Natal Command (Phoenix Poets Series)
Peter Sacks
University Of Chicago Press (1997)
In Collection
#2199
0*
Poet
Hardcover 0226733424
English
Peter Sacks draws upon his life as an expatriate as well as upon his early years in South Africa, including his time spent in the military, to create a remarkably powerful book of poetry. At turns meditative and narrative, Sacks is unafraid to lay bare in vivid imagery his sense of both personal and historical losses, and his commitment to the works of mourning and of cultural repair. Even the love poems emerge from this book with the impress of both bittersweet aspiration and regret.


From Library Journal
In this stunning third collection, South African emigre Sacks (Promised Lands, LJ 8/90) confronts the ghosts of two continents, finding them both viscous and vengeful. In the brilliant title sequence, we see "submission sliding into savagery": the memory of a Catholic school teacher fondling boys behind the desk or the child looking through his father's graphic medical books contrasts with military consciousness and views of the oppressed. Caught sleeping while on guard duty, the speaker is awakened: "as the bayonet found the nerve, pain jolting/ to my hands and feet. His boot beside the blade/ he pumped me hard against the ground." Because the vitality of Sacks's voice is built upon contrasts, shorter poems seem slight. They cover much the same ground, though the focus shifts toward love and grieving. Whether writing in long lines or the minimalist style of poets such as Cid Corman, Sacks displays that rare combination of skill and subject matter. This book is important for all collections and will, one hopes, prompt librarians to examine his two previous volumes.?Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Details
LoC Classification PS3569.A235N38 1997
Dewey 811/.54
Nationality African
Cover Price $30.00
No. of Pages 87
Height x Width 8.9 x 6.4  inch
Personal Details
Read It Yes
Links Amazon US
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User Defined
Conflict African Wars
Notes
The title of Peter Sacks's third book of poems has double reference. It is the name of a military camp in the province of Natal where Sacks served in the South African Army. He spent his early years in the military in South Africa although details are lacking.


Peter Sacks draws upon his life as an expatriate as well as upon his early years in South Africa, including his time spent in the military, to create a remarkably powerful book of poetry. At turns meditative and narrative, Sacks is unafraid to lay bare in vivid imagery his sense of both personal and historical losses, and his commitment to the works of mourning and of cultural repair. Even the love poems emerge from this book with the impress of both bittersweet aspiration and regret.


Born in South Africa in 1950, he fled his native country during the apartheid era to avoid fighting racial wars in the army e is a professor of English at Harvard University.

Sacks, originally from South Africa (a heritage that colors much of his poetry), first came to the United States as an exchange student in Detroit when he was 17. Intending to become a physician, Sacks developed his love of poetry as an undergraduate at Princeton in the early 70s, and went on to study at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and take a doctorate at Yale in English.