John Kinsella's poem America is very much in the mould of Blake's visionary poem America, A Prophecy, but unlike Blake Kinsella does not express himself in allegorical terms but delivers a trenchant, uncompromising and direct denunciation of the world's unchallenged superpower.
In what Peter Porter describes in his superb introduction as a "finely annotated and sculpted tirade";, Kinsella expresses his extreme disillusionment with the country in which he has been living on and off since the turn of the century, a disillusionment felt all the more keenly because he is Australian.
This is an extraordinary work, a highly political and hard-hitting commentary on contemporary America presented not as documentary but in poetry, and all the more powerful for that.
"Kinsella's America is a voice from the Rust Belt, but the rust is traced to the minds of Corporate America, not just its worn-out industries; [He] has an almost perfect ear for how a phrase will fall from the mouth into the waiting air-space."
Peter Porter
John Kinsella was born in Perth, Australia in 1963. He is editor and international editor of a number of well-known literary journals, has had over 30 books in a wide range of literary genres (including poetry, prose and literary criticism) published, and is a literary critic and cultural commentator. A Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, which he regards as his academic base, he has taught over the past 5 years at in the USA at Kenyon College, Ohio and also holds an adjunct professorship in Australia.
| ISBN: | 9781904614289 |
| Publication date: | 15th February 2006 |
| Author: | John Kinsella |
| Publisher: | Arc Publications |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 68 pages |
| Series: | Arc International Poets Series |
| Genres: |
Poetry by individual poets |