cover image Poems of J.V. Cunningham

Poems of J.V. Cunningham

J. V. Cunningham. Swallow Press, $19.95 (253pp) ISBN 978-0-8040-0998-0

James Vincent Cunningham (1911-1985) is often missing from the pantheon of poet-critics who were active in the 1940s and '50s. This edition restores to us his classical erudition and old-school wit, which he fused in justly acclaimed epigrams. Not only did he revive this previously exhausted form, he made it significant often hilariously during a time that was rife with crusty formalist gibberish and antiquarianism: ""God is love. Then by conversion/ Love is God, and sex conversion."" He could be serious, too, and in his translations and short lyrics occasionally came close to the classical sublime: ""I in their cold sky see/ Neither Venus not Mars;/ It is the past that cast the stars/ That guide me now."" Steele, a poet and professor at California State University, does a fine job, by way of introduction and critical commentary in aiding our ""appreciation of Cunningham's aims and achievements"" and telling the story of his life, including his turbulent relations with the critic Yvor Winters. While there's lots of doggerel here, there's enough plain-spoken grace to merit this volume's careful editorial attention and presentation: ""Simplicity assuages/ With grace the damaged heart,/ So would I in these pages/ If will were art."" (July)