BOOK REVIEW
The Umbrian Sonnets by Jay Deshpande
In this brief book of poems, Deshpande recounts his experience at a writing residency in Umbria, Italy. The poems describe the lush beauty surrounding the retreat’s castle while pondering place and how beauty fits in a world full of suffering and violence. In his introduction the author writes
“Although, I didn’t notice it at first, my writing began to play out a tension between simultaneous realities: the effort to write adjacent to moral catastrophe, the discomforts of great comfort.”
Deshpande shares his struggle to pen something meaningful, something that can touch both the beauty and the history of the area simultaneously. It reminded me of a scene in the movie “The Hours” when the poet says he wants to capture it all — all those little moments of joy…the way sunrise is caught shining in his lover’s hair.
Time
The construct and the concept of time were intertwined in many of Deshpande’s poems. I appreciated his depiction of the castle walls as a place of ‘bouldering’: a previous visitor had tagged ascending hand and footholds with white chalk to show the easiest pathway to climb around the room. By following them one can skirt above the surface of the floor so the feet “always hover a meter above the earth.” It made me think of poets trying to capture the airy and ephemeral — fleeting moments caught with fleeting words. This act of ‘hovering’ recurs in the last poem. Indeed, the author writes, “the brief idea of yourself was born outdated.” It would seem our very selves, our identities are fleeting — yet beautiful.
Beauty’s Purpose
There was one line in the third sonnet that gave me pause. The poem starts with the notion of beauty and follows with the real horrors of the world as opposed to the notion. It proclaims that ignoring suffering and violence or refusing to name it renders a poem “fanciful and prone to arrogance.”
Is this true? False? Perhaps somewhere between? It makes me wonder what the obligations of poets are to their audience. To their poems? Does art have an obligation to acknowledge horror? Is not focusing on beauty a healing aspect of life — one that balances the senses and the mind? Or is immersing oneself in a beautiful moment to be judged as denying the horrors of the world? More so, how does this notion fit with 24/7 news technology and social media where we are barraged with both fact and fiction, horror and silliness? Is beauty to be condemned?
The poem prompted me to create a new reading list on beauty. Titles include Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit, On Beauty and Being Just by Elaine Scarry, and Hegel’s lectures on Aesthetics. Any recommendations? Please leave them in the comments.
V. Bray is a poet and fiction writer. Sign up for the newsletter to receive writing updates.
