanet Poetry Fyfield Books Little Island Press Lives and Letters Northern House OxfordPoets PN Review Information About Us PN Review Turns 50 Years Old! Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! Academic Enquiries Authors for Events Catalogue Contact Us Copyright and Permissions Join Our Mailing List Opportunities at Carcanet Press Enquiries PN Review PN Review Creative Writing Prize Returns Policy Shopping Guide Stocklist Submission Guidelines Trade Information Resources Audio Gallery Reading Group Guides Video
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The Anti-Basilisk Christopher Middleton 10% off Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (164 pages) (Pub. Oct 2005) 9781857547894 £12.95 £11.65 Description Excerpt Author Contents Reviews Sunlight ploughshare peeling away from earth, Over and over, topsoil darkness, please Brighten the buzzards at the breakfast table When they squat and chuckle: Let us prey. 'Washington Fragment' In The Anti-Basilisk Christopher Middleton, in the spirit that impelled Shelley to write The Masque of Anarchy, reveals as crooked the apparently straight and sees what's coming round corners with a clarity that dazzles. Bruno Schulz in 1937 made an observation that might stand as epigraph to this collection: 'Thrones wilt when they are not fed with blood, their vitality grows with the mass of wrongs committed, with life-denials, with the crushing of all that is perpetually different and that has been ousted by them.' Certain dilemmas in such a prospect are implicit in the shady figures of 'Saul Pinkard' and 'Doctor Dark'.The Basilisk of the title is a sort of monster, all ego, atavistic and implacable. The poems fall into five sections, the first and fourth twenty-poem panoramas, the fifth a gathering of translations Table of Contents 1. Tableaux I-XX 2. The Anti-Basilisk Memoranda Marienbad, 1814 Remembering Mompou's Musica Callada A Short Elegy A Greek Colonial Bronze (Gordian III) Of F.M. The Black Basalt Tablet A Florida Beach Hair Shirt Infant Patriarch The Dead Friends A Cavity A Simple Dinner on the Terrace Entirely Owlish Intimacy Sanctificat The Anti-Basilisk Waiting for Harvest Moon Some Words about Some Silence Matriarch An Enigma Commonly Passed Over Acrostic: A Civil Art The Altar at Vaison With a Flap of Wings Memorandum from Gaul In Ruins The Paradox of Jerome's Lion 3. Apropos Saul Pinkard Pinkard's Quandary Pinkard Bookish Pinkard's Song in Adversity Pinkard's Night Thoughts Pinkard's Haikus Pinkard Identifies a Lookalike Pinkard's Ditty Saul Pinkard on the Fortune of Musicians Saul Pinkard's Tirade Pinkard's Anecdotes: An Iranian Tale (1970s) The Village on a Tilt The House on Fire An Ominous Circus (Rome, A.D. 358) Pinkard Brings H�lderlin to the Awareness of Americans Pinkard's Postscript to Weimar The Proof and the Pudding 4. Twenty Tropes for Doctor Dark Heavy Dog Sees Fish The Diving Apprentices Something Vesperal Lucile / MA 632883 Turf Buffoon Voice in a Small Port A Bat, Less Familiar Charles Meryon The Moon from a Box of Lokum A Far Cry from Fear Island The Digging Trawling Cassis, October 23, 1999 Of Paradise Sybaritic Elegy Elegy of the Flowing Touch A Ballad of Arthur Rimbaud Envoi 127 5. Translations From Catullus: Ten Travesties On Hearing of a Death (Rilke, 'Todes-Erfahrung', 1907) Charles Mauron's Poem on Van Gogh (1945) Robert Desnos: Sonnet Coda The Concord of State Notes Tableaux I-XX The Anti-Basilisk Pinkard's Anecdotes Twenty Tropes for Doctor Dark Translations Christopher Middleton, born in Cornwall in 1926, is a poet and translator, especially of German literature. He studied at Merton College, Oxford and held academic positions at the University of Zürich and King’s College London before becoming Professor of Germanic Languages at the University of Texas, Austin. He retired in ... read more Praise for Christopher Middleton 'a poet with a disconcerting knack of making it new in almost every poem' John Lucas, New Statesman 'His work is at once rich and sparse, elegantly economic in its subtle shifts from discrete object to discrete object, yet, by contrast with mainstream English realism, striking for the boldness and brio of its imaginings.' Terry Eagleton, Stand 'Metrically inventive and various, these poems are remarkably alive to "the unknown thing beside us", they listen for "the due sound", and, as if watching birds, register "the timed flight of words". A motto for reading Middleton's work might be: purify the source, then trust to luck.' Denis Donoghue, London Review of Books 'Middleton is amongst the most consistently inventive, original, and audacious of the so-called 'experimental' or 'innovative' poets of these past twenty-five years.' August Kleinzahler, Threepenny Review 'The poet's ancestry, his Englishness, is relegated without denial. But the movement, whether it is generated in America, Provence or Cappadocia, is always of encounter...if an eroticism, with the inner and the outer, a profound in-touchness with the multiplicities of existence... a mark of all important poets' Tom Lowenstein 'Poems, translations, essays - Christopher Middletonâs are among the most visited books on my shelves; always dependable for re-exciting the possibilities of language.' Jennie Feldman	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! The Carcanet Blog We've Moved! read more Books of the Year read more One Little Room: Peter McDonald read more Collected Poems: Mimi Khalvati read more Invisible Dog: Fabio Morbito, translated by Richard Gwyn read more Dante's Purgatorio: Philip Terry read more
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