Book Review # 1

The book I chose for my review was a volume of poems by Kenneth Koch called "A possible world". The poems seem to be connected by their overarching theme of the world and travel. Koch writes of many places including France, China, Greece, Thailand, and Haiti. Many of his other poems address other worldly subjects such as time zones, movement, and unfinished business. Several of the poems incorporate other languages and as the reader progresses though the book they get the sense of traveling across the world with Koch glimpsing all of the characters he has encountered.

The poem for which the book is titled, "A Possible World" stands out a lot from the other poems in the volume. For the most party the majority of the poems within the book have a consistent structure, they have varying lengths but they are all written in stanzas centered upon the page. The poem " A Possible World" is very different from the other. The text varies in size and in font and is structured very creatively across the page. I had difficulty understanding what the poem was about and it seemed rather confusing to me, but the language had a playful tone and incorporated some surprising rhymes in unexpected places. The poem is several pages long and as it progresses, new voices are brought in that seem to speak to each other and even are structured against one another on either side of the page. Many of Khoch’s word choices are interesting as well. He appears to make up many words and work them into his poems for sound and rhythm. This is particularly evident in the single poem “A Possible World”.

Many of Koch's poems in the volume, including "A Possible New World”, seem to be written in stream of consciousness format. The poems themselves are very surprising and are rather different from one another. Many different characters are introduced quickly, and some of the poems have a narrative story like quality to them because the characters created are not necessarily characters the reader would recognize. This is particularly seen in "Roma non basta una vita" in which the stories of many different characters are introduced and then quickly forgotten as new characters are introduced.

Koch works within the tradition of the School of New York poets. Their influence is evident upon him, and he even mentions some, including Frank O'Hara by name within his poems. His work differs from theirs in that their work was traditionally considered very serious, while Koch is known for his sense of humor and light spirited poetry. In Koch's opinion the New York school was nontraditional and opposed heavy use of symbolism and irony.