ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996 TAG: 9601190104
SECTION: BOOKS PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY DABNEY STUART
SPRING GARDEN. By Fred Chappell. Louisiana State University Press. $24.95.
For readers new to Fred Chappell's work, "Spring Garden" will supply a splendid introductory feast. For those familiar with his poems it offers some fine discoveries.
Not surprisingly for a poet of his independence, Chappell has organized "Spring Garden" along lines unusual for new-and-selected volumes. One of its major delights is its form; rather than presenting the poems chronologically, Chappell has integrated new poems into his selection of old ones, liberally taken from all his previous volumes except "Castle Tzingal." He divides the book into sections according to theme and subject. There are groups of poems titled "In the Garden," "The Good Life," and "The Garden of Love," for example. Other sections focus on poems of character, fantasy and memory. Chappell also scatters about a generous sampling of epigrams from "C."
The coherence of "Spring Garden" results not only from this arrangement of old and new poems. Chappell has also written a stunningly effective set of prologues to each section, and to the volume as a whole. And he tops off the whole performance with a general epilogue, a sort of valedictory to his readers.
Chappell addresses these frame poems to his wife, Susan, and models them around the implications of the title of the volume. He controls the book's selections through the metaphor of making a salad from a spring garden, choosing the seasonings and ingredients appropriate to the various focuses of each section of the book. It is a deft choice, giving him ample room for his wit, his good humor and his general attitude of acceptance. The book's title also points at Chappell's characterization of his and Susan's gardens as "practical and visionary." "Spring Garden" alludes not only to Eden, but to one of the main streets of Greensboro, N.C., where the Chappells live.
The poets he translates from the Renaissance are "embodiments of the purest soul of song." This is, in a way, a modest aim, but it is also the highest stake a poet can set for the gamble of a life. To sing clearly is the Orphic desire. To fulfill it, as Chappell has done so masterfully here, is as rare as the pursuit of wisdom.
One hopes that the conclusion of this book, so simple and fitting, isn't as closing a farewell as it sounds. It would be a loss indeed not to have more poems from one of our finest troubadours. It would be a happier concluding prospect to note that Chappell says in his General Prologue, "I am precipitate to mourn so soon ... It's more important to seize the day/When there are fewer left." Amen to that, Old Fred: carpe diem.
Dabney Stuart's most recent book is "Light Years: New and
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: RICH HAGGERTY. Fred Chappellby CNB