Death fame art and religion become comic subjects in Twenty First CenturyBlues the fourth collection from Richard Cecil. Whether elegizing hispredecessors predi... » 

Death fame art and religion become comic subjects in Twenty First CenturyBlues the fourth collection from Richard Cecil. Whether elegizing hispredecessors predicting his own end channeling Dickinson8217s147corpseeyeview of stony death8221 or imagining Yeats living inIndiana and dealing with English department politics Cecil tempers hismorbidity with a straightforward tender brand of humor and a refreshinghonesty about the shelf life of contemporary poetry. Deadpan and dark yetpulsing with the spirit of life these poems speak of historic France Italyand Switzerland where religious persecutions ancient catastrophes and otherless personal failures overshadow the disappointments and shortcomings of thepoet8217s modern life in the Midwest. Grimly cheered by these revelationsCecil shows that poets like cicadas screaming in the summer air147won8217t shut up until we8217re skeletons.8221160 «