I was lucky enough to be sent John Kinsella’s Armour by Mark Antony Owen, back when the kerfuffle over the TS Eliot Prize still seemed like it might be something important. It has been reviewed quite comprehensively (see links at the bottom of this post), but I wanted to use it to put down some thoughts about scale, within the space of a poem & within the space of the collection. I fear that much of this is going to seem negative, when I think Kinsella to be a very talented & thoughtful poet, & Armour is an accomplished & rewarding collection. Nevertheless, it provides some interesting examples for language, metaphor, & the space of the collection.

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