Sonnet-sequences have a history of nearly 1,000 years. But a
sequence of villanelles? Here, perhaps for the first time ever in
English, is a suite of twenty-four of them. The delicate instrument
of the villanelle is played, lightly and gently, to salute Tao
Yuanming, Chinese poet, Daoist, recluse, and a great Lord of Wine,
who lived more than 1,500 years ago. "In these beautiful, lucid
poems, Richard Berengarten exploits the scope of the villanelle in
a profound engagement with nature and mortality, in which past,
present and future voices resonate across East and West.
Accompanied by 'old friends', he fills the wine jug and considers
existential realities of love and loss, imagination and creativity,
where his thought and form are testimony to a life-long intimacy
with Daoism and the I Ching." -Lucy Hamilton "Poetry inspired by
wine is almost a genre in Chinese literature. The Chinese pastoral
poet Tao Yuanming (365?-427) pioneers what may be called
'alcoholyricism'. Berengarten's drinking songs are not just a
fitting tribute to and admirable emulation of Tao Yuanming's poetic
theme and art, but their evocation of idyllic rural scenes and deep
reflections on humanity's relation to nature entitles him to be
called a Tao Yuanming in English garb." -Ming Dong Gu "There is an
elegiac if not valedictory tone abroad and at home in these
beautiful poems. We are in the aural territory of an ageing
song-bird - the most musical of our older poets - gathering his
forces to sing, like Shake-speare's lark, at heaven's gate. He is
our host and guest, as we age along with him." -Anthony Rudolf
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