Garments of the Dead: Old and New Work

Koenraad Kuiper's poems are animated by a frugal, astringent, ironic intelligence that reminds me of when the word 'wit' was used to describe or even name the verse of the Metaphysical poets. However, these poems are not historical pastiche, but are unmistakably contemporary, as in the several formal variations of his 'Benedictine Sonnets'. Most of the poems belong in sequences and play with variations on themes, a cumulative strategy that complements and extends their laconic humour. From time to time a translation is included, in Dutch mostly but occasionally in German - sometimes the English reads as though it is the translated version, a deliberate, playful oddness. Erudite, witty, economical, and elegantly composed, these poems are a pleasure to read piecemeal but even more from beginning to end as a complete, sustained immersion.