Roy Daniells: The Chequered Shade

     Roy Daniells. The Chequered Shade (1963) I recently read three of Daniells poems at a public event. They were well received.
     Every time I reread Daniells’ poems, I like them better. They are beautifully crafted. Daniells does sonnets especially well. His language is plain or not, varying with his subjects and themes. Most are narratives, sometimes of an encounter with a place, sometimes a riff on ancient tales. His responses are sometimes explicit comments, sometimes implicit in the language.
     The book has three sections. “Where the Great Caesar Came”, a travelogue in verse. “The Immemorial Stones”, biblical stories and themes. “The Map Nailed Up”, a manifesto and confession of his poetic practice and his own life.
     I’ll quote “Noah 2", which I think shows how Daniells takes his subject seriously. This Noah is no mere mythic-symbolic semi-abstraction, he’s a real man in the real world. The poem epitomises Daniells method of translating well-worn myth and cliched history into felt reality. I suspect that the poem mirrors Daniells' own experience with resistance to visionary projects.

They gathered round and told him not to do it.
They formed a committee and tried to take control.
They cancelled his building permit and they stole
His plans. I sometimes wonder he got through it.
He told them wrath was coming, they would rue it.
He begged them to believe the tides would roll,
He ooffered them passage to his destined goal,
A new world. They were finished and he knew it.
All to no end.
                       And then the rain began.
A splatter at first that barely wet the soil,
Then showers, quick rivulets lacing the town,
Then deluge universal. The old man
Arthritic from his years of scorn and toil
Leaned from his admiral’s walk and watched them drown.

The book is out of print. Secondhand copies may be found online. ****